So to Potty Train at Night?

You can't really "night train", when their body is ready they will start waking up dry. I would keep them in protective pants at night until they wake up dry several nights in a row. For some kids this happens early (my son was 23 months), for others it takes a lot longer (my nephew was 6 1/2).

all kids are different, they may get the potty training at night right away or some kids are just bed wetters and it could take a lot longer. I kept my kids in diapers at night until they stayed dry for a month or started getting up at night on their own to go. when i did do the transition from diapers to undies i also put a vinyl mattress cover on the mattress for any accidents that may occur for an easy clean up and to protect the mattress. good luck!

C. with your 4 year old make sure they go just befor bed dont let them have any thing to drink about an hour befor bed with the 2 year old do the same but you may still have night accidents for awhile & clean up but that is all part of being a Mom it all takes time but love & patients pay off A Mom & Grandma good luck J.

I had the same question with my almost 4yr. old. It's actually biological whether or not they can wake up to go to the bathroom or not. Some children's bodies are not signaling to them to wake up because they have to go. So, I tried the dry diaper for a week method, and that lets you know that their body is developed in a way where they can hold it, or their brain is being signaled to hold it. After my son was dry for a week I sent him to bed in underwear. He only had one accident in a whole week. But, it doesn't matter if you send them to bed in a pull up for as long as you have to. Eventually they will be out of diapers. I have just let it go. If there are a few wet nights in a row we go back to the pull up at night. It might take some time, but if you don't have a washer and dryer don't make more work for yourself and just enjoy the freedom of changing them instead of the bed. Another clue is if they come to your bed in the middle of the night. It's probably because they have to go potty. I just used to bring my son into our bed and go back to sleep, but we always woke up with a wet diaper on those nights. So, I realized he didn't know why he was waking up. Then we told him he had to go potty if he wanted to come into our bed. It worked! Hope that helps :)

You've already gotten good advice here, I just want to say, GREAT JOB potty training three kids in 2 months!!! You must feel good, and I'm sure the kids are so proud of themselves. Way to go!

Don't know if this will help, but hope it give you some insight. I trained my son, who is now 5 to use the bathroom at night. It was no easy feat, but the actions I took helped so much. I first purchased a plastic fitted sheet for his bed. Then I eliminated the diapers/pull ups. Let my son choose his fav undies. I made sure that he went to the bathroom before he went to bed, then again before I went to bed (which was usually about three or four hours after he went to sleep), then (here's the hard part) I would wake him up two to three time in the middle of the night. I made sure they were set times. Then, I would make sure he went immediately after he got up in the morning. After a few weeks of this, my son started to get himself up at the same time and would go potty. It was tedious, but the end result was rewarding. It helped teach his body to read the signs at night...especially when he was less likely to notice. Hope this helps!

Hi C.-

I know that it's generally recommended that you wait until they start waking up dry, but if I had done that with my daughter she would've been in night time diapers for years! I had her completely potty trained during the day, too, but kept her in diapers at night because she'd fill them up so much...even if I limited her fluid intake before bed. Finally, I decided to try letting her sleep in underwear to see what would happen (totally prepared to clean up the mess) and we haven't gone back to diapers since. Turns out she was more aware at night then I thought and was just peeing in her pants because she knew she was in a diaper and was taking advantage of the convenience. I'd say to try going without the diapers for a few days and you ought to be able to tell if they're ready or not. Good luck!!

-J.

I've done pull-ups (for the preschoolers) and diapers (for age 2 and under) at night until they naturally start staying dry all night consistently. Mother of Eden makes a cloth pull-up for kids of varying sizes, so you could do that too. I think they're like $17-18 each, but you wouldn't need very many since it's just for nighttime use. :)

What I've learned is that limiting beverages before bed helps a little, but it didn't prevent accidents completely. Obviously you don't want to give your child a huge glass of water right before they go to sleep, but a couple sips is no big deal, plus, I don't think it's right refuse to give a child a drink if they're thirsty. (Tip: try to limit salty foods at dinner time to prevent having extremely thirsty kids at bedtime!) :)

Have your children practice stopping and starting the flow of urine when they're going potty, basically helping them learn how to control those muscles (like with Kegels).

Other than that, just be patient because every child is different in this way and most kids will naturally out grow nighttime accidents without any intervention at all.

Blessings!
J. (mommy of 5)

C.,

It typically takes around 6 months of dry days before they get the night time thing down. You may want to try having them go right before they go to bed, and again as soon as they wake up in the morning. That seemed to help my son when we were training him.

Good luck,
Melissa

Hi C.,
My 4 year old is in panties at night time. She goes potty just before bed time and then I will take her in the middle of the night. She has accidents but we don't make a big deal out of it.
My 2 year old is in pull ups at night. Sometimes she wakes up dry but most of the time she is wet.
I am going to wait until her bladder is strong enough until I put her in paties at night time.
Good Luck!
MJ

What I did was at first I did the night time pull ups and when it seemed like there was less pee in them in the AM then I started trying to train my son at night. I stopped using the pull ups and he would wear his underwear to bed. I put a waterproof pad under the sheet to save the mattress pad. I would make sure he didn't drink anything after dinner time and I would have him go potty right before bed. Then I would try and get him up sometime durring the night to go pee. I would either do it before I went to bed if I was going to bed late or I would do it when I woke in the night, or I would have my husband do it when he got up for work (he works really early). We had tons of accidents but that is all part of learning. After awhile, my son would wake up if he had to pee. Now he either holds it until the morning or he wakes up and goes at night. He is 4yrs and 9months by the way. Good luck!

Frequently kids' bodies are not developed enough to hold their urine at night. My son was potty trained by 20 months, but slept in pull-ups until he was 7. Time was really the only thing that worked for us. We tried no diaper/pull-up and that just resulted in my cleaning up messes every other night. We tried bribery - I think that resulted in him feeling bad when he didn't get the treat. Ultimately his body just had to mature enough that he could wake himself up at night before he wet himself. You can help though by limiting sugar up to three hours before bed. My pediatrician told me not to give him milk, juice, fruit, nothing with sugar, even natural sugar. The sugar causes the body not to concentrate the urine so there is more of it, causing a fuller bladder faster. Good luck.

Our 3yo wears pull-ups at night. She's been potty trained for about a year. Funny thing is that for the first week or two after she moved from her crib and to her full-size bed (last spring), she would cry and we would get her up to go potty during the night. However, that ended quickly and now she sleeps through the urge.

We've tried panties on occasion, but she just wets the bed. We don't mind the extra work, but it TRULY upsets her. It wakes her up from a dead sleep, soaks her and she bawls because she feels horrible that she had an accident. It's just not worth it (even though some nights it's a fight to get her to put a pull-up on). Plus, we have to clean her up and redress her which totally wakes her up and ruins her night of sleep.

I've done a bunch of research online and talked to her doctor, and basically some kids can't stay dry (or wake up to pee) until they are 6 years old. It's still within the norm (after 6 you need to see what might be going on physically or mentally). So I figure we have time. We tell our daughter that once she starts keeping her pull-up dry all night, then she can start wearing panties to bed.

Personally, I would recommend some kind of training pants at night (whether cloth or disposable) until they can make it through the night consistently. It might happen quickly or not for each child. Everyone is different. Good luck! :-)