is DS ready for night time potty training?

[kelloo1]

He has been clean and dry during the day since september but most nights this week he has been waking during the night to go to toilet. I don't leave a potty in his room (he uses the toilet anyway during the day) and OH says we should take his safety gate off his door so he can go on his own during the night. I think this is a ridiculous idea as I don't want him roaming the bathroom on his own, he also wears a sleepsuit so it would be a right kerfuffle for him. I was thinking of getting him a night light and putting his potty in his room so he can just get up and go. TBH tho I think he would still shout for me whenever he needed to go. What are the signs for when they are ready for nights?

Are nappies dry in the morning? Seems odd that you're thinking about keeping him in a sleep suit while night potty training, surely pj's are the way to go? How old is he?

If his nappy is dry in the morning it won't hurt to put a potty in his room. Get him some PJs though :)

Then leave him to it. IMO children just do it when they are ready. It's a hormonal thing...

He wears a fleecy sleepsuit cos his room is really cold in the night and he doesn't stay wrapped up in bed. I would have to get him some warm pj's if we went for it. He is 2.8. His nappies are sometimes dry in a morning, maybe 3 days a week.

If he is waking to use the toilet then he is telling you he is ready. If he can get his own trousers down to use the toilet in the day, I would put a potty in his room just in case plus buy some fleece/flannel pyjamas instead of sleepsuits. He will likely wake you anyway as you say. Primark and Peacocks do them for a reasonable price.

My DD (2.5) told me last night that she didn't want to sleep in a nappy after a few nights of relatively dry nappies. We put the potty in her room and my DH put her on the potty asleep in the night. She was dry this morning, so for me night training has started. No point going backwards.

You can't really 'train' them to be dry at night. It's all to do with the release of a hormone that tells the bladder to produce less urine at night time. The age this is produced varies between roughly 3 to 5 years of age.

Once you have at least a week of being dry every morning then you can think about leaving the nappy off.

Zhen, just be a little careful with lifting whilst asleep/half asleep. It does work for some but it can cause problems as you are 'teaching' a child to wee in their sleep and they can start doing this in the mornings before they fully wake. Best to make sure they have a wee before climbing into bed (and if you have a child that likes ½ hour of stories before sleep you ought to get them to go again) and have access to the toilet/potty as soon as they wake, which may involve you getting up as soon as you hear them wake to start with.

we never had a stairgate on the bedroom doors so when the kids need the toilet they can get to it easily. I never put a potty in the room either - too much potential for getting pee all over the carpet! DS (5) still wakes us if he goes to the toilet in the night as he insists on using the en-suite toilet rather than the one in the main bathroom.

I might give it a bit longer, on the mornings his nappies are wet, they are really wet, sometimes soaked through. He always has a wee before bed though and last night he didn't have his milk before bed and he slept right through. I don't think it will be long though, he is obviously very aware of when he needs to go as it wakes him up. Thanks for all your advice

Yeah, I'd wait form what you say . Both my older 2 went dry on their own at night spontaneously. It was the dry nappies in the morning that were the clue. One was 2.5yrs and the other 2.1 years.

One tip is to get his nappy off and him on the potty ASAP as soon as he wakes. Otherwise you may find the v wet nappy is actually the first huge morning wee after waking. Getting him up and onto the potty helps to give them the idea that actually the wee should be saved for the potty. for some doing it in the nappy on waking is sort of the easy option.

If I was getting up in the night to take him to the loo then I'd probably put him in a pull up under v warm PJs and put a potty by the bed. I'd also be avoiding giving big drinks at bedtime, or squash after lunch (it's a diuretic). It sounds like he's heading in the right direction .

I just wanted to add that I really think that the dry nappies in the morning are a bit of a non starter. Not all children have dry nappies in the morning, doesn't mean they don't have control, just means that they are intelligent enough to realise that the nappy is an alternative loo! Both my girls stopped night nappies at 2.6 (with a potty in the room) having never had a dry nappy in the morning - I just thought I'd give it a go and see what happened and they were fine. unlike the girls DS did have a dry nappy as soon as he was day trained (aged exactly 2), although he uses the loo not a potty during the day I too have a stairgate on his door and had no desire to have him wandering around and climbing on the loo (and falling in) in the middle of the night so put a potty in his room and he's been fine, rarely uses it, but does if needs to. He has a plug in green light (Ecozone Moonlight) which just gives a low glow so he can see enough.