When to be dry through the night?

[LauLauLemon]

DD1 was 3 last month and has been potty trained for around 3 months. We can do long outings and she's dry all through the day doing both bowel movements and urinating on the toilet.

We still put a nappy on her at bed time and it's usually used by the morning. Is it too soon to take them off her and if so, how would we go about it? To get to the toilet she would have to get through the stair gate at the top of the stairs and go down a small flight so would a potty in her bedroom be a good idea or should I scrap the idea as she's still young and new at this?

Experiences, advice, anything please?

[nbee84]

Wait until you have at least a week with a dry nappy every morning.

Night time dryness is not a learnt behaviour - it's all to do with hormones and being ready for it.

You could try pull ups and a potty in her bedroom if she can pull them down herself.

[MerryMarigold]

You can also try putting her on the toilet when you go to bed. See if it works for a few days. If not, go back to the pull ups. I know 2 kids who are nearly 7 and wear pull ups to bed.

[hellymelly]

Well I think you leave it until the nappies are dry every or most mornings.With my two that was actually before they were potty trained at 24 and 27 m, with the older one I put her in a nappy every night for ages until it dawned on me that they were always dry and then I bought a waterproof mattress protector just-in-case and stopped the nappies,no accidents at all.So with dd2 when she was dry at night at about 22-23m I waited a few weeks to make sure and she was potty trained and then stopped the nappies.No probs.They have some control over daytime wees but at night you just have to wait until they are physiologically ready and there is a huge variety agewise for this.

[MerryMarigold]

Also I would leave the stair gate. Is it for a younger child? I wouldn't have thought you need a stairgate for such a big girl.

[nbee84]

I actually wouldn't advise lifting and putting her on the toilet when you go to bed - getting her to wee when she's more than half asleep sends out the wrong signals/learning pattern as in the mornings you don't want her to wee when she's half asleep. In my experience night time dryness usually happens 3 - 6 months after they are potty trained during the day.

[MerryMarigold]

nbee, not something I've done personally - but the people I know who've done it haven't had any issues with morning wetting.

[LauLauLemon]

Stair gate is there for 2 year old DSS and 7 month old DD2 top and bottom of the stairs. DD1 can open bottom but not top.

[MerryMarigold]

Ah I see! I think potty in room good idea then. Maybe on a bit of a plastic. We put one in twins' room but mostly because ds2 uses the excuse of 'need to do a wee' to get out of bed multiple times and go to bathroom. This way there is no fun and all of a sudden the urge goes away

[pranma]

I would think potty in room is a must for quite a while yet-maybe near a night light or give her a torch

[NellyTheElephant]

Both my girls were dry through the night at about 2 and a half, one thing I didn't do was wait for a dry nappy in the morning - neither of them ever had a dry nappy, it was sodden and weighed a ton, but I had a suspicion that they used the nappy as a matter of convenience / alternative loo when it was on rather than that they weren't actually able to hold on and that turned out to be right. Pretty much as soon as we ditched the night nappy they were both dry. I put them to bed with a nightdress and no pants and a potty in the room (they always had the light in the corridor on and door open so light not an issue) and that was it. I think both of them had the occasional accident initially and with DD1 we had a couple of nights when she woke us in the night to use the potty , but I got over that with a sticker chart (i.e. if you use the potty without waking us you get a sticker in the morning and 3 stickers = chocolate). DS (2.3) was different from the girls in that he seemed to have dry nappies immediately he was potty trained (a couple of months ago) so I ditched the nappies, then it turned out that he'd have an accident about once a week, which was a bit of a pain so now I lift him before I go to bed (he also has a potty in his room so I just pick him up, pop him on and put him back to bed), it's really easy and he doesn't even wake up. I would think I'll continue with this until he's better at managing his PJs up and down and weeing without assistance otherwise I get early morning calls when he's jumped out of bed and run into the bathroom then wee'd in his PJs as he's not brilliant at doing it on his own.

I'd suggest that every couple of months you try for 4 or 5 nights with no nappy and potty in room - if it's accidents all the way then give up and try again a few months later.

[2kidsintow]

Just bear with it until she is consistently dry in the morning for a few weeks.
My DD2 was instantly dry at night the moment she was dry in the day, my DD1 has been a nightmare as she is 10 and has only just stopped wetting at night most nights and is now down to one or two accidents.

They are dry when they are ready.