Night Time Potty Training?

Updated on August 07, 2008
A.L. asks from Olathe, KS
20 answers

My 3 year old wears pull ups at night. When do we know we are ready for the transition to underwear only? She is usually not dry in the mornings. And I'm not prepared to change soiled sheets in the middle of the night and/or everyday. Any suggestions?

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M.W.

answers from Kansas City on

I just potty trained my youngest who is 2 and I am not even worrying about nights because she just is not ready. My other two children were 27 months when I trained them, but they dry at night in their diapers first so I started that right away. Is she really wet in the morning, or just a little bit? What I did with my son to get him completely trained was I put one of those waterproof pads (or actually a couple of them) under him at night so if he did have an accident it would be on the pad, not the bed. It seemed to work for him. After only a couple of nights of peeing on it he stopped and hasn't wet the bed since. My son who is seven still has some friends that wear pull ups at night. Most of them have stopped, but up until last year most of his friends that would come for sleepovers generally had a pull-up.

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M.T.

answers from St. Louis on

I'm not a fan of Pull-Ups either. They are too much like diapers and the kids know they can use them. Try cloth training pants with the plastic over them and cut her off from drinks after 7:00 p.m. or other certain time til she gets it.

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S.L.

answers from Kansas City on

All of my daughters were dry at night from about 18 months forward. It's been my experience with the daycare children these 21 years that most kids do wake up dry before they are ready to potty train during the day. But, that's not any hard and fast rule.

When she wakes up dry every morning for several weeks. Then she'll be ready. Some kids aren't ready until they are several years older. It's no shame. It's just part of growing up for some people.

Suzi

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J.S.

answers from Memphis on

I'd always been told it took about a year after being potty trained during the day to be potty trained at night. This seemed to be the case with 2 of my boys. My other son did nighttime potty training at the same time as daytime (he was 3 1/2 when we started, though). My youngest just switched out of pull-ups at 4 1/2. I was like you--didn't really want to have to change sheets and clothes in the middle of the night, so we just let him stay in a pull-up. He got tired of them and decided he was ready. Same theory as daytime potty training-it's much easier when they're ready.

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C.B.

answers from Kansas City on

Unlike daytime training, there's really nothing you can do about night time. They either get it or they don't. My daughter was 3 1/2 when she started to wake up dry..and every once in a while, she still has an accident and she's four and a half now. Something I learned though is do not give punishments or rewards for waking up dry. She's sleeping and can not control whether she potty's or not, so giving rewards or scolding does no good if she can't help the behavior because she's asleep. One thing I started noticing with my youngest when she was starting to wake up feeling the need, is she never said, I need to go potty in the middle of the night, she just woke up screaming. That told us she was too asleep to realize what is going on but she knew she was uncomfortable..so we sent her potty and she went right back to bed.
So basically, in a nut shell...you don't have to do anything, just wait until she is dry in the morning for several weeks at a time before you let her go with panties at night. And even though you don't make a big deal out of it, she will definately see it as a big girl thing to not have a pull up at night...and then we celebrated :)
Cutting off drinks by a certain time is also a good idea to help lesson the urge....we still do that with our four year old.

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K.B.

answers from Wichita on

Good Morning A., Keep her in Pull ups until she is Dry for several days when she awakes. Our gr son is 3 also and had been getting up dry for about 2 wks. The last two weeks he has been wet possibly 4 times. SO accidents may happen anyway a few times. But give her a good 2-3 wks dry time before going to panties at night.

Good Luck A.
K. Nana of 5

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S.W.

answers from St. Louis on

Hi A. - Both of my girls wore pull-ups at night until they were about 4 1/2 years old. What I did was wait until they went a month with no accidents. They were OK with that. I explained to them that a wet pull up was much better than a wet clothes, sheets, blakets and beds. Once they went a month with no accidents we stopped wearing the pull-ups.

Good luck!

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J.N.

answers from Wichita on

Good Morning A.,

We have a 3 1/2 year old boy, and we waited until he was dry and he wanted to wear big boy underwear to bed. He was so proud of himself. He also woke up a few weeks dry. We toilet trained him day and night at the same time too. He was ready. I am sure he may have an accident one of these days, but that can be normal. Also limit drinking before bed and have them go to the bathroom before going to bed. Good Luck!!!

Jen

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S.W.

answers from Kansas City on

I have a 4 year old little boy who has been potty trained since he was about 2 1/2. We did things a little different, we never used pull-ups at night. When the last pack of pull-ups were gone they were gone! And he knew it was coming, we only had 2 nights where we had to get up and change sheets...and then I told him that if he had to go to the potty at night to get up and go. The 1st few nights he came in and got me and then right back to bed, but after that if he had to go he gots up and went by himself. The lucky thing for us is that everything is right in the same place, our room, his room, and the bathroom so he doesn't have to go far. Hope this helps a little, every child is different so just do what is best and works for you!

Good Luck :)

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L.W.

answers from St. Louis on

I had to go from pull ups to good nights for my daughter around age 3 or 4 because the pull ups would leak. At age 5 she started having dry nights. I started doing stars and awards for when she had so many dry nights. We first did 5 stars got a play date, 10 stars got to go buy a new book, 15 stars got to go and pick out new underwear, and so on. I am a stay at home mom so there was never any reason for us to get up early until June when she went to summer school to get ready for kindergarten. So in June I noticed that when I was getting her up early she was dry most every morning. So I made a deal with her that if she stayed dry for 25 days then I would take her to Six Flags. Well she stayed dry but we were not able to go but she stayed dry for 2 days more in July than what she did in June and now we are planning to go to Six Flags this week. After she was dry for 15 nights in June I let her start sleeping in underware and now I no longer buy the goodnights. She does however still have a few wet nights but not like she used to. However I do have them and plan to use them when we go out of town or we go to visit my inlaws who live about 2 hours away and we leave there around bed time, just so she will not have an accident in her car seat.
Like some of the other moms have said each child is different and not all are night time trained till they are much older my nephews both wet the bed till they were 10 and my niece stayed dry through the night from the time that she was potty trained (they are all brothers and sisters.)
I would not push the issue too much at this age.

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J.L.

answers from Springfield on

Each kid is different. My oldest two(a girl and a boy) were night dry by age two, with an occasional accident for the boy. My younger two I've tried everything with...My 8 year old daughter still has night problems...doctors say it is common...We've done pull-ups, she is embarrassed by them so refuses to wear them now...We have tried meds, no luck, limiting evening drinks, still problems... Her brother is 5 and he also has night problems, but he wears a pull up at night... Again we've tried everything...Docs say some kids just take longer for night dryness. I actually know someone who didn't stop bed wetting until she was 12... It's about an underdeveloped bladder... Good luck.

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A.S.

answers from Kansas City on

We have never used pull ups, and our son has only wet the bed a few times (though it has taken him longer to catch on during the day). But I think he does so well at night because we limit his drinks at bedtime and also make sure he goes potty one last time right before bed. The only times when he does wet the bed seem to be when we forget this.

What everyone is saying about waiting until she is dry a few days or a week or so is definitely good advice. But I might be curious if I were you, just to try it once with panties and making sure she goes potty right before bed. She might surprise you. We were surprised when our son stayed dry at night from the beginning of potty training because he wasn't always dry in the mornings when wearing diapers.

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J.S.

answers from Topeka on

She's probably not ready if she still is wet/dirty in the morning. Do you restrict her fluids @ an hour before bedtime ,of course allowing for a sip of water before bed if she wants it? Potty training for nighttime is pretty much the same as the daytime training. Tell her what you're wanting her to do and lavish praise on her and maybe an M&M or 2 when she wakes up and has not had an accident. She'll get there. Good Luck.

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A.B.

answers from Kansas City on

I'm not sure how it happened, but my son just started telling me that he wanted to wear undies at night. I let him, and it's been working out. He was day trained at 21 months and night trained by 29 months.

The best thing I found throughout potty training was to talk to him about it. Talk with her about how if she holds it all night, she can wear undies to bed. If she can and she wants to, she will. You don't have to wait for her to try to do it on her own. If she can't or doesn't want to, then wait for a while; she's so young. Some kids wet the bed until puberty, and it's perfectly normal (though it wouldn't be fun).

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K.W.

answers from St. Louis on

I am not a fan of pull ups and had all three of my children potty trained both by 2 1/2. That being said, I was always told that once they wake up dry they are ready to be potty trained. It sounds like you are saying she is potty trained during the day time, but still wetting herself at night. It may be that she is a bed wetter, this is different from a child that is not potty trained. She will eventually grow out of it and at her age I do not think there is a cause for concern. I would keep her in the night time pull-ups until she starts waking up dry. I would also stop liquids two hours prior ro bed

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C.G.

answers from St. Louis on

Hi A.,
My daughter was 5 1/2 before she changed to underwear at night. I tried several times to get her to stay dry, from limiting drinks, to getting her up during the night, etc. Everyone told me not to force it, she would do it when she was ready. But she was 5 1/2, and starting kindergarten! My then 4-year-old son had been potty-trained for over a year and never did wear pull-ups at night, so it was very frustrating. She eventually did do it on her own though. Our doctor guessed that she was a very heavy sleeper, and often had very vivid dreams at night-and he was right! She now is able to wake herself up if she has to use the bathroom at night and only had a couple of accidents when she first started wearing underwear. It's hard, but try to have patience.

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D.H.

answers from Kansas City on

We waited until our daughter's pull up was dry in the morning before transitioning to the undies at night. It's okay to wait. Don't blame you for not wanting to change sheets in the middle of the night. Good luck and God Bless.

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W.H.

answers from Springfield on

Hi A.! If she's not dry in the morning, she's probably not ready to switch to underwear at night yet. My daughter who is also 3 would be dry about 9 times out of 10 in the morning, but I still wasn't ready to chance it, because like you, I didn't want to have to clean sheets every night. However, one night before bed she just came up to us and said she wanted to wear her underwear to bed and didn't want to put pull ups on. So, we decided to give it a try. We talked to her about how important it was for her to get up and go potty if she felt like she needed to go and so far so good. That was about 6-8 mo ago and we've only had a couple of accidents since. Good luck!

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S.M.

answers from Kansas City on

She's not ready yet and she will be dry from naps nighttime and so on then get rid of the pull ups. Don't be discourged if this doesn't happen soon. Some kids have nocturnal enurises and it means their bladder is still immature and can't keep up with growing spurts. They grow out of it when they hit puberty.

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J.J.

answers from St. Louis on

Every child is different. I have twins girls... one was potty trained day & night within 2 days, the other was more of a stuggle. She, like your daughter, ended up potty trained during the day and wore a pull-up at night. I told her she needed to wake up dry for 2 weeks, before she stopped wearing them. When she was about 3 1/2 I was almost out of pull-ups and told her if she stayed dry then we wouldn't have to buy anymore. We were going on a trip to CA, and she was so excited that she had stayed dry. I was planning on having her wear one at least the first night there, but she was sooo excited and I guess didn't realize we had a couple left, so I let her wear her underwear and she hasn't had an accident since. Good luck, hope this helps.

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