Do you have to potty train at night time?

[dafgirly]

My daughter will be 4 in December and still using pull-ups overnight. We were really lucky with potty training her because she just decided a week before she was 2 that she wouldn’t wear a nappy anymore and wanted to use a potty. So that was job done. But obviously that was nearly 2 years ago and she’s still wearing a pull up at night that’s soaking wet every morning. We’ve tried making her go for a wee before bed, taking the nappy off and seeing what happens but she wets the bed every single time. What next? I don’t really get enough sleep as it is so don’t want anything that disturbs nighttime and has us changing sheets in the middle of the night and getting her back to sleep 🫩

You need to wait for a hormone to kick in. I think it can be anytime up to about 7yrs. A friend of mine likened it to starting your period, you can’t make it happen faster!

Can you gently guide her to go to the loo at 11pm or whenever you go to bed? I think some people say wake them up but that always seemed a bit mean so I used to just lead mine to the loo half asleep. And obviously careful with the drinks close to bedtime. I think a wee is a drink youve had 4 hours before or something so no huge drinks in the last part of the day.

It does take a while though as the PP says so no panic.

Although some swear by hormones being the reason they aren't ready, we went down this route and ended up using a bedwetting alarm after when ours was around 5 I think (it's been a while!). 2 weeks of using it sorted it.

No it's more of a hormonal thing but if you don't want your kiddo in nappies or pull ups you can bring them to the toilet before you go to bed :) part-time

Okay thanks all 🙏🏼 she is an absolute nightmare to get down every night so I’m actually scared of waking her up at 11ish in case she thinks it’s time to get up for the day and won’t go back to sleep 😂 which is very likely. But we can give it a go. Everyone bangs on about potty training but I’ve not heard anyone talk about night time!

god no I just used pull ups at night until she started being dry several nights in a row

That’s what I’m waiting for @FupoffyagrassholeI just thought nearly two years is a long time since she was potty trained 🫣 but I will just relax about it

It’s best to wait for the maturation of the antidiuretic hormone before encouraging dry nights. This hormone matures between the ages of 4-7yrs.

With my twins, one decided at 2 that he was completely done with nappies and would not wear any at night either. I had to gives him a ‘dream wee’ at 10pm each night to stop him wetting the bed. That went on til he was around 4yrs old. The other twin was in night nappies til around 4yrs old and naturally evolved out of them. From my experience they were unusually young to be out of night nappies. I remember when they started reception and into year 1 that most of the children in their class were still in night nappies.

But day training has nothing to do with night training. Remember that. They are separate developmental phases.

My Granny swore that the best way was to gently lift the child out of bed when the parent goes to bed and gently sit them on the potty. She had 14 kids and knew a thing or two.
It worked for us.

One of mine was more reliable at night earlier than during the day! Though occasionally wet the bed well into primary school. (Adhd may have accounted for this- didn't pay attention to bodily cues so often left it too late / panicked).

The other just seemed to catch on to both very easily - day training took about 2.5 days and I don't recall many / any wet beds).

@dafgirly i didn’t stop the pull ups for ages - she was nearly 5 by the time I stopped I think!

Have you tried having a conversation with her? She's 4 now, it should be easier. You don't need to wake her to take her to the toilet. Life her up place on the toilet then put her back.

We just waited for them to be dry overnight as I wasn’t sure how you could train them to wake up if they need a wee.
DD1 was into year 1 I think. DD2 was dry at night by 2.5. Didn’t do anything differently for either of them.

We used a star chart when youngest was 4. She was dry at night within a week.

As I said before, it's a hormone just be happy she's at least day trained

I think they’re either ready or they’re not. Both of mine were easy at night (one not easy during the day). They were just dry and I didn’t need to do anything. There was the odd accident but really their bodies were just ready and there was no effort involved.

Sounds like she was day trained really early - well done her!- so it’s really no surprise it’s taking what seems like a long time for night. I just waited until there were several nights of dry nappies overnight. She’ll get there.

Honestly stick with the pull ups until you have consistency in them being dry for a period of time. DS was a good 2 years before he was dry at night after being potty trained and thinking about it DD is just at the 2 year point and we are only recently getting consistency with being dry at night. She came out of pull ups about 4 months ago and we've got a 80% success rate (thanks to tracking on an app I know lol).
We do wee before bed, no water after bedtime (unless really hot summer nights) and don't wake up at 11am. But if she wakes in the night its an automatic lets go to the bathroom.

Honestly don’t even give it a second thought at the moment. She’s very little. Don’t faff around with “dream wees”. Totally unnecessary.

I think it’s just random luck. Presumably it’s genetic. Mine (boy and girl separately) were both dry at night almost immediately once they potty trained. I didn’t do anything!!! We did have to take them to the toilet when we went to bed, not because they’d wet the bed, but because they’d then wake up for a wee at about 2am and want us to help. (Not ideal with a newborn in the house too)

Most of my friends kids seemed to vary between dry about age 3 to right up to about 8ish. Some took measures, some just left it. They all got there in the end! I think 4 is completely normal to not be dry overnight and if you don’t want to rock the boat with her sleep I’d just leave it.

I think it’s a combination of waiting and training. Our DS was 5 and still in pull ups. He was starting to be dry at night but not consistently. I found using padded pants helped as it would catch the wee but he would wake up. Then he started to not wet himself overnight because he would realise. I think it’s worth a go if you think she might be ready but I wouldn’t stress right now. FYI DS was potty trained at 2 and three quarters so the age gap between day and night was huge IMO.

We didn't do any 'training' as such, just kept DC in pullups overnight until they stopped being wet. DC1 was 3.5 and DC2 was 5 so it does vary. My niece took until age 8 to be dry at night.

We had a consultant for DS and he told us not to do the asleep wee thing, that just reinforces the body weeing when it's asleep which is what you want to stop.

No harm carrying on with pull ups at this age. I was referred to a children's specialist after my DD kept getting urine infections. She was still wearing pull ups at night (age 4.5) and I asked if this could be the reason. Dr said no and was not concerned about her being in pull ups, she told me 40% of children still wet the bed frequently or wear pull ups until age 8. She said at that age it would actually be more concerning if they were going over 8 hours without going to the toilet as this is a sign they're likely dehydrated.