Potty Training - day then night or both at once?

[Elletine]

Hi everyone,

My lovely little boy who is 2 years and 3 months is showing signs of being ready to move from nappies to the potty.

I wanted to ask other parents how you did it? Did you “day train” first so little one is dry during the day, and leave them in nappies/ pull ups at night time until further down the line? Or did you tackle day and night training in one hit?

My little boy has a little milk before bed as part of his wind down routine (his only milk of the day) and I wonder if giving him a drink before bed is setting him up to fail...?

My mum thinks I should cut the milk at night entirely to help him but I am not sure about this.

Any advice would be very welcome.

Thank you!

Generally you stop the nappies over night when theres no wet nappies in the morning. This can be helped by cutting bedtime drinks and taking them to the toilet before you go to bed, but cant be hurried as it's to do with hormone development.

Day only

Night comes later

I found the ‘oh crap it’s potty training’ book very good

We day trained at 26m. Unexpectedly her night time nappies initially got much less wet and she was often waking in the night asking for the potty. After a few weeks once she was reliably day dry she realised she could wee in the nappy without feeling wet so started doing that instead and her nappies went back to being massive. She's nearly 3 now and still does this so I can't see her being night dry for a looong time tbh.

Just tackle daytime first. Night dryness is a different thing which depends, in part, on hormones and you can't really train them for it. Wait until they've woken up with several dry nappies in a row and then you could have a go at going nappy free over night.

@NannyR

Just tackle daytime first. Night dryness is a different thing which depends, in part, on hormones and you can't really train them for it. Wait until they've woken up with several dry nappies in a row and then you could have a go at going nappy free over night.

This.

Day time first, nighttime comes naturally a bit later.

Nighttime can be very variable as well. DD1 was dry at 6, and DD3 at 3...

Daytime would only bother persisting if it is working else wait - easy to feel like you are “behind” when potty training DC1 but there is no immediate rush

Day then night. Night happens by itself

I focussed on daytime for the first week, then week two took off the night time nappies. No accidents.

However, every kids is different. Many other kids I know were much later before they were dry through the night. You can always give it and try and see what happens.

IMO when it comes to potty training, if it’s hard work, then it’s too soon.

I potty trained my son at 22months, it took him a bit longer but by the time he was 2 he was day trained no problem without me having to prompt him.
In the last 3 weeks he's been dry and night we've taken the pull ups away. So that's 10 months after he was daytime trained. Happened by itself!

I wasn't planning to try to sort the nighttime until he was 3yrs; but I'm glad I don't have to now.

I just make sure he goes for a wee before naps/bedtime.

Also echo the Oh Crap Potty Training book!

Good luck

Day training first and I let night happen naturally (about 10 months later).

No point in losing sleep over pottys and wet sheets!

1 step at a time.

'Oh crap! Potty training' is great. Training my son was relatively painless using the advice in that book. He has been dry in the day since 2.5yo. Still needs nappies at night though and he's nearly 5.

Another fan of the oh crap method read the book - well worth it! Ds potty trained with very little fuss (on his side it does take parental effort but well worth it!) at 25 months.

hadn’t planned on doing nights but after about 3 months he kind of did it himself , stopped having wet nappies so left them off and have had 3 wet beds over last year all when he’s been bit under the weather.

He does have drink before bed so we did pop him on potty about an hour after going to sleep for quite a while.

Few accidents at nursery in day but none while with us after week 3. First few days are intense but found it a common sense and very successful method!

Have recommended to quite a few people who have also had success.

Good luck whatever you decide!

Thank you so much for the advice everyone. This has been really helpful and I’ll definitely get my hands on “oh crap” before we start! Many thanks for the replies

I'm really not sure.

We trained in the day. He has been dry during the day for nearly 3 years now, but still very wet at night time 😩

Also my youngest is dry during the day for the last 6 months, but still very much wet (and often dirty) at night.

I don't know where to go from here, but wonder if I should have trained day and night at once from the beginning

We did day first but I think I shld have gone for night time quicker. Like maybe after a week or so. At first she used to wake in the night or early morning screaming I need a pee pee. Once she realised she cld go in the nappy she kind of got used to that so didn't make the effort 🙈 We started at 26 months and she was dry during the day within 3 days.

After a gd few months she started being dry in the morning but wasn't always. After about 6months being dry in the day she was maybe wet once or twice a week so we went for it. She did have a few accidents in the night but settled very quickly.

I would do day only. A friend has just started potty training her child and is trying to do day and night together, and it involves all sorts of mad behaviour like waking her child at 3am for a wee etc. She’s stressed out of her mind with it. I would potty train for the day and wait for him to come dry at night in his own time!

IME you choose when to do day time, then night time happens when it happens. So one of my DC became dry at night at the same time as during the day but with the other two it was later.

You can't really train at night as such. If they make the right hormones, they will become dry at night once they're used to holding wees rather than just going in a nappy.
For both of mine, they naturally became dry at night within a few weeks of being dry in the day. Once we'd had 3 consecutive mornings with a dry overnight nappy, we took it away.
No need to take away the bedtime milk but perhaps bring it forward a bit and have a last wee before lights out. Likewise if you eat dinner relatively soon before bed and they normally have a big drink with it, maybe get into the habit of giving them a drink half an hour before dinner instead.

@MeadowHay

We day trained at 26m. Unexpectedly her night time nappies initially got much less wet and she was often waking in the night asking for the potty. After a few weeks once she was reliably day dry she realised she could wee in the nappy without feeling wet so started doing that instead and her nappies went back to being massive. She's nearly 3 now and still does this so I can't see her being night dry for a looong time tbh.

Put the night nappy over her knickers so that she still feels the wetness.

Daytime first, nighttime dryness followed a couple of weeks later for us but most his little mates are still in nappies at nighttime. We did "oh crap" too and it worked really well for us (some of her parenting views are a bit though)

Both my DM & DMIL said that they used to get the kids up for a wee during the night when potty training.

DS1 day was easy at 3, didn’t get dry at night but asked to stop wearing at 5.5, wet for a week then hardly any accidents after about 2 months. DS2 day took months at 3, said at 3.5 if DS1 isn’t wearing night nappies I won’t either, got it first night at 3. Saying this as plan was to wait for dry night nappies which we’ve never had in this house, but both are sorted. Definitely do day first but may not take that long for night - both have free access to water through the night.

I will say that boys can take a bit longer to get fully ready to potty train.

It's ok to try, but if you're having lots of accidents, stop and wait a while longer.

We tried my son at 2.5 and he just didn't get it. Tried again at almost 3 and it was so much easier.

DS1 was dry in the day before 3, wasn't reliably dry through the night til he was 7.5
It used to really upset him so much as he really wanted to go for sleep overs etc but was worried what his friends would think about him still being in pull ups.
My point is even when the child wants to be dry, the hormones need to be there too.

DS2 was dry through the night before 3 - I think just to annoy his brother

For us we did day first when our son was 2 years and 8 months and then night when he was just turning 5. He was in a cot until 4 so couldn't do it before then anyway but he also drinks milk before bed so I just waited until he was waking with a dry pull up to stop. We've had no accidents since stopping. He was 100% ready. So day first and night later worked for us. Imo there is no reason to rush nights - they just become ready on their own in my experience.