Night Time Potty Trained... What Age?

My oldest son slept in pull-ups until he was 8 at least; he might have been 9 even. At any rate, it didn’t matter what we did, he would wake up with a saturated diaper or pull-up; and when I say saturated, those things must have weighed 5 lbs. or more. His younger brother (by 3 years) on the other had, was out of pull-ups sooner and had very few problems potty-training. It really does depend on genetics, and the kids; it was nothing my son did on purpose.

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Well, every child is different, but my 10 year old still has accidents. My 8 year old stopped wetting the bed when he was potty trained at 3. So, I would try going without a diaper one night and try it, but if it doesn't happen, don't be suprised. But do explain to him that we don't potty on our bed. I don't think my older son ever understood that, until his brother was potty trained.

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Neither of my sons were potty trained at all until they were over 3. My first was 3 years and 4 months; my youngest was 3 years and 2 months. They both day and night trained all at once and trained very quickly. I think it's because they were ready. I was ready much sooner than they were. ;-) My youngest is almost 4 now, and he very rarely has accidents, but oddly enough his accidents are usually during the day. As the previous poster mentioned, though, it's important to remember that every child is different.

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First off, keep in mind every child is different.

My son, age 8, still wets his bed at night even with restrictions on water, going potty before bed, etc. Thank you God for pull-ups in his size. He was hard to potty train as a toddler too but has always slept like a rock at night. My brother, father-in-law, etc all wet their beds until about age 10-11.

On the flip side, my daughter, age 4, wakes up dry 95% of the time. She is a light sleeper but never gets up in the middle of the night to potty. If she does, she calls for me. She does sleep in a pull up though..every time I plan on not using one, she will wake up wet in the morning.

My husband is more frustrated over it than anything but bedwetting is a genetic thing and my son really can't help it right now. My son is just a very deep sleeper.

J. S.

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I have a couple of friends whose sons still wet at night and have to wear diapers. Yes they limit drinks, caffeine, etc -- all the recommendations. It has nothing to do with "training". Both of them really really hate that they have to wear diapers (they're almost 6). I mean, if you're asleep you're asleep. I'm not sure what training you can do when they're so young. It's a developmental milestone that has more to do with physical maturity and some kids take longer than others. From what I understand from my friends, Drs do not consider it an issue until after 6. I'm not really sure what they do then.

We waited until my son had over one month straight of dry diapers before daring to go diaperless. If your son is at 35%, it sounds like he's getting there and will eventually sleep without a diaper. We waited a while simply because I didn't want to be changing sheets in the middle of the night.

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Well, feel good that your son is potty trained during the day at this point! My son turned 3 last July and we still do pull ups at night! He is also a very deep sleeper and doesn't wake up to storms either! I am just not willing to get up with him a few times a night to go to the bathroom at this point! Sounds like you guys are doing great! Do what works for you!!!

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I open to advice, too. My 5+ year old still has accidents. We limit water before bed, she has tried the Hylands Bedwetting tablets, and we use Pull ups just in case. Our best nights are when she is able to go before bed.

It seems to help, but we still have accidents. Ironically, she seems rested when she has an accident... so maybe she is doing this when she is sleeping too deep to get out of bed.

For a while I thought she wasn't having accidents, but it turned out she was changing into a fresh pull up. I could tell when she put on panties. She had me going a bit with the pull ups.

I was thinking of trying the Happy Heinies training pant. She potty trained early becuase I was using cloth diapers, but I got lazy on the "night times" pull ups.

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I had my daughter night time potty trained by 3 1/2. I used the pull-ups but she was still waking up wet. So, I bribed her. I know its awful but it worked. I went to the dollar store got a bunch of stuff that she would like and put it in a princess shoe box in my closet. I told her that if she was able to stay dry all night, wake up go potty on her own and come get me then she would get a prize. It worked about 95% of the time. Good luck!

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When we potty trained our oldest we went cold turkey - day, night, naps. He had 2 accidents ever that I can remember and one was when he was REALLY sick. We never restricted liquids or anything like that. A matter of a fact he almost always drinks a glass of water before bed, but we just make sure that he goes potty before he goes to bed. We do still keep a monitor in his room because he will NOT comeout of his room at night for some reason, but he will call for mommy if he needs to go potty. He typically sleeps through the night unless he is sick or has a nightmare but we haven't had the night time issues. Do you put him in Pull-Ups at night or underpants?

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Every child is different! It is important that you don't pressure them before they are ready. My son was almost 3 when he was potty trained. He did it all at once: dry during the day and night within a week of each other.

My daughter is 7 and was just dry at night starting 3 months ago. She has had very few issues since then. Her night dryness was NOT a choice. She wanted to be dry but couldn't. She wasn't even completely dry during the day until she was 6. After meeting with a Urologist (believe me we tried EVERYTHING before that), we found that she actually had control issues. She controlled her BMs too much! It caused her to be impacted, which put pressure on her bladder. As a result, she ALWAYS felt like she needed to go to the bathroom so she had no way of telling a real signal from a little fullness. We never suspected because she had daily BMs but she would only release a little. The nighttime wetness was a result of her inability to empty her bladder, again because of the impaction. It has been a long road but we had to keep encouraging her and reminding her that it wasn't her fault. More pressure to be "dry" would only make it worse. The Urologist explained that they must get control of their bowels before they can fully train and a LOT of kids put too much pressure on themselves and end up causing this problem. I never tried to get her to potty train but she was insistent at 2 that she wanted to start. Then the roller coaster began!

Bottom line is DON'T WORRY AND DON'T PRESSURE THEM before they are ready. I wouldn't get worried about nighttime wetness until THEY start saying something. On the contrary, I would keep encouraging him and let him know that it is perfectly NORMAL for kids up to 8 to still be wet at night. Thus the reason for "Overnights". Good luck