What to Do at Night While Potty Training??

Hi -

I used a diaper at night for both my boys. My oldest boy used a diaper at night until one day he told me he thought he didn't need it anymore (I think he was close to 4 - I can't remember ;>) He never had a diaper again.

My second still uses a diaper at night (I won't even say how old he is). I believe he could now go without it but is too lazy to get up and go pee in the morning, so his diaper is huge when he gets up.

It's OK - it hard for them to hold it that long. They'll stop with the diaper eventually!

--M.

Hi M.. Yes by all means allow him to wear pull ups at night. Night time "training" has nothing to do with daytime potty training. I recently went through this with my 3 yr old boy. My sister in law is a pediatrician and she made me aware that it is a physical development with the body for the little ones to wake up at night and go potty, and this can take a long time to develop. In the daytime while they are awake and aware of the "urge" is totally different. My son after night time bath gets his pullup and sometimes we wake up dry sometimes we don't. With the pull up it means no mess for me :) In the am we remove the pullup and put on big boy underwear, No Confusion he totally gets it. Hopefully this is helpful. No need for all the extra washing of sheets because it could be months or years before the night time is dry.

Yeah for the new transition! Be prepared for more than a few daytime accidents as he is learning to recognize his urges far enough in advance to make it to a potty. Boys especially! You may also want to get a travel potty for the car too. My daughter does best when she's without ANY diaper or underpants at home.... We still use a diaper at night, even though she wakes up many mornings completely dry. She's just not totally ready and hasn't gotten to the point of waking up and wanting to use then potty.
I would caution totally limiting of liquids in the evening...Water is what keeps us well hydrated, healthy and comfortable! It is also summer and kids (like adults) need extra fluids or get hot/thirsty. I can understand not having a HUGE drink right before going to bed but overall I don't think having a drink really has alot to do with when they will start using the potty at night and night training. I think it has more to do with how much liquid they go when they do pee (potty or otherwise)....

Good luck!

Hi M.. I have three sons all grown now.Boys are more difficult to potty train. Pull ups at night won't hurt anything because they are more like underwear than diapers. I used those with all three of my boys. They hold more liquid than you think. When I started potty training my boys I made them go to the potty before bed and then before my husband and I went to bed we woke them up to go again. Sometimes we caught them before they wet and sometimes not. Cutting off the liquids is the right thing to do. Boys are also more likely to have bedwetting troubles even after potty training than girls. Good luck.

I know moms who use pullups at night successfully. They didn't work for my daughter because they leaked. We used regular diapers just at night until she made it through most nights dry.

My daughter was potty trained during the day by 2 1/2, but she still wears "night pants" at night. She will be 4 in July. Even when we cut out liquids by 6pm, she still pees a lot at night. When she starts back to school next fall and needs to get up earlier for St. Martha's, I am going to start the night training. My sister had the same with her kids, who were potty trained for daytime quickly at 2. Her son started to make it through the night with out "night" pants at 5, and her daughter at 6. Both are normal well adjusted children. BTW, night pants for me are the pampers night times. Good luck.

I put diapers on both of mine for night time when potty training......Now it lasted a month, but my oldest was dry that entire month of nighttime diapers, Now my daughter is still potty training and she is wearing them at night, and pees in them still....she complains when she has to wear the diaper, but i tell her she can wear panties in the morning agian!She just went through an entire week of potty training......she is getting better and better, so happy!
GL, C.

I'm going thru sort of the same thing with a 2 1/2 year old girl. We started using real underwear about 3 weeks ago and it seems to be working fine. At night, though, I do use a pullup when she goes to bed. It does not seem to have any adverse affects on the potty training.

A little about me: Raising a beautiful grandchild while working.

I let my daughter wear pull-ups at night until she had 2 full weeks of no accidents at night. Toward the end, she did get up at night to use the potty and we knew she was ready!

Way to go for your little one!!! We used pull ups with our son. But we also put the potty chair in his room. That way he could go easily in the middle of the night if he needed to. If you have carpeting you may want to buy a cheap vinyl tablecloth to put under the potty chair for easy cleaning.

If you choose to do diapers at night instead of pullups, you may want to put underwear on under the diaper. Then he will be able to feel better what is going on. But I would do that if you know he can pull the diaper off easily.

Good luck!

pull up nighttime!!! My son just turned 4 and has only been potty trained at night for about 4 months now....and was potty trained in the day at 2 1/2....so we used pull ups for a while! and pull up nighttimes work wonders, trust me he has the bladder the size of a basketball-so he can fill a diaper :)

Hi M.,
I am in the same boat:) My 2 1/2 year old son just decided this week that he wanted to go pee pee in the potty. He has been really excited about it and we have been using the pull ups cool alerts during the day. He has been doing better every day and we only had one accident all day today! At night, I have been putting him in a diaper, but he will sometimes wake up dry in the morning (if I'm lucky and get in his room fast enough!). I know they make pull ups for night time that have extra absorbancy, but being that this is our first week, I was going to hold off until we get a little better at this. He LOVES to drink water, so I have to cut him off after dinner so he won't pee in his bed over night. I have also cut down on constantly filling up his cup during the day. I'm not sure if I am being counter-productive by putting a diaper on at night, but this is the first time I have potty trained so I'm not too sure. I would love to hear what works for you! GOOD LUCK! P.S. - PullUps.com has a cool progress chart that you can customize and print out for them to put stickers on - he loves it.

What I've read says kids aren't usually physically ready to go all night without wetting until they are at least 4 years old. My son has been fully potty trained for a year but still wears a pull up at night. So... it's not wrong to put on a pull up at night and it won't undo the training you've done during the day!

It could just be that he isn't ready to go the whole night w/o going to the potty. My youngest was potty-trained day and night at the same time. She could hold "buckets" all night long w/o a problem. However, my oldest still wore night-time pull-ups for six-nine months after she was potty-trained during the day. She slept very hard and didn't wake up when she had to go to the bathroom. It seemed as though she just "went" in her sleep. The nite-time pull-ups are very absorpbent and look somewhat different from diapers. I would suggest to try the undies for a week or so. If he still has a wet bed every morning, then switch to the pull-ups.

My pediatrician said some kids are in kindergarten before they can go the whole night with dry undies. Nothing to do with whether or not they want to be potty-trained at night, just something in their brains doesn't wkae them up.

Hope this helps!