Nighttime Potty Training- tell me how it worked for your kid

[Anonymous]

Wait Oh Crap actually says to wake them up at night? That's really bad advice, especially for kids that young. Their bladders are too small to hold it and they lack the hormonal maturity for their bodies to wake them up to pee (in most cases, there's a range and some kids could be on the early end, but the curve skews older).

You are just ruining your own sleep plus disrupting your kid's sleep by waking them up. We had a hard rule that kids had to sit on the toilet right before bed just to see if they had anything (this is a good habit to get in anyway-- it's healthy to clear your system before bed). But no wake ups. When they are ready, their body will wake them up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our DC has been daytime potty-trained since two-and-a-half; she's now three and a quarter. She still naps each day, and does so without a diaper, just using the potty before she naps.

But I'm unclear how she gets nighttime potty-trained from here. Pretty much each morning, she wakes up with a wet overnight diaper. Oh Crap talks about waking the kiddo up in the middle of the night to prompt them to use the potty, but we'd rather not do that.

How did this work with your kids? How did they get to a place where they wake up of their own accord in the middle of the night, if they need to go, or otherwise hold it? We are in no hurry for her to stop using the overnight diaper, but just wondering whether we should be doing anything to prepare her for transition. Thanks!

After being potty trained during the day my two year declared she wanted to wear underwear at night. She was dry every morning anyway so we went for it. She has never had an accident and will get us up if she needs to go to the bathroom (she can go by herself but likes someone to be with her at night). She drinks as much as she wants day and night.

This is hormonal. You can’t push this because you want it (and why do you care?). My second child just turned two and is potty trained during the day but has a super heavy diaper in the morning (she drinks a ton of water and pees a ton at night). She is clearly not ready for underwear. It doesn’t bother me a bit.

[Anonymous]

My 8 year old still wears pull ups. Pediatrician says its just brain and body development and something like 10% of kids still wet at his age and it goes down 1% every year. All you can do is watch her cues and encourage her to go more during the day. I dont believe there is any nighttime training.

[Anonymous]

We actually did the Oh Crap advice and woke up our kid and it ended up working. She was 4, had never woken up dry, but on her own decided she wanted to stop wearing diapers at night. So we took them off, made sure she peed right before bed, and for a week or two we woke her up twice a night and then once a night to pee. She’s not the best sleeper but she managed to go right back to bed afterwards without a fuss. She had a few accidents for a couple weeks but afterwards started waking on her own to pee.. she woke us up for a few weeks to go with her and then just did it by herself. It’s been about 6 months and she typically sleeps through the night dry or will get up by herself to pee and goes back to sleep. Just wanted to add my story since everyone says not to wake them at night but it worked out well for us.

[1SWMom]

Underwear with pull-ups on top, putting them on the potty mid sleep.
This worked for us before the age of 3.

[Anonymous]

I have one who was dry at night almost immediately after potty training at 3, and another who also potty trained at 3 but continued to wet at night until he was 7.

[Anonymous]

All 3 of my kids started waking up with dry diapers for a couple months and then that signaled to us that they were ready to potty train

[Anonymous]

When their diapers were no longer wet at night. The only caveat I have is sometimes mine would hold it all night and then pee in their diaper in the morning because they didn't want to get out of bed. I could tell because I always had them try to use the restroom immediately upon waking to get into the habit and then nothing would come out.

Another big clue was when they would no longer pee during "naps" in their car seat.

[Anonymous]

First kid needed pull ups until about 4; second was night trained pretty much immediately upon starting potty training at 2.5. I put a potty in each of my kids’ rooms near their bed so they could pee first thing and that really helped.

[Anonymous]

Maybe it was my feeding schedule but I don’t even remember my kid waking up at night wet as an infant ever. His last diaper change was before my night nap and then I did middle of the night feedings and he always or usually woke up dry

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe it was my feeding schedule but I don’t even remember my kid waking up at night wet as an infant ever. His last diaper change was before my night nap and then I did middle of the night feedings and he always or usually woke up dry

This is highly unusual.

[Anonymous]

DC1: stopped wearing nighttime pull-ups around 4.5. We used them until he was consistently dry for a long period of time (months).

DC2: stopped wearing them around 4.5 also, but it was his own decision. He told us he wanted to try sleeping without them and it was fine.

[Anonymous]

One of my children had to wear a pull up/good nights until she was 6. She was a very deep sleeper and just couldn't wake herself up to pee until that age. The other one stopped peeing at night about 2 months after she was potty trained. We didn't do anything different for the two children, it was just when their bodies were ready.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe it was my feeding schedule but I don’t even remember my kid waking up at night wet as an infant ever. His last diaper change was before my night nap and then I did middle of the night feedings and he always or usually woke up dry

You just don't remember.