Night Time Potty Training for My 5 1/2 Yr Girl

I know you do not want to wake her but that was the best thing I did for my girls and it worked. I also was worried about the sleep too but my girls were is such a sleepy state they went to the potty and right back to sleep. It only took about a couple of weeks and then they woke up on there own and went potty when needed. Also I stopped letting them drink after dinner(6pm) and that helped too. I hope this helps..

Although bed wetting may have nothing to do with potty training, you might want to (as some others have suggested) limit the liquid intake for her to a specific time; 7pm sounds good. Also, you might not have to literally wake her up, but just get her up and sit her on the toilet before you go to bed like you thought about it before. Let me tell you, kids can go back to sleep with no problem and she'll probably won't even remember you got her up unless you mention it to her. If you see, that it is affecting her getting her up to take her to the bathroom and she is not sleeping well, then stop and wait until you go see the doctor.

Along with all of the other recommendations. I would add getting two or three waterproof mattress pads. When you make up her bed, put on one mattress pad and clean set of sheets. Then on top of that you will want to put the second mattress pad and a second set of sheets, this way when she has an accident you are just stripping off one layer of sheets and mattress pad and then it's right back to lala land and sweet dreams. I totally took this idea from another poster on Mammasource but thought it was simply brilliant. ;-)

Get rid of the pull ups and no drinks at least 2 hours before bedtime.

Limit drinks to nothing after dinner for a while. Then push her to try and pee more often before going to bed. And definately wake her up to go pee. Because you need to train her brain and body to realize I have to pee i need to wake up and use the bathroom. If you keep lighting to a min with just a night light in the bathroom and no tv etc on she should be able to go pee and go back to sleep.

check out pottyscotty.com they have overnight underwear that will wake her when she goes, but are absorbent enough not to get the sheets wet.

Ok C.,
I will try not to preach, but you really shouldn't have allowed her to be in pull-ups at this age.
Take pull-ups away completely. You said from time to time you try no pull-ups. You need to get her body accustomed to the fact that there are NO PULL-UPS. In the middle of the night she and her body don't know whether she's wearing one or not. It's confusing. If you're ready, get the pull-ups out of the home. She's soaking up the sheets anyway, so at least do the laundry 'for a good cause.'
pull-ups out.
nothing to drink at least 2 hrs before bedtime. If she insists on being thirsty give her small amount of warm milk (not great taste, and she won't want to drink a lot of it).
Then take her to the bathroom just before bedtime. Then off to bed.
When you go to bed, let's assume around 10 or 11 pm, go wake her up and take her to bathroom (she may not even be completely awake but she will go potty). bring her to bathroom. that way her bladder has been emptied twice since she had her last drink.
Hopefully that will help her hold it until the next day. She will, of course, have accidents, because she's used to having the pull-ups. It's ok. You won't be able to be right there to change her when she gets wet, so she will feel the discomfort of being wet for a few minutes until she calls for you. After a few times, she will NOT want to go in her panties. Then she will hopefully be potty trained.
Also, point out the nearest bathroom. Leave the light on in that bathroom. if she needs to go in the middle of the night tell her that the light will already be on. Tell her it's ok to call for you if she's afraid to go by herself. Tell her it's time and that you will help her get potty trained. no scolding just keep pointing out that she's almost 6 and that all her friends are already potty trained and that soon she will be too.
now, back to you. Do not back off. Throw away the pull-ups. out of the house, away from your reach. most parents that deal with older children who are not potty trained tend to go back to pull-ups because it's easier.
Trust me. totally doable, but it's time.
good luck

Children develop at different rates and it takes a really long time for some kids before their bladder reports that it is full and wakes them up or waits until morning. My godchild was still having trouble at age 9 and her ped. said that was unfortunately normal.
There are some pants on the market that ring a bell at the first sign of wetness and can help a child's brain adjust to what to do in the night when the bladder is full. You might try to find something like that.
Otherwise you can try no liquids after 5 pm, waking her once at 11 if she falls asleep easily or just getting a few really absorbant matress pads and helping her understand that it is not her fault. You can't push on this issue since it is often a question of brain development.

your actually not waking her up... what i used to do.. was go in.. pull them up kind of easy... and half carry them to the bathroom around 11 p.m. sit them down.. kind of holding them.. because they are half asleep... and they would go.. carry them back to bed.. after about 2 weeks they started getting up on their own to go.. it worked great.. try it.. good luck.. they fall right back to sleep..

i would minmize the focus on the nighttime training. some kids don't potty train at night until they are much older. I know of a couple of kids who are afraid of thier mothers rath if they wet the bed. one of them would rather go to school smelling like pee and take the ridicule of the piers than to tell the mother. it is not a focus on you as a parent and it is not a focus on her as a child. I know it is hard to explain to her that it is ok for now. That she will grow out of this. She is a deep relaxed sleeper and her body will eventually adjust.

C.,

I had the same situation with my daughter (she will be 5 in November...potty trained during the day but wore pull-ups for almost 2 years after at night time. When we started basically just made sure she had nothing to drink for about 1.5 hours before bed....but sometimes we give her a tini tiny sip of milk right before she goes up...when she says she is thirsty...then she brushes her teeth and goes potty...then bed. She had a couple of accidents in the beginning...but I had bought a mattress pad from one step ahead (love it!!)After about 2 weeks....not one accident...and she only had maybe 4 over the course of the 2 weeks. She still has nights were she will come in our room early in the morning...and the rule is...she can't come in unless she goes potty....but she also sleeps through the night in her bed without accidents also. I still keep the mattress pad on as accidents do happen....hope this helps.

I totally agree with the person that said night time bed wetting does not have to do with potty training it has to do with the bodies development. I'm sure when you speak to your Pediatrician they will tell you it is very common. Unfortunately some kids mature slower. I have not had to deal with this problem but my Nephew was 7 or 8 and still having accidents. It's hard to believe but a Chiropracter actually cured him with acupuncture. After his treatment he never wet again. Sounds hard to believe but maybe worth asking around about. Good luck. Most important it is not your daughters fault. Bless her heart!!!!

Walk her to the bathroom at night and help her on the potty. Tell her to go potty and then help her clean herself and get back to bed. My parents had to do that for my brother until he could wake up himself at night! A.

Just went through the same thing with my 4 year old son. Used the last pull up and told myself not to buy any more. It took us 2 month with accidents almost every night, but it's been almost a month without accidents. He goes to bed at 10PM, so bathroom trip at that time, then wakes up in the middle of the night between 2AM and 4AM. He comes to me at night and we make a bathroom trip together. So first thing is done, no more accidents at night, hopefully soon he'll stop waking up at night or at least use the potty by himself. Until then i'm determined to stay on this path. Try to be patient!

I had the same problem with my boys. Most importanly cut off liquids at least 1 hour before bed, and yes wake them before you go to bed. By then they're asleep enough where they're not really waking up fully to even remember. I used to have to just pick them up out of bed, sit them on the toilet and turn on the faucet. I did this for about a month maybe and no more accidents

I have the same issue with each of my boys. My oldest wasn't as bad. The middle boy is getting better. My youngest however is an every night wetter. He just turned 8. I allow him to use Underjams at night. I have tried no drinks after a certain time and waking him up before I go to bed, as others have suggested. These tricks don't work for all children. None of these have helped him. His doctor said that a pee test will be the first step in determining if he has an underdeveloped system (bladder). I am awaiting the results.
The best advice is to be patient and not blame her. I would take some of the great advice from the other moms and try it (you never know). Just remember how she feels when waking up wet. Use the pull ups if you have to and if it dry in the morning, make a big deal for her. Make sure to discuss it with the doctor as well. Good Luck!

Hi C.,
Have you tried limiting beverages at bed time? Perhaps avoiding drinks up to 2 hours before bed will help. My son is 4 1/2 and I have make sure he uses the potty right before bed time. If he says he doesn't need to go, I try to make a game out of it and say "Bet you can't pee!", or "I'll race you to the potty!", or just tell him he doesn't have to pee but he has to try. As soon I can get him to the potty he usually pees. Good luck!

Hi Ms. Q try to limit your daughter's drinking habits perhaps not allow her to drink maybe after 7:00 pm that way she can use the bathroom right before bedtime. I was a bedwetter myself and I remember the shame of how i felt. My best advice is to be patient but try limiting her fluids it worked for me. Good Luck.

Many children have trouble with night time potty training. So don't think your child is the only one. I would gently wake your child right before you go to bed and guide them to the bathroom. Keep all of the lights off, talk to them in a low whisper. I have three children of my own, I am a pediatric and neonatal nurse and I have found most of the time this works. And if you don't really make a big deal, and just stay calm and quiet they usually jut wake up enough to go to the bathroom and then go back to sleep. This is better than having the child feel bad about herself. Try it for a little bit and see what happens.

Hi C.,
Day toilet training and not wetting at night are not related. Day training means they are able to recognize when their body has to go and get themselves to the toilet. Night "training" isn't teaching them to get up to pee at night but their bladder growing/maturing enough that they don't need to empty the bladder at night. Waking her before you go to bed simply trains her bladder to empty at that time, that's not ideally what you want to have happen, you want her bladder not to have to empty at night at all. If wearing a pullup or diaper allows her to have a full night's sleep, then I'd keep going with that. Also, I would double bedding the bed - waterproof pad, sheet, waterproof pad, sheet so that if she wets the bed, you just strip off the top layer and aren't raiding the linen closet in the middle of the night.

My boys were the same and at 10....it stopped for both. I did try the waking up in the middle of the night...that definitely helps and neither boy had any recollection of being awakened. But as soon as I stopped waking them, another accident. I just began telling them it was okay, no big deal. Their body was growing too fast and they needed the deep sleep that didn't wake them up. Good luck and just hang in there.

another idea is to have two sets of sheets on the bed with a mattress protector between them. This way, you are only taking off one pair of sheets and it is very fast getting the little ones back to sleep.

Good luck!