Need advice on potty training at night

[Emmalou]

My dd is now 3 and toilet trained during the day for about 6 months. I'd like to try and get her dry at night as well but have got myself into a routine of giving her a drink to take to bed with her and she sometimes gets up in the night and asks for more. She has 2 full nappies over night
(I change the first around 10.30pm). I too drink a lot day and night (not so much wine these days unfortunately ...) and always take a drink to bed with me. Any advice on moving forward on this ?

Does she take her drink in a bottle or spouted cup. My DS was having his bedtime milk in an Anywayup cup and my HV suggested that as he took his other drinks in an open cup we just tell him we have lost the lid and get him to drink from the open cup, then gradually bring the timing of his drink forward and the amount of milk (in our case) down until he was only having about an ounce of milk before he got ready for bed, by that time he wasn't so bothered about it anymore. HTH.

We have recently cracked this after months of my making him wear pullups at night although dry all day. I think I was underestimating him. He was using the pullups because they were there, but I put him cold turkey into cotton pants, after a big chat about why it was good to be dry at night, and he has only had one accident at night, although a few times he has called me to escort him to the loo in the middle of the night - in case monsters! Perhaps if you get a few waterproof mats you will feel like trying it? I have also shamelessly bribed him with sweets for having dry pants in the morning ...

Similar quandry - DS now 3 1/4. Potty trained since about 2 1/2, but still has soaking wet nappy every morning when he wakes up. And yes, has anyway up cup of milk at bedtime and another one of water to drink through the night.

This week he has started to say he doesn't want to wear a nappy at night, so do I just bite the bullet and go for it and suffer wet nights until he gets the message? Or should I hang on (as Toddler Taming suggests) until we at least have a couple of dry nappies in the morning? Think I might be able to get him to ditch the story-time milk - which surely has to help - but not the water.

Willow2, IMO 3.25 isn't that old - especially for a boy. Nightime training can be a total nightmare if they aren't ready and from experience even though my dd was fairly easy I still have to get up on the nights when she wants a wee. Have put potty in room, left light on in bathroom but still wants me, are only now starting to make progress about this and she has been dry for over a year at night!!! I am knackered.

IMO you can't really force this. They are not ready to train until they are physically able to hold it all night or wake themselves when they need to go, early enough to make it to the toilet/potty. With ds we never had dry nappies and waited for a cue from him. He decided that, as he approached his 4th bday, he would go without at night. Prior to this we had about 6 months of him waking early and we think weeing in his nappy (pull ups leaked), on waking. We have barely had an accident since and he can get himself up as and when he needs to.

It might be worth bringing the last drink forward, or cutting it out altogether, but unless they are also physically ready it may not prove successful. By coincidence ds dropped his milk at about 3.5 but still takes a cup of water to bed now.

hth

Agree with LIZS, don't force it. We didn't ever get dry nappies at night though so if I'd waited for that we'd still be using them now, at 5.9yo. FWIW, this is what I did: left it as late as pos (3.75? 4? Can't remember) since I reckoned it meant he'd get it quite quickly and it would be less stress all round; gave up drinks before bedtime, about an hour before; lifted him onto loo for a wee at 11pm ish or whenever we went to bed. You can give up the lifting after a while when it becomes clear that there's nothing there, but we then stopped the drink earlier. Also made sure he wanted to give it a go before we tried and made it all very low pressure etc. Good luck, HTH.

Anyone know where you can get one of those absorbent cotton pads with waterproof backing to put under a sheet? I've got one which I bought mail order but want another. This weekend I'm planning to try both my kids without a nappy at night. (Dd is 6 and three quarters by the way!!!) Do Mothercare do them?

DS1 "trained himself" at about 3 1/2 He simply had dry pull ups 99% of the time and asked to wear big Boy Pants at night. We ensure he goes to the toilet just before he goes to bed but we don't restrict his drinks - still have bed time drink plus beaker of water next to his bed. The only thing we actually had to train him to do was to get up and go to the toilet by himself! I think we've had about 5 accidents in the year since.

I agree that this is something they seem to just be ready for (from my wide and varied experience of 1 trained child!) You could give it a go and see what happens - maybe your DS doesn't notice he's weeing if he's wearing a nappy so it doesn't wake him up.

I can't remember where I read this but if you're going to "lift" a child, make sure they're awake when you put them on the toilet. After all, weeing in their sleep is what you're trying to stop!

Good luck

Xausted, I'm not sure what you mean but I bought a really good fitted terry waterproof sheet from Dreams when I bought the bed. I bought another one from Mothercare, useless. When dd wets the bed I just put a towel over it and sort it in the morning.

What I'm looking for a is pad of several layers of fabric with waterproof backing. It doesn't cover the whole bed, just the area likely to get wet! Without it if dd wets the bed then the wet spreads and spreads, it ends up in her hair, everywhere! Yuck.

I haven't seen them but at the risk of being enourmously decadent what about the Pampers care mats?

I have never had the problem of the wee spreading, the terry cloth absorbs it quite nicely, but what about getting a waterproof sheet and a mattress pad? - somerfield were doing doubles for £10 so they can't be hard to get.

Or what about waterproof sheet with towel on top but below sheet.

Belated thanks for the ideas, runragged!

XHausted - do you mean the waterproof backed quilted squares - about a metre square? if so, larger branches of Boots sell them - near the wtaerproof pants and terry nappy squares. About £15 I seem to recall.

I got a waterproof strip, about 1m long & the width of a single bed, plus flaps to tuck it under iyswim, from php I seem to remember.

I've founf the care mats too small, unless your child doesn't budge an inch once they're in bed

Thanks - think I will give it a go after the weekend (he is staying the night with my s-i-l) as he is keen to not wear nappies and wants me to buy a special sheet! Should I get him to go to the loo when we go to bed? Heard that this can cause more problems as takes longer for them to get in to habit of waking and going by themselves.

ggo luck willow. I'm in the same situation as you with my nearly 4 year old. He's now at the stage where his nappies are dry in the morning 75% of the time. He has a Boots waterproof mat on his bed under his sheet - I'd highly recommend them.

We have never lifted him onto the loo last thing at night simply because he sleeps in a top bunk and it's physically very difficult to carry him still asleep down the ladder and he's really hard to wake up.

Even without being taken to the loo, he seems to be getting dryer at night gradually and in fact will now often wake up now when he wants the loo and go there himself. Anyway I think we'll get there soon. So, going on my experience, if you decide not to lift your son onto the loo willow, he could still become dry at night, though it might take longer to get there.

spelling! good luck, I mean, willow.

I think the trick is not to get too hung up about it. We tried taking our 3 year old out of pull ups at night a few months ago but gave up when we had to keep changing the sheets every night. She is now well over 4 and we only tried again a couple of weeks back when we ran out ( like Batters they were always completely wet through and I am sure too she just wee- ed in them out of laziness) - she has been fine; the odd wet night but it is quite clear she was "ready" now in a way she was not before. I use towels as well as protective sheets which I bought from the enuresis society.
I have a much older child who still wets the bed and another who has been dry at night from 2 so there is no rhyme or reason to it. There seem to be various theories about bedwetting but two things I have noticed are that going to the toilet before bed and not drinking make no difference whatsoever.

DS is 3.5 now. Was dry during the day at 2.3 months and waited till he was just over 3 to go through the night. He too likes lots of drink during the day and I do try to cut down his intake of fluids after 6.00p.m. When his nappies were relatively dry (not bone dry) we had a mum to son chat and he wanted to give it a go. (He never liked nappies once he was trained during the day). What I did and still do is make him have a wee before he goes to bed and put his potty in his room. He will call me for a drop of water during the night, he always does at the same time, I will let him have just a little in a cup ask him if he needs a wee, sometimes he does sometimes he doesn't, then he will go back to sleep. He tends to wet the bed if he is too tierd to have a wee before he goes to bed but it is very rare. Have even heard him run to the toilet during the night without calling me. Even though I do not follow any books, some say not to cut back on their drinks as their bladder needs to be strong enough to hold the drink. But maybe if she has two full nappies, try cutting down on what she drinks before she goes to bed and only let her have a drop of drink during the night when she wakes. Waffled on didn't I and was probably no help to you at all, but maybe wait till her nappies are dryer. Good luck!

DD is nearly 4 and half - has been wearing pull-ups at night (always soaked through in morning!) - been dry in day for 18mths. Friend's DD came to stay 2 weeks ago - and said 'why are u wearing baby's nappies?' - so obviously that was end of that!

Bought plastic sheet for mattress - and 2 weeks later - have washed 14 sheets - wet every morning - have tried lifting (and waking) at night - but still seems to wee before or after this.

Help !! DS is 3 - and this is putting me off trying him for a VERY long time

I know it's not how they tell you to do it and you'll probably have someone else tell you I'm wrong and may permanently scar your child (mentally) but..... I used to take dd to toilet at 10 maybe 11 o clock and then get up every 2 - 3 hrs and let dd go to the toilet, she didn't even wake up. This lasted for 1 week then reduced this to every 3 - 4 hrs and then just left her.

I also stopped her from having drinks past 6pm. To do this I had to ensure that no one else had anything to drink between 6 and 7 (when she'd go to bed).

Oh yes don't forget to take her to the toiled just befor bed time as well.

Good luck.

Sloggalog - how does she feel about the pull-ups. If you explain to her that she clearly does still need them, will she agree to wear them?

Ds2 is nearly 4.5, and I keep trying with him, but he just isn't ready ... I limit fluids, take him to toilet before bed, etc., but even with lifting twice a night, we still get wet sheets (and duvet cover, and duvet, and pillowcases, and pyjamas ...) once, if not twice a night!

Some hope and encouragement - ds1 was nearly 5 before he was dry at night, but it happened - literally - overnight. So I'm trying not to worry or pressure about it - they'll be ready in their own time.