Potty Training at Night - Newport Beach,CA

night dryness is a matter of growth not training. Her bladder must mature to a point where it can hold the urine all night or wake her. For most children this happens anytime between the ages of 2 and 5, with 6 or 7 not being uncommon. My nephew was 8, my cousin was 12. Keep her in pull ups until she wakes up dry every morning for about a month, than you know she is ready. Do not push it until than or you will just be setting her up for feelings of failure and yourself up for a lot of extra laundry.

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You can't "night-time potty train" so don't waste your time. Bodies have to develop physiologically to hold urine all night. It can't be taught. Make it easy on everyone by allowing a pull up at night or layer sheet/waterproof pad/sheet/waterproof pad for easy changes of the bed.
When she's dry in the a.m. for a week or 10 days in a row--ditch the pull ups. Good luck.

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Everyone is different, so this may not work for you... and it wasn't exactly speedy, but it has been working for us.

First, if she wants to wear panties, I'd put them on her, but then I'd put a diaper on over it. We didn't bother with Pull-Ups or anything else because the cost per item was just too freaking high. Anyway, if she pees, she'll know it better with the panties on, but the mess will be contained.

Second, we do a sticker chart. Every four times she wakes dry, we go to the park. Otherwise, we don't go. Since both parents work, we have a separate chart for Grandma's house. Naps haven't been a problem, but we are still rewarding her successes, just not as often. For that chart, the whole thing has to be filled out.

We've tried getting her up in the middle of the night. No go. It upset her and all she did was crumple up on the bathroom floor and try to go back to sleep. When she wasn't crying, that is.

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There's nothing you can do. It's a physical process - her body will start producing a hormone that condenses the urine overnight making it possible to sleep all night long without needing to urinate. Until that happens, the best thing to do is switch back to diapers or pullups (whatever you prefer - we liked plain old diapers) until she's dry for a couple of weeks overnight.

We never restricted liquids, and one of my daughters night time trained in the past month -- right around her four year birthday -- and the other is getting closer but isn't quite ready yet.

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I've read somewhere before that kids bodies aren't physiologically ready to go all night until they're 5 or 6 years old. So don't be surprised if she just can't make it thru the night. My 5 year old boy isn't there yet, some nights he does fine, others not. I think Jen C. is right on the money.

She took control of the situation when she asked to use underwear at night. Have you asked her why she doesn't go to the bathroom when she needs to at night? Maybe she's afraid to get up. If so a night light to guide the way might help.

I would explain to her that since she is still wetting she has to go back to pull ups or diapers. She'll resist, of course, but tell her she can go back to underwear when she stays dry a few nights in the pull ups or diapers. You can also have her help change the wet sheets when she has a nighttime accident. Praise her when she stays dry at night, but wait a few nights before you switch back to regular underwear or you'll have to switch back again :-/

She is so young.... to be expected to be dry at night and naps.

Nap/night time dryness, does not occur BIOLOGICALLY until even 7 years old. It is a biological development of the organs/brain.
You can't 'train' at night... nor manipulate it to happen.

And get, a waterproof bed pad, to put DIRECTLY under her. I have several that I got 8 years ago, from Amazon. I still use them for my kids who are 4 and 8.
It makes clean up real easy per laundering sheets.
I just rotate them as needed and I only have to wash the bed pad in case of accidents.

My son is 4.5 years old, and still wears a diaper for naps and bedtime.

I think you are on the right track. Sounds very simliar to my daughter (who's been in underwear for 9 days now). She's had 2 accidents but the other nights when she wakes up, I take her to the bathroom so I think that has helped. Some kids bodies just do not signal to them to wake up - I do not think my daughter would get up on her own and go to the bathroom. The two times she peed, she slept right through it. So give it another few days and if she is still peeing, tell her that her body is not ready for big girl underwear at night and she can wear them over her diaper/pullup.

Good luck!

I agree with Denise... She will learn to hold it in at night eventually. Take her to go potty right before bed, and dont give her any liquids an hour before bed time. If she insists, allow her two or four ounces at the max, but make sure she goes potty before bed.

Good luck.

I haven't found liquid restriction to be helpful with any of my kids. I would stick with pull-ups if she is really not ready. Have you tried waking her at night to take her? That helped one of my daughters to learn to get up and go but not the other. My son just quit peeing in the pull-ups on his own between 3 and 4 so we stitched to undies. My youngest son is 3 now and ok during the day and at naps but not ready for nights yet. He is ok with diapers so we just use those since they are more absorbent than the pull-ups.

none of my kids were dry at night at 3.5. i did pull ups.

It will not happen until her brain catches up with her body. If you don't want to do tons of extra laundry every day then you have to find a way of making it easier for her to accept she is going top have to wear overnight pullups. You have the "bad" job of being the grownup. You get to decide what she wears to bed. It stinks when it's not what she wants to do but it's ultimately your choice.

We use Huggies overnights. They are in a dark reddish/maroonish package and they have Disney Princesses on them.

Cutting her fluids only makes it harder for you because she doesn't have enough urine in her bladder to signal it is full so she'll just leak all night. It also can tend to make her dehydrated and therefore makes her urine very strong and concentrated.

My plan with my son, potty trained for day at 2.5, was to leave him in diapers until he stayed dry through the night. After a couple of weeks, he started to stay dry at night about half the time, and he specifically asked for underwear at night, so we got rid of diapers. It has been over two months of no diapers during the day, and over a month of no night diapers, and he has had maybe two accidents at night. He was ready and I could tell.

I would wait until she is ready to remove diapers (you can try the pullups, but unless she is actually getting up in the night there is no real point). Once she starts to stay dry at night, then do underwear, and if she does wet the bed at night, don't make a big deal, switch the sheets and if she can't stay dry after a week, go back to diapers or pullups. We never did pullups, the few times he did get up at night with a diaper, he either removed it himself or called for us to help.

I know you've found your solution, but just one more idea. I allowed my daughters to keep their underwear on and put the pull-up over it. That way, if they didn't wet themselves, the pull-up could still be used again since it wasn't 'touching skin'. Kind of like an old fashioned diaper cover. If they did pee the clean up was easier. On the plus side, they actually FELT if they peed so they started waking up. Pretty soon they'd wake up to go eventually not needing the pull-ups at all. :)