Using potty as a bedtime delaying tactic

[Sophmum]

Does anyone have any advice about potties at bedtime? I have been potty training my daughter (2.1yrs) for about a fortnight, and she has taken to it really well and won't go in a nappy at all now. I still put her in a training nappy for sleeping and going out, but she tells me if she needs a wee and holds on until I get her to a loo. However, for the last week or so, she has started a lengthy performance at bedtime, when as soon as I go to put her in her cot she says she needs a wee or poo, and then proceeds to be on and off the potty doing endless little wees and lots of poo for an hour or so. I know she is clever enough to be using this as a bedtime delay (I have had trouble with her sleeping since day one), but I don't feel I can leave her to yell for a few minutes as I might otherwise have done as she always does the wee or poo and I don't want to make her wet or poo herself and so undo all her good potty training work and confidence. I have tried encouraging her to poo during the day, but she will not sit on the potty or big loo unless she wants to, and she does not seem constipated or uncomfortable in any way. Any advice very gratefully received.

My ds2 did this as well, sometimes for up to 2 hours.
My advice is to go with it, you don't want to undo your hard work and the novelty will wear off as she gets more accomplished. It took several months for my DS to stop this - mind you he was in a bed not a cot, so he just kept getting up and going for a wee by himself - then yelling for us!

Good luck

My DD also did it, but stopped after about 3 days when I started leaving a potty in her bedroom and telling her she could use that if she needed to, and she didn't need to call Mummy!

ds also tried the same trick. He liked the "excitement" of coming downstairs after bedtime. Using a trick from "little angels" we took the potty up to his room (so he didnt have the fun of coming downstairs) and did our best not to "engage" with him, and just kept repeating with a straight face "its bedtime". It was really hard not to get involved in a conversation because he would try every trick in the book. Sometimes we would be up and down the stairs for an hour but the novelty did wear off for him.

Thanks for your replies. I think/hope! it will probably be a phase. She's not ready for a bed yet, and can't manage to pull her nappy up and down that efficiently so potty in bedroom will probably come later. I haven't been taking her downstairs - we do it all in the bedroom or bathroom in dimmer switch gloom! 1.5 hrs last night, hoping tonight will be shorter.

my DS1 is doing the same thing - he is just 3 and sleeps in a bed. I think I will try your advice - stick a potty in his room, and take his night nappy off.

I am potty training my dd who is 2 in 2 weeks. She has taken to it really well but seems now to be really anxious not to do anything in her nappy. Not only is she taking ages to fall asleep at night and asking to do a wee/poo, but she is also waking in the night to do a wee. Is this common? I am worried that the anxiety is a sign that we have started to potty train her too early, but think it would totally confuse her to stop now. What should I do? She seems terribly young to be out of nappies at night??

Sophmum - have you tried bribery ? If she does all her pottying before her bedtime story, she gets a big sticker to wear on her pyjamas? (my dd wouldn't go for that actually, would have to take it a step further - sticker on pjs means Muddles for breakfast instead of Weetabix!).

Jojobingo; if your dd is managing it then she's old enough! Dd was 26mo. She is 29mo now and still a bit random at night so she wears cloth training pants - seems to be acceptable as they are "pants" unlike disposable training pants which she can see are "nappies"!. If she wets them I have to get up and change her but at least I don't have to change the bed. And she can get them up and down to use the potty.

If your dd is getting anxious, can you show her the waterproof sheet on her bed (you do have one don't you? ) and make a big thing of how it won't really matter if she has an accident? Or get her cloth trainers and say "try not to use them but if you do we'll just wash them"? Doesn't sound like she'll take advantage of them!

jojobingo: my ds (just turned 2) also seemed to 'train' himself at night, and when we had 2 weeks of night waking to use the loo/potty I decided that there was no point putting him in nappies anymore. Not sure why you think it is too young to be trained at night? We have had very few night time accidents, which are never treated as a big deal. Now, if he does a wee before bedtime then he can usually go through,but on waking loo has to be first! but even if he does wake up in the night it is never for more than a few mins. Hope that helps!

no idea on the other question of delaying bedtime!

Jojobingo - sounds just the same as my dd. She was dry straight away, although I still put her in a pull-up nappy at bedtime. She will do a wee in it about once a fortnight now, but I'm not planning to take her out of nappies at night for quite a while yet - knowing dd it would seem a big deal and she'd be bound to make some kind of issue out of it! She's still dragging out bedtime, not quite as bad as before, and I seem resigned to it now, at least until she's in a bed and can manage without me. I'm planning on moving her into a bed quite soon (she's just 27 mths)and I'm pregnant with no 2 so I'll need to anyway.

Fruitful -yes, I have tried bribery, no dice!