Night Potty Training - New Lenox,IL

My daughter is 4 1/2, she has been day time trained since she was newly 2...and she still wets at night. We restrict her liquids at night, she gets nothing but maybe a sip of water after dinner time, we have tried waking her to go potty right before we go to bed, but she most of the time still wets her pull-up. She has been begging to wear her panties to bed, she really "wants" to. Last week, she did wear them to bed 4 nights, the first two nights she stayed dry, the 3rd and 4th nights she wet, so we went back to the pull-up, which she has wet each night since. I just don't think she is ready yet, hopefully she will be soon, but I know she will get there on her own! Until then, we will just do pull-ups :)

Night-time "dryness"... is a totally DIFFERENT process than daytime pottying.
Night-time dryness.... can take up until 7 years old, to attain. It is about biological bladder maturity... not the willpower of the child.
It is biological based and per the myelin nerve development.
This is not just my opinion.... but per our Pediatrician as well.
Some may say this is bull.... and you can wake the child to go pee, you can restrict liquids at night, you can make punishments and rewards to make them not pee at night... by accident. But to me... that is all just too many expectations and not age appropriate.
My Daughter's Preschool, and Kinder & 1st Grade Teachers all said the same thing.

All the best,
Susan

Don't push night training...agree with the Mom who says it is totally different than day. Our 8 almost 9 year old girl still sometimes will wet at night. The 6 year old has maybe wet at night once since she night trained at 5. It all depends on how hard your child sleeps, how active she/he is during the day, lots of stuff impacts night training. We thought our oldest was night trained at 3...turned out she was sleeping so poorly due to tonsil issues she kept waking up so she knew she had to go. When her tonsils came out and she was sleeping soundly the training had to start almost all over again. Just keep a watch, when your child is totally dry for 4 nights in a row give it a whirl without trainers.

My daughter so wanted to wear her elmo undies to bed that she trained quickly. After waking dry 5 nights, I told her she could wear them. We had a few tiny set backs, but it didn't take us long at all. No stickers or such things in this house. She was just motivated to be dry and to wear big girl pants. She was 23 months at the time.

I heard that night training follows day training by 5 months.

I so agree with S.H. Those who have "trained" their children at night have gotten lucky in happening to coordinate the "training" with their child's biological development. My DD will be 5 in August. She's been potty-trained since before she was 3 and she has stayed dry at night a grand total of TWO times. She'll be wearing a pull-up at night as long as she needs to. Our pedi told me not to worry about it until she's at least 7. Pushing night "training" on a child who is not biologically able to stay dry will cause unnecessary stress on everyone in the house.

avoid giving the child anything to drink within 3 hours of bedtime. My daughter (3.5) was great, but then started peeing again, we cut back on the drinks and she now is fully potty trained. Your child will get it sooner or later, but it's all about the development of the pee muscle.

When our daughter was just 2 months shy of 3 yrs old we trained her daytime and nighttime simultaneously. One day we said good bye to diapers and never used pull ups or training pants. That was last Sept. and I would say she has only had about 10 accidents in the middle of the night. We put a plastic cover on her mattress and have extra sheets nearby. If it isn't very much we just cover it with a towel until morning. One of the biggest things to do for nighttime dryness is to limit fluids about an hour and a half before bedtime. We still give her sips of water after playing outside now that its warmer and she has a half a cup of milk with stories about half hour before she goes to sleep. My husband takes her to the potty before we go to bed (about 10:30) and she goes right back to sleep. When we first started he also took her before he left for work (about 6:00 am), but that only lasted a month. We also never got mad about the accidents, just reassured her that accidents happen. Good luck!

C.

My daughter is just over 5. We've been talking about getting her into a big girl bed (she has a toddler bed now) for some time...but the pull ups were still wet. I've never made it a punishment thing, but she does "want" it more now than a year ago. For instance, she stayed over at grandma's last weekend and specifically asked that I not tell Grandma she still pees at night. We've been tracking it and as an incentive when she gets 5 nights in a row, we will go to Chuck E. Cheese. We talked about 3 steps (see Agent Oso on Disney Channel...#1, LITTLE SIPS of juice at night, not a big cup...#2, go to the bathroom right before bed...#3, tally our calendar so we know how well we are doing). This morning was dry morning #4 in a row! It could aboslutely be coincidence as we've talked about this positively on and off for a couple of years, we've been patient, but my hubby wants to move on with the bed.

So, I agree with the parents who have said your child has to be ready. Don't be ashamed when a momma-friend says "REALLY? He/She STILL has accidents at night? WOW!" A year ago we would not have had this progress. But now, she wants to do it and I feel like we are almost there.

My DD started naturally staying dry at night on her own. After I realized that it had been awhile since we had had a wet pull up, we started tracking it. Not for her benefit, but for mine. I told her when she filled a chart, she could wear her panties to bed. She had already been staying dry so it wasn't anything new that I was charting, but she does LOVE her charts! The chart was 30 days long. I wasn't comfortable keeping her in panties until that length of time. She has only had one accident in the 5 months that she has been wearing panties to sleep and it was super minor (in the morning and she felt and stopped it, still having some left for the potty. It didn't even get her bed wet.) She was ready on her own so we had success.

A tip for preparing: I double make her bed. She has a waterproof mattress pad, then a fitted sheet, then an old waterproof crib sheet (I cut the fitted part off so it would lay flat. It is bigger than the flat pads I found in the stores) then another fitted sheet on top of that. If there is an accident in the middle of the night it is much easier to just pull off the top stuff and still have a mostly made bed when you are still half asleep. We have used this method when she threw up in her bed and clean up was much quicker also.

Good luck and just make it a positive experience for your child. Use the double made bed method to save your sanity as well. Oh yeah, my daughter stayed dry when she was 35 months old. Almost 3. She had been dry during the day for about 6 months prior to that.

My son was daytime potty trained at age 3. Night potty training was more difficult and took alot longer. He could not make it through the night without an accident until he was 6. At age 6 he still wet the bed, so we bought the potty training alarm or as we called it, the pee pee alarm. It was an alarm that went off as soon as he started to pee, the alarm woke him up and he would run to the bathroom. He used it for a week and after that he never wet the bed again. But, he was developmentally ready and he wanted to and was ready to participate in the training. I don't know how old your child is, but if he/she is old enough for the pee pee alarm you can find it online.

My husband and I are currently working with my 3 1/2 year old step daughter preparing her for wearing her panties to bed at night. She is currently wearing panties all day long and at nap time. Since the begging of her potty training she has had some set backs that I believe have been emotional, for instance; she was keeping her panties dry consistently during the day until we moved, then she started wetting her panties again. In one instance, my husbands work schedule changed and for a couple of nights after he would get home she would stand in the vanity room and pee her pants in front of the mirror or right in front of the potty on the floor. For her (and us) it has been an emotional endeavor. Each time we've work through it and she's be great again for awhile until something else emotional upsetting to her would happen and she's express her emotions via potty issues. We've attempted night potty training several different ways without much success. I believe it's been due to the fact that she hasen't been ready and we haven't know how to tell that she is ready. For now, we've made it a goal for her to be able to keep her panties dry all day and during nap-time (and yes we have periodic pantie dampness checks with sticker rewards, specifically after nap time and before bed). It's become important to her to keep her panties dry so that she can wear her panties to bed like a big kid, ie. mommy, daddy, her favorite cousin, etc. We tell her that when she keeps her panties dry that she shows us that she's ready to try and wear her panties to bed at night. I believe all the positive reinforcement and encouragement help her to want to do it on her own. Recently she's been keeping her panties dry all the time and making statements on her own like, "I'm going to be responsible and keep my panties dry all day so I can get a sticker". One night, all three of us (myself, my hubby, and my daughter) all forgot to put a diaper on her and she kept it dry all night! I hope some of this helps. we also have her use the potty in the mornings and before bed. Good luck~ Chell~