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Encouraging drinking/ night time potty training

2 replies

LGBirmingham · 11/02/2025 11:42

Ds was day potty trained successfully about a year and a half ago. It has ruined sleep. He is now 4. Before that he would sleep through the majority of the time. Now he generally wakes every night, with sleep throughs occasionally.

He has some dry nights but they seem to be getting rarer. He had them a lot when we first trained him and used to have at least 1 a week. A month or so ago he actually had three in a row. I think we may have missed crucial windows of opportunity to get him out of nappies at night time because everyone was telling us to keep using the nappies until he's reliably dry.

I think he wakes up either with the sensation of weeing, or needing a wee and then does it in his nappy. He also is often reluctant to take off his nappy in the morning and he admitted to deliberately weeing in it the other morning right after I'd suggested taking it off.

The Internet seems to say we should be getting him to drink more during the day to expand his bladder capacity. But how to do that? We offer drinks and he refuses. He's definitely dehydrated. But what can we do to make them more enticing other than just offer squash/juice all the time which is not good for him.

Anyone had a similar situation and got any answers? Should we actually look at taking the nappies away?

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mindutopia · 11/02/2025 13:11

I think you are massively overthinking this. I don’t think there is any connection at all. It’s unfortunately (for us!) very normal for 3/4 year olds to wake during the night, even if they slept through as babies and toddlers. There is a lot developmentally going on, plus transition to preschool and school. It’s not because he needs to wee. Based on my own dc and friends, 4 is quite early to be dry at night. 5/6/7 is much more typical. I think this is probably much more about giving him some comfort and settling him back to bed.

When mine were ready to be dry at night, it was obvious they were ready and it was an easy transition, so I really wouldn’t stress about it. Just get him back to sleep so you can get back to sleep too.

LGBirmingham · 11/02/2025 16:38

You're probably right. I'm very tired though so everything feels harder right now.

I'm surprised your friend's children were all as late as you describe with being dry at night. I assumed ds was the unusual one. The Eric website suggests you need to consult a gp for a specialist referral if they're not dry at night by 5 and the majority of ds's friends were out of nappies entirely as 3 year olds. He does need a bit more sleep at night than most of his friends though, which I guess doesn't help.

Regardless of the night time dryness I do think I need to get him to drink more. He can go a whole day with only a few sips sometimes.

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