Potty training - Do diapers at night only cause confusion?

[Anonymous]

New parent question here. Sorry!

If a child is doing VERY well with our initial attempt at potty training in the daytime, but seems to be nowhere near close at night. Are we causing confusion by having him wear underwear in the daytime, and a diaper for bed? DS is 3.

How do we approach an upcoming 10+ hour road trip and possible hotel stay? Do we forge ahead with PTing? Or pause things?

[Anonymous]

Diapers at night are a-ok and don't confuse them. It can time for a kid's body to mature to where they will wake up if they need to pee, so it's normal for night PTing to take longer than during the day. And yes, if you are staying in a hotel or at someone else's house, even more reason to use diapers at night. The last thing you want is for them to have an accident in the middle of the night in a hotel! Just keep encouraging him to use the potty before bed and first thing in the morning, and eventually he'll be waking up with a die diaper every morning and you can ditch them.

However, I would not use diapers for a long car trip. You just budget in time for stops and also bring the portable potty and be ready to pull over whenever you need to. I wouldn't schedule a 10+ hour car ride within the first month or so of training, but if he's doing great with training, is able to verbalize when he needs to go, and can hold it a few minutes until he can go, it's fine. And you can also plan for an accident just in case (put a pee pad in the car seat, make sure you have changes of clothes handy, etc.). It's not the end of the world. I remember my DD had accidents at the playground twice during training and we'd forgotten to bring changes of clothes and she had to ride home on a trash bag in her car seat in wet pants. We were kind about it and told her it could happen to everyone, but I also think those accidents helped her in the end because she stopped resisting when we'd suggest she sit on the potty before we leave the house, and started paying more attention to whether or not she had to go when we were out of the house so she could let us know sooner. Accidents are part of potty training.

[Anonymous]

Typically you address toilet training during day first by going strictly underwear and pull ups at night to keep with the independence of pulling on/off lower undergarments. Once you’re ready for overnight training start with underwear under pull-ups and do nighttime toileting protocol. Once they have the nighttime routine you drop the pull ups at night and continue overnight toileting protocol in underwear until they are dry majority of days in a month. Occasional accidents might still occur but for that you have waterproof sheets, washable or disposable underpads, etc.

[Anonymous]

Night training is a totally different process than daytime training. You’re not confusing your child.

[Anonymous]

If she is never waking up dry in the morning, she is not ready for underpants at night. Over time it will start happening

[Anonymous]

I disagree a little with the PPs. We day trained our child at 2.5. I remember towards the beginning after potty training her for daytime her diaper was dry in the morning. We should have just night trained her then. Now she is just over 3.5 and her diaper is often full in the morning and it is fight to get it off of her bc she wants to pee in it.

OP you have time and you can definitely use the diaper for your trip, but you may consider not putting off night trading for too long.

[Anonymous]

I just started night training my almost 3yo (where night training is “hey I wonder if you can not pee in your pull-up tonight?” and as of today the answer is apparently yes so we’ll see if she can do it for multiple days). She’s been day trained including naps for nearly six months.

I do put her in pull-ups for long car trips though because age gets horribly car sick even with maximum dose Dramamine and I want her to sleep as much as humanly possible. It has had no effect on non-car potty training.

[Anonymous]

Completely separate, at least for most kids. Some do it successfully at the same time as daytime training, others can’t do it for several years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Completely separate, at least for most kids. Some do it successfully at the same time as daytime training, others can’t do it for several years.

Usually because parents choose not to put in the great amount of effort or consistency required for overnight training. Most blame it on kid not being ready, which on rare occasion there’s a true medical reason, but usually it’s just the parenting issue. No judgement, just my experience-based observation.

[Anonymous]

No, of course not. Some kids aren't able to wake up on their own at night until they are older. My older daughter was day trained by 2.5, but is a very heavy sleeper and wasn't able to wake up to pee on her own until she was 6. My younger child was fully potty trained (night and day) about a month after she turned 3.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Completely separate, at least for most kids. Some do it successfully at the same time as daytime training, others can’t do it for several years.

Usually because parents choose not to put in the great amount of effort or consistency required for overnight training. Most blame it on kid not being ready, which on rare occasion there’s a true medical reason, but usually it’s just the parenting issue. No judgement, just my experience-based observation.

Hahahaha, says mommy of 2-4 children. You're not a medical professional, you don't know jack shit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Completely separate, at least for most kids. Some do it successfully at the same time as daytime training, others can’t do it for several years.

This is my experience. My kids were both ready and totally dry by 3.5. One was dry at 2 and the other at 3. The youngest asked for a diaper at night for a couple months but woke up dry. So i just "ran out" of night time diapers one day.

[Anonymous]

If he still wets in his sleep and is likely to fall asleep in the car then a pull up might be a good idea.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Completely separate, at least for most kids. Some do it successfully at the same time as daytime training, others can’t do it for several years.

Usually because parents choose not to put in the great amount of effort or consistency required for overnight training. Most blame it on kid not being ready, which on rare occasion there’s a true medical reason, but usually it’s just the parenting issue. No judgement, just my experience-based observation.

Hahahaha, says mommy of 2-4 children. You're not a medical professional, you don't know jack shit.

Yeah, it's cute that you think you know more than actual pediatricians. Ours was clear that they are separate processes, because there needs to be a certain neurological development for a kid to stay dry when asleep. Once that happens, a kid can be night trained. Before then, you're just waking them up a lot to pee, which is not the same thing at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Completely separate, at least for most kids. Some do it successfully at the same time as daytime training, others can’t do it for several years.

Usually because parents choose not to put in the great amount of effort or consistency required for overnight training. Most blame it on kid not being ready, which on rare occasion there’s a true medical reason, but usually it’s just the parenting issue. No judgement, just my experience-based observation.

Hahahaha, says mommy of 2-4 children. You're not a medical professional, you don't know jack shit.

Yeah, it's cute that you think you know more than actual pediatricians. Ours was clear that they are separate processes, because there needs to be a certain neurological development for a kid to stay dry when asleep. Once that happens, a kid can be night trained. Before then, you're just waking them up a lot to pee, which is not the same thing at all.

+1, my MIL told me she "night trained" my DH by waking him up between 11pm and midnight ever night for a year and a half to pee. That's not night training! That's disrupting your kids sleep for 18 months for no reason just so you can say your child night trained at 2 or whatever.

We allowed our DD to wear diapers at night until she was staying dry. We always encouraged her to go before bed and first thing in the morning, and once her body was capable of waking her up to pee, she'd just get up and go pee. We never actually "trained" her to wake up. We trained her how to use the potty during the day and eventually her body woke her up at night so that she could apply that training to nighttime as well. Before that, she slept deeply and simply did not wake up when she felt the urge to pee.