Help Me Get My Daughter Out of Diapers at Night!

K.,

My advice would be to be patient. Each child is different and I believe bedwetting is out of their control. Some bladders take longer to develop. She is so young, you are lucky she is doing so well. I have three boys and my first and last made it through the night by age three. My middle son is 8 and still wears pullups to bed. He simply sleeps so hard, he sleeps right through it. Even with cutting out drinks well before bed, and taking him potty in the middle of the night. Hang in there, it will happen in it's own time.

J. D

We have the same problem around our house, but I'll tell you, we've found that the kids actually pee in the diaper more often than they would pee in the bed. We've been diaper free at night with my 3yo daughter for 6 or so months and while she would soak a diaper every night if she was wearing one, without one she only wets the bed maybe 2 nights a week. We limit drinks (none after 6pm) and we always take her potty before we head to bed between 10 and 11p. I end up washing alot of bedding, but getting a good mattress pad saves the mattress. Good Luck.

First of all, congratulations to Sophie, for potty training so early. That's awesome. My 2 1/2 year old son is in the same boat. He's waking up about 75% of the time with dry pullups, but I'm trying to just ride it out for now. I haven't been brave enough to go without protection. My 5 year old took about 6 months after day time training to master night time training. I'm sure you know not to let Sophie have much to drink about 2 hours before she goes to bed. Also, I suggest that you wake her up once in the middle of the night to take her potty (maybe when you already up to use the bathroom yourself). She's really not ready until she's waking up dry on occasion. When you're testing things out, without a diaper, try double making her bed (i.e. bed protector, fitted sheet, another bed protector, and fitted sheet). This way you can just strip the top layer during accidents in the middle of the night. I wish I had more advice. She's still pretty young and it will definitely come in time. Best wishes to you.

EA

Someone gave us really good advice that seems obvious now but we didn't think of it - no liquids too close to bedtime. We instituted a routine where we cut off the liquids at a certain time. Then we would have our son go potty right before his night time bath. Then when he was ready for bed, I would read him 1/2 a story, he would go potty, then we would read the 2nd half of the story. So essentially, he would go potty twice fairly close to bedtime.

He almost always 'made it' through the night without having to go, once we cut down the nighttime liquids and had him go potty twice. Of course, it might be more difficult with girls...

The thing that helps us - is stopping drinking about 2 hrs prior to bedtime, going potty before bed and then just waiting for the time when your daughter's body can hold urine long enough. My 4 yr old is mostly dry at night, but my 2 yr old has been dry since she potty trained at 18 months! I really think it has everything to do with how hard they sleep, how developed their bladder is, and how much they drink! So, good luck. Be patient - not every little bladder is the same - and it has nothing to do with how much you or they want to stay dry - only to do with their brains and development.

J

try cutting off the fluid intake after dinner. We put our girl to bed with just panties on - making sure she used the potty before bed. Then if she wet, we'd have her clean herself up, but also had her change her own sheets, put them in the hamper, remake the bed (with help). By having to participate in the hassle it really only took a couple of times. Just make sure you have a clean pair of sheets and a waterproof matress cover. Then, as soon as she wakes up, or even better - be the one to wake her up in the morning to go potty. Most of the wetting happens towards the morning hours.

Hello F. is my name.
I am sure others have told you to stop giving her liquids after a certain time. this will help. You should not have to wake her up at night. Just stop with the diapers. I would stop the liquid after lunch. Use it as a tool if she wants some say Koolaid with dinner then work with her and tell her if you do not wet the bed you can have some. You may have to put pertection on the bed for a while until she gets used to the idea. She feels safe as long as you have diapers on her. Let her do the work. talk to her about it she does understand what you are saying. she will not like wakeing up to the wet bed. Just takes time. good luck

I is too early to do this at this time generally. But if you are insistent. Try pull ups. If they are dry for 1 week.. . . .Then you are ready for trying panties at night. Waking her up every hour is a really bad idea for her and you. Potty training will go backwards all around. Relax, she won't be walking down the aisle in diapers. Patience.

If you start getting her up all night to try to pee, you will be training yourself, not her. It would be very likely to also start a power struggle between a very tired little girl and a very tired mom. I believe you would lose ground, not gain.

I think it's great that you have gotten her using the potty for the past 6 months during the day, and frankly, I think we focus just a little too h*** o* trying to get kids potty trained. I do not know of a SINGLE 15 year old who is still in diapers, no matter how potty training went or how early or late it was done! Tee hee.

Sophie will gradually gain enough unconscious control of her bladder, and her bladder will get big enough with enough sphincter control to get her through the night. She sounds like a physically large girl since birth, so maybe that's more of the issue--but there are diaper like training pants for big kids that are large enough for her and there isn't really much difference between them and diapers other than your personal feelings about them.

One thing you might try in order to move things along a little bit would be, for example, if you put her to bed at, say 8pm, then, right before you go to bed, have a quick "Mommy/daughter time" that includes going potty. Get up at maybe 6am, for another try. This will, over the space of a few weeks, maybe less, get her system trained so that it "knows" the times she will be able to go, and you can go from there. It's likely she'll be dry pretty soon, either way.

Fiora

You should be so proud that she was potty trained so early. It always takes longer for the night time. However, getting her up in the middle of the night just reinforces her body's clock to think she needs to pee at night. It is just something that she has to grow out of and you reinforce by not giving her liquids an hour or two before bedtime. "Good Nights" are what we used with our other 5 kids. It is very embarassing for the child to know that she has disappointed you in any way when it comes to this. Just praise her for her daytime efforts and keep asking her to try at night. She really doesn't understand because she has no control over that yet.

My 6th child just turned 3 in November. Maybe it is because she was the baby of the family but she did not show any interest in being potty trained until two days ago. Yahoo! She still has problems at night as well.

Don't worry. Only the world is telling you that she has to be trained by a certain age. They grow up so fast, trust me, I know. It is not something that needs to be rushed. It will happen in the end. Hopefully sooner than later.

Good luck!

Try lowering her liquid intake the last hour before bed. Have her go right before bed, and put a pad under her. If she wakes and comes to you, then take her to the bathroom. If she makes it through the night dry reward her with praise. If not, tell her to keep trying. There may be a couple lapses, but if she wakes wet she is not going to like that either. The diapers keep the wet off of her, the big girl pants won't.
Good luck.

Hi K.,
I have three children 2 boys and 1 girl ages 7,6, and 3.5. The way we got them to go through the night without any accidents was to make sure they went to the bathroom before going to sleep. I never restricted liquids...they still get a drink of water before going to bed. We also praised them as soon as they got up and had a dry bed. We didn't put pull up or diapers on at night either...not having the safety net there may be incentive to get up and use the potty. It worked for us. We had maybe 1 or 2 episodes of a wet bed and that's it.

I see someone else has mentioned what worked for us. But we limit drinks from 6pm on. And we get our son up when we go to bed between 10 and 11 and he only has an accident every couple of months, maybe. It works well for us. But before we did switch to that (after he was 3) we used Good Nites, a super absorbant night time diaper. We did have to go through a phase of a week or two of wet mornings but once we turned that corner it was great. We also realized that he could stay dry through the night but as soon as he was awake he'd just be lazy and go in his night diaper as soon as he got out of bed so that's when we decided it was time to cut him off.Good luck! It saves so much money to be totally done with diapers. We did have to go through a phase of a week or two of wet mornings but once we turned that corner it was great. We also realized that he could stay dry through the night but as soon as he was awake he'd just be lazy and go in his night diaper as soon as he got out of bed so that's when we decided it was time to cut him off.

K.,

It sounds like you would really like to be done with diapers, but really 2 & 1/2 is very young to be potty-trained at night. Staying dry during the day is very good for that age. Having been a daycare teacher, nanny, and now a Mom of two for years, it's best to have a nonchanlant attitude with potty training. The more aware of your wanting her to stay dry, the more she'll resist. By "training pants", do you mean pull-ups? I, personally, LOVE them. I have used them since my daughter fit into the first size. They're easier to get on, and keep her just as dry. Having just turned 3, she stays dry during the day, but wears a pull-up at night. She asks to wear her panties to bed, but I tell her when she wakes up dry, she can. When she still wakes from just a two hour nap wet, I don't think she's ready for the night. And as far as waking her up every hour to potty? I don't see that going well, for either of you. If you feel adventurous, you could make sure you have a water-proof mattress cover and pads, and see how she does with panties on for a nap at first. Then when she can stay dry for that, try night-time. Enjoy your daughter being this young while you can. It goes SO fast! Be positive, and good luck to you!

Christy

Hello K..

The mechanism that allows us to regulate bladder flow develops at different rates in different people. Usually boys develop the ability to feel and stop urine flow much later than girls, for instance, but it also varies from person to person, and from day to night for the individual. It is important to realize that at only two and a half she may not yet be ABLE to sense that she has to go and to wake herself to get to the toilet. Heck, I know a couple of adults who avoid fluids before bed because they know that they STILL can't wake themselves. :-)

Encouraging her to consume fluids early in the day and then stopping them 2-3 hours before bed would help. Be sure to have her use the toilet right before bed, too. Depending on her bladder size and the rate at which she processes the fluids, these may be enough to get her through the nightw without accidents.

Best wishes-
D.

You might be expecting too much from a 2.5 year old. Night time control is much more complex to develop. Her brain is already working on so many things. You might also find that she "regresses" occasionally on her daytime control, usually while she is making other developmental strides, like spoken language or grasping new concepts, or coping with behavioral expectations while pushing limits of independence. Be patient. They really do grow out of it. Pullups at night work really well and she will be proud of changing them herself in the morning eventually to put on her underpants for the day. Good luck!