Night time potty training very deep sleeper

[Amy5261]

My 4 year old has been potty trained since he had just turned 2 but has been in pull ups at night that are consistently wet and he has always absolutely refused to not wear one. His little sister has now started potty training and suddenly he has made the decision that he wants to night time train.

The issue is that he is en exceptionally deep sleeper. We have taken the route of just going for it with a waterproof protector and thinking that once he had wet the bed a couple of times it would prompt him to be getting up for a wee. We have been waking him on the way up to bed and then again about 2am. Twice now he has had a wee before we have even made it to the first wake up and is such a deep sleeper that it’s not even slightly disturbed him. I just went to check on him and he had had a wee and was soo fast asleep that I physically couldn’t wake him - I changed his whole bed and his pyjamas and he barely stirred!

He had a wee literally just before getting into bed and we have limited his drinks - he has had 1 cup of water since finishing pre school at 3pm.

Any tips or ideas on what else we can be doing? Or do we need to go back to nappies and have another go in a few months?

His nearly 2 year old sister is now completely day time trained and only had 1 wee in her nappy the last few nights - she is the opposite and a very light sleeper so I think she will be night time trained in no time and he is going to be really upset if she is completely out of nappies before him!

thank you!

Being dry at night is not really something you train, it’s a (I think) hormonal thing and some children get it quicker than others (my seven year old was dry at night within weeks of potty training at just less than three, her sister is still struggling with potty training and is definitely no dry over night at 3.5). If he’s absolutely insistent he wants to be out of night time pants you could try a puppy pad type thing and no bottoms but it’s the sort of thing that happens in its own time

Can you not just wake him up at night to go?

Can you not just wake him up at night to go?

also limiting drinks doesn’t work imo. It’s a common approach but also possibility he may get dehydrated, especially in the warm weather.

He's not ready! It's hormonal and if he's a deep sleeper it might be a while. Buy him some cool pull ups and try and explain to him in a way that doesn't make it a big thing or give him a complex.

You really shouldn't be restricting drinks in this hot weather. Maybe just stick to water as I think squash does make them wee more.

Echo others. Dryness at night depends on them developing a hormone to concentrate urine overnight. The fact he is peeing so much over night shows he’s not ready. Have a chat with him and explain this, and keep him in pull ups. Once you’ve had a a few nights dry in a row he’s ready to stop the pull ups. Keep up with the last wee at bedtime etc to get him into good habits. It’s not unusual for 5/6 year olds to still not be dry at night.

It does sound like he's not ready. Ideally, night trained = can hold it in all night, not = needs to wake up several times to go. I wouldn't wake him - that's just going to create a (possibly lifetime) habit of having to get up in the middle of the night.

Our eldest boy was 6 before he started being dry through the night - no problems a couple of years on, we just kept him in the pull ups until they started being dry for a few nights in a row as were told it was hormonal. We did try to help him by lifting him through to the toilet every night at 11ish, not sure this was the best idea though.
Our youngest boy was the same as your little one, he started being dry through the night just after day training. Everyone is different.

My dd was a deep sleeper and she was in pull ups until quite old, I think 7, once she got there we never had an accident, but I don’t think there’s much you can do to speed up the process.

You can't night train.
Don't bother waking them - it's a hormones that is needed to produce less wee overnight that allows you to sleep through, and only wake if your bladder is full.
It will happen, but probably not for a bit if he is a heavy sleeper.

Restricting his drink from 3pm is really damaging, that would be the first thing you should stop doing.

My dd was dry both day and night straight away age 3. Poor ds took till puberty for the hormones to kick in, although by that point we had figured out which medications worked for him. 4 is still quite young though so by all means give it a go but if after 1 week there's no progress just go back to pull ups and tell him his body isn't ready yet.

4 is the average age to become dry at night so it’s really very normal that he isn’t yet. Big wees early on in the night suggest he isn’t producing the necessary hormone, again normal for his age, so all your your efforts are likely to produce are a tired child and a pile of washing.

To correct some PP you absolutely can night train if you have a DC that is producing the hormone and is dry most of the night on their own but just requires a few tweaks like limiting drinks or a morning rush to the toilet but big wees early on in the night and needing to go multiple times a night mean this doesn’t apply to OP’s DC. They’re just not ready yet.

Just give it time. Oh and stop limiting his drinks after 3pm. Totally counterintuitive because you want to increase bladder capacity by drinking lots in the day and also in summer the poor chap is risking dehydration. Limit just in the hour before bed.