Night time training - what are the signs?

[OhHolyJesus]

DS is 2, potty trained by 20 months with Oh Crap method. Has nappy for nap and overnight. All fine except some nappies after nap time have been dry but not followed by a wee on the potty, just a huge wee at bath time. Do I really need to night time train? How do I know he's ready?
I was basically waiting for him to

1. Drop his nap (but am obviously not encouraging that!)
2. Outgrow his cot bed, therefore making it reasonable for him to learn to go at night as he can access it (honestly think it's way too early for this)
3. Turn 3

I don't want to night time train him, nor take the cot sides off but I'm afraid I'll miss my window. I know I need to lift him and due to back issues would prefer to wait until the cot sides are off. Only thought I needed to do that when he could climb out but shows no interest in that either. Tips, tricks, advice on how and when to do this please? Xx

I always thought that you don’t ‘train’ them to be dry at night. It just happens when it happens. Mine have both gone dry at night a month or two after being potty trained. But i know of other children who have been in night time pull ups at school age and beyond. So just wait for his nappies to be consistently dry in the morning.

Night time dryness is mainly physiological and comes with the production of ADH. It's not something you can train for.

Night training isn't a thing you can do. Its a combination of physical and hormonal changes which need to happen.
How long is he dry at night (is it little and often or a great wee at a certain time)? Is he ever dry all night? Will he wake up and tell you he needs a wee?

You can't teach his body be ready. If he's sleeping through and dry, you can change him to underwear, if he's having one wet nappy at a certain time each night, you can try taking him to the loo at that time for a wee and seeing if you can get into a routine.
There is no window I'm afraid. Some children are fine at night at 2, others are dry in the day at 2 and still needing special night time underwear at 6.
No training involved, no lifting involved, just time and switching him to underwear once he's dry consistently.

Like every one said, dd went dry at night all by herself. Her morning nappies were dry for a week or so then we stopped bothering. She wet the bed maybe once, probably because she woke up and forgot she wasn't wearing a nappy. You don't need to actively teach them anything. Dd was three but for some children it can be much later.

I second Igot above. There comes a point they just naturally don't have wet nappies in the morning. As long as they still have consistently more wet nappies than dry, he's not ready. I think you've done amazingly to day train him at 20 months. You won't "miss the window" to night train him. It all sounds great as it is, I wouldn't change a thing. I just took off nappies once mine had dry morning nappies consistently. I think I put pants on underneath the pyjamas for a week or so, as a transition so it felt "the same but different" and then we just did away with the pants. This was around age 3-3.5. Lots of children can be day-dry but not night-dry until 3-4 or even 4.5 I wouldn't try to force it along, he's still really young.

The cot thing, I can't advise as they're all different, but I moved mine about 2-2.5 when I saw them standing up in the cot a lot and particularly when they showed signs of trying to lift a leg as if to climb over. I think one DC was around 25-26 months when they moved to a cot bed and another was 24 months as they were definitely climbing out of the cot.

I haven’t night trained either of mine. Just waited for their nappies to be dry in the morning. DD1 was dry in the day at 2.4 and dry at night within a couple of weeks.
DD2 was dry in the day at 20 months, then dry at night about 8 months later. She’s 2.8 now. However she dropped her nap at 18 months and was in a bed at 19 months so she can take herself to the toilet at night.

20 months is good going for potty training!

I haven't night trained mine either. DS was 2.5 when he was day-dry and it naturally happened at night by 3 - I just took his nappy off after he was night-dry for a week.

DD was day-dry at 2.5 too but still wets a night nappy at nearly 5. I put it down to her being physically smaller than DS at the same age.... didn't realise it is hormonal too. I'm not pushing her as there is no point in making an issue of something she does when she's unconcious. Her nappies are slowly getting lighter so I'm just waiting to see how she goes over the summer before considering that it might be related to something else.

Totally agree with op I didn't night train mine, I was using pull ups then forgot to put them on a couple of nights and it just sort of happened. I know people who lift their children onto the toilet at night when they are asleep to wee but I don't think that helps train as they need to recognise the need to wee not get used to going at a certain time.

Thanks all for your replies, I'm so relieved. I thought it was another thing I had to decide and take action on somehow, I'm really happy to just let it happen. Phew!

Will keep the cot sides on too - have had recent pressure from DM and MIL as if I'm treating him like a baby (I don't). I don't want DS free to roam until I get him up in the morning, he's quiet happy in there chatting and singing and I can cope with my back for now.

Thanks again x

We did Oh Crap at 22mo and DD was naturally dry for nap after about a month and overnight a few months later. I think the thing for us is that she's never had a huge drink before bed, so no big bottle that she's then needed to wee. She used to BF before she went to bed but then when we stopped that, it became a few sips of water.

I'd definitely wait for him to be consistently dry during naptime so that he gets used to sleeping without a nappy - definitely don't drop the nap prematurely though! For your own sanity!! Then when he's dry during nap, see how he does overnight and think about how much he's drinking in the run up to bed.

For what it’s worth, we discovered that DS was basically dry through the night, but was waking up, then weeing into his otherwise dry nappy immediately, then hollering for us to get him up. Cot sides came off and we encouraged him to go for the potty first thing. If we’d have waited for him to be ‘dry in the morning’ we might still have been waiting!

Like SundayGirl says, there comes a point when they will try (and possibly succeed) in climbing out of a cot anyway, at which point the risk of having the sides of outweighs the risk of keeping them on, IYSWIM. But we had a stair gate which separated DS’s bedroom and the bathroom from the stairs and the rest of the house, which worked well.

Ok so this morning he had a dry overnight nappy and did a huge wee when asked before leaving the house at 9.30am. So he basically held it for 14 hours. No fluid from dinner until breakfast, apart from possibly a few sips from his sealed bottle of water he has in his cot with him. I'll monitor of course but do I just wait until this is consistently happening and tell him he doesn't need nappies anymore?

DS was not at all dry at night when I decided we needed to potty train (in fact he showed no signs of being ready at all) we had a failed attempt, then a month off and he GOT it, he has been dry at night for a couple of months but he is still wearing a pull up, mostly through to my laziness. I didn't have to do anything special at all, it just happened.

Yep wait it out a couple of weeks because he's still quite young. I waited a month with DD but I probably could've gone for it after a couple of weeks. Then we just didn't put a nappy on her after bed and told her to shout if she needed a wee- it never happened and she went in the morning.

You'll know if he's doing a wee on wake up- it will be warm when you take the nappy off. We were either getting dry nappies or a warm wee so knew that it was time.

He will need to be in a bed though, but if you know he's not ready that's totally fine.

Another dry night time nappy and a big wee when asked, he told me he needed privacy!

I'm not really ready to go full on and ditch nappies but will monitor as it might just be a fluke.

Thanks for all your responses, would love to not have to buy nappies anymore but at 26 months I can't believe that will happen for a while yet!

Believe it! I think DD was about that age when we ditched the nighttime nappies. You're well on your way!

If I were you I'd switch to pull ups at night now he's having a few dry nights, either reusable or disposable.

Yes sorry he is in biodegradable pull ups and has been for a while - just at naps time and at bedtime. Had a few leaks recently but now totally dry so it's gone the other way!