Night Time Potty Training - Spotsylvania,VA

Updated on August 25, 2009
R.C. asks from Spotsylvania, VA
19 answers

We potty trained our 2 year old about a month ago, during the day. She did great. I took 3 days and just pumped her with fluids and took her to the bathroom like crazy. And it just clicked. We maybe had 2 or 3 accidents after that. It was awesome, that is until bed time. She had some dry night which was great but now it seems there are NO dry nights. I was thinking stopping drinks after 7 would help, bed time is 8:30 or 9. I really did not want to have to use pull ups, but after a month of cleaning up the wet bed... I am getting a bit frustrated. Not with her as I know she is only 2 and I am SO proud of her. But just the smell, and the sheets every morning! Any suggestions would be helpful and much appreciated!

Edited to add: I really do not expect her to be dry every night. But at the beginning we were having *some* dry nights. I just am oblivious to what is different and why we are having no dry nights. I would just like to make some sort of progress.

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So What Happened?

I only believed it was possible for her to be night time trained because my oldest was trained completely by this age. But of course I can't for the life of me remember how we did it!

But, I did put a pull up on her last night. It's not that I expect her to be dry. However, I know it is possible. I just was looking for ways to make this possible.

Thank you for all of your replies, I appreciate it!

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J.C.

answers from Lynchburg on

My son is 4, and we tired no drinks after 7, and we tired no drinks except a little water after dinner, and we tried eating earlier, and still, every night, after going potty 2 times right before bed, he still pees. We bought diapers for night...and the sad thing is that he puts them on. We tried waking him up in the middle of the night, and waking him up int he morning to go on the potty. He still pees at some point, and it's too much for a pull-up to hold. I just couldn't do the sheets every morning, and if it was a day that he got sick or we had anything else to do, it was crazy trying to handle it all. Hope you have better luck than us!

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K.L.

answers from Washington DC on

Seriously? She's so little! She'll be ready on her own time, and you'll know she's ready when she just starts waking up dry. In my opinion, it's very difficult to "train" a kid to be dry at night. Totally different than day time training.

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R.H.

answers from Norfolk on

the only thing i can suggest to you is to do exactly what you did you during the day. Things get worse before they get better. If she only has to go potty a little she won't feel she has to go but if she's been pumped with water before bedtime she will feel she has to go and it will more likely wake her up. The dry nights could have been anything you watered her well during the day and she was peeing alot she might have been dry from peeing so much. good luck

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M.R.

answers from Washington DC on

We have two boys who just turned 3 and 5. Up until about 6 months ago our 4 y/o was still having night time accidents (even though he had been potty trained since 2). What we wound up doing was taking him to the bathroom each night before we went to sleep (around 11:30). He had typically been asleep around 3 hours by then. Most nights he wouldn't even fully wake, and we would lead him to the bathroom, let him go then guide him back to bed. Some nights we even carried him. A few weeks later, my husband started taking our 2 y/o at the same time. Within 6-8 weeks, both were night time trained. The 4 y/o will even sometimes wake himself to go if he needs to, but both are sleeping through the night dry 100% of the time now, and if they can't, they are either getting up by themselves or (on rare occasion) calling for us to help. Waking them in the night triggers their internal clock to understand that they need to get up to go, not just go in their sleep.

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A.H.

answers from Washington DC on

We just potty trained our 2 year old a month or so before she turned two and she is doing great too. But we put on a diaper on for naps and night time. She knows that is the only time she gets a diaper and it is OK to go in them. Everything I have read says you can't expect dry nights until around 4. There are so many 2 year olds that I see all the time that aren't even close to potty training. Congrats on your early sucess:)

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T.H.

answers from Norfolk on

some kids take til age 7 or 8 to be night potty trained. not because they are too lazy to get up at night but because their brains arent yet wired or able to understand that it must either hold it in or wake up and go potty. i'd got and use the pull ups while she's asleep and once younotice that she is waking every night for a week dry then stop using them. if you dont want to use pull ups you can buy reusable diapers (cloth diapers) that look more like underware. my first got the night training quick but my second i think is just now getting the hang of it at 4 and a half.

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S.B.

answers from Washington DC on

She is still soooo little. There's no way you could expect her to go through the night without wetting. My pediatrician told us that they might not have a dry night until they are 8 years old.

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B.D.

answers from Washington DC on

hi, I only have two minutes & havent read what others have already said....but just wanted to say that my daughter also potty trainned very fast but I wouldnt even think of trying to put her to bed at night w/out a " nighty ditty" most of her classmates & friends ( up to age 5 & some even older) ALL wear them at night~
good luck, and until she stays dry @ night just relax & keep em on!

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M.C.

answers from Washington DC on

You can do one of two things.
1. put her in pullups or underjams at night. This is what we do.
2. wake her up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom.

M.

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N.B.

answers from Washington DC on

I went to a potty training workshop (because my son has special needs). They said night time training just happens when they are ready. To help they said you can keep data for a while (find out what time she is going to the bathroom). Then you can wake her up 10-15 min before that time to prevent her going in the bed. You can do the whole limiting fluids thing, but her body may just not be ready yet. I'd say take the pressure off (of her and you :) ). Good luck!
N.

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A.C.

answers from Washington DC on

R.,
You really should put her in pull-ups at night. There is no way to train her for nighttime. When she is old enough (6-8 yo) she will not need them anymore. Don't stress yourself or her out.

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D.U.

answers from Washington DC on

Use pull-ups at night. You can't really do anything about the night time accidents. I had one who was dry at night before he was daytime trained. The other 3 all wore pull-ups at night until they were dry for a month. FOr one that happened at age 5, another at age 3, and my last just turned 4 and is still in pull-ups at night (dry half the time or more).

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A.P.

answers from Norfolk on

R.,

I did some research on nightime dryness. Two things have to happen for a child to stay dry all night. The first is that an anti-diuretic hormone has to kick in (so their kidneys don't produce so much urine); the second is that she has to stop sleeping so deeply that she doesn't feel when she needs to go to the bathroom. And sometimes both things don't kick in until the child is 5 or 6. My daughter was 4 1/2 before she was reliably dry at night, though she had daytime control by 2 1/2.

Some kids sleep so soundly that they don't recognize the full bladder signals. Some kids don't start producing anti-diuretic hormone (ADH) until years after they achieve daytime control (and when they start producing ADH, they really start producing it. My daughter can wait up to 90 minutes before she really needs to go potty in the morning). Only a few kids indicated their training readiness by being dry at night.

So, stop driving yourself crazy and put the pull-ups on your daughter. It will help your relationship with her, too, since you aren't frustrated. Limit her liquids after dinner, and if you want to take her potty before you go to bed, you can try that, too. I kept a potty in my daughter's room for convenience when I would get her up at night. The progress is when her body catches up to her abilities.

Hope this helps.

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L.G.

answers from Washington DC on

Sounds like you are dealing with what I dealt with... we trained our 2 year old son in about 2 days. He did great during the day having very few accidents. For naps and at night we put on a pull up. After a month, he did not have any accidents during his naps. So, I took that away (and put on underpants during naps). After about 2-3 months I noticed he was dry during the night too, but I STILL kept a pull up on him during the night (to save the sheets and to save me from waking up to change the sheets in the middle of the night). He does wake up by himself about once a night to go to the bathroom. Since he's still in his crib I have to get up to put him on the potty. I don't mind this considering he wakes up dry. I figure that once he's in a big boy bed he'll be able to get up on his own to go.

Note: In the very beginning, our son would have dry diapers at night, but then he'd go a week or two with wet ones. (It was frustrating to see the inconsistency.) By about a month or two he began waking up to go and had very few wet ones by two months after day training.

I have seen kids as old as 4-5 who still wear pull ups, but I know many kids who wean off of them within a couple months.

Also, I do limit drinks close to his bedtime. I've also noticed that when I do allow him to have juice (or something other than milk), he has to go more often at night. So, I try to avoid those types of drinks in the evenings.

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M.F.

answers from Roanoke on

I know you have gotten a lot of responses saying that maybe your daughter just isn't ready for night-time potty training and maybe that is the case but here is something that has worked in our family. My son is 2.5 years old and has been daytime potty trained since around 20 months. We also assumed that it could be years until he was nighttime trained, especially since everyone says boys are slower. My son was having problems sleeping and my mother, who is all about vitamins, suggested magnesium because it is known to have a calming effect. We started putting a crushed up tablet in his milk with dinner. We notice that he was having a lot of dry mornings but didn't connect the two. We took him out of the diapers and he was doing great. Then we stopped giving him the magnesium because we were lazy or whatever. Then he started having accidents. I did a little research and some books suggest magnesium for kids that have bladder issues. I haven't found any negative side effects so it might be something to try. You may want to look into it yourself but since we have been back on the magnesium we are back to no accidents at night. Good luck!

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K.L.

answers from Washington DC on

Two seems awfully young to expect her to stay dry at night. My son just recently stopped using pull-ups at night and he's almost four. I know several other kids my son's age whose parents haven't even dreamed of taking their kids out of pull-ups at night and a few who still wear them during the day. I'd say give her more time.

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K.S.

answers from Washington DC on

Sorry I wont be much help w/ this one, but wanted to share my story w/ you.
AT 2, it is alot to expect dry nights. My girls were both trained at 2 and had dry nights w/in a couple of months of day training.
But my son is a different story. We didnt train him until he was 3, in June. He wakes up every a.m. WET!!! I put a pull up on him and a pair of undies over that and most the time he wets thru those. I put a mattress pad on his bed so it wouldnt damage his mattress. I too am tired of washing sheets and blankets all the time.
Thing is: when we were on vacation, 5 out of 7 nights he woke up DRY. The only thing I can think of was, he did drink less on vacation than he normally does at home. So like you mentioned, maybe stopping her drinks a good hour or so before bed, might help. Otherwise it will take some time for her to learn she can hold it all night.

Another thing you can try, which I did, wake her and take her pee before YOU go to bed. AND in the middle of the night if you get up to pee.
Good luck.

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S.M.

answers from Washington DC on

Normally, I don't bribe but.... my daughter traine daround 34 months. She was say trained and waking dry in the morning frequently. I told her if she woke dry in her pull-ups she could have one M&M in the morning. This is a kid who maybe ever had candy once or twice before. When the cup was empty (10 days) she could try ot wear underwear at night. We never had a night accident.

I have no explanation other than she may be slightly immature (physically) and you might want to wait a few months. But a little motivation never hurts.

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S.W.

answers from Norfolk on

To add to Alice's comment for you--- My nephew's doctor told my sister that when you quit their drinking at 7 and they go to bed at 8 or 9 to wake them about 12 or 1230 to go potty. this is about the time the bladder will produce urine and they can go again and they should stay dry at night, however, the typical mom and dad are asleep at that time so that means you will have to wake to wake the child. OR put on a pull up and wait for the natural process of growing up to take hold or do what we have to do in our family--- medicate for the delay in growth thanks to the heredity factor. I have a 6 year old that still has an accident about 1 or 2 every other week. My oldest daughter was a bed wetter until she was like 15, meds helped her. Good luck but dont expect it to be a quick night training process. Patience and PULL UPS were my friend and still are. Good Luck to you MOM

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