Potty Training at Night - Willow Springs,IL

I agree with Mrs. Robinson - he will be ready when he's ready. All kids are different. I have a friend who's son gets up by himself to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. Whereas my son "holds it" until morning. Our son was potty trained by the time he was 4, but we kept him in a nighttime Pull-up until he was 5. After that we just doubled up on the sheets and mattress pads. That way, if he did have an accident in the middle of the night, we could quickly and easily take off the top layer and he would have a dry layer underneath and could go right back to bed. It's been 6 months now and he may have an occasional accident, but it's rare.

Night training can't be taught; it's a matter of development, and some kids don't get it until well into their elementary school years. His bladder and nervous system need to mature so he can have better control and those 'full bladder' signals can get through to him while he's asleep.

Meantime, look for more absorbency in his overnight diaper. I knew a mom who stuck a maxipad in her son's diaper at night – she said it worked pretty well. Another mom had good luck taking her son to the potty at night just before she retired. She timed it so he was in a light sleep, but stayed drowsy enough to fall right back to sleep. She kept a potty seat in his room at night so he wouldn't have to walk to the bathroom. He was often (not always) dry in the morning.

unfortunately you can't teach him this. My son is 4 1/2 and still isn't there. Unfortunately for me, my boy refuses to wear a diaper, so most nights he will wake up and just his underpants and pants are lightly wet and he changes himself, but there are some nights where I have been in there 3 times changing the sheets. Mine seems programmed to wake up at 5AM and pee and then he stays awake and won't go back to sleep. You could make him pee before he goes to bed and that may help a little, but it could take until he reaches 7 or 8 yrs old. You could also put a little potty in his room so he doesn't have to go that far. My daughter didn't have this issue either.

No sense limiting liquids--they just cannot physically hold it all night at that age. Night dryness comes in time. Use a pull up, or a Good Nite and some waterproof pads to make it less hassle til his bladder is mature.

When his body is ready, he'll wake up dry. He might be too big for diapers, so you might have to switch to one of the night pull-up type things. I had this with my daughter and we switched to Huggies Good Nights, which didn't leak. Even though she was technically still within the weight for diapers, they were leaking. The Good Nights worked perfectly.

This isn't something you can teach him. His body needs to be mature enough to stay dry at night. No matter how much you limit his liquid before bed and if he pees 5 times before bed, it won't matter. He isn't physically ready to stay dry yet. My 3yo still sleeps in his diaper too. Don't worry Mama, it will come in time!

DITTO to every other response!

You can’t really influence when your son's body will be ready, as it has to do with his physiological development. When an adult's bladder is full at night, a signal goes from the bladder to the brain and we are awakened with the need to go. For children, this signaling mechanism comes with age. They cannot be "trained" until their body develops this mechanism.

All children are different. My daughter didn't develop this until about 4.5.