Night time potty training

[twoundertwo54321]

Any help greatly appreciated as this is my first time potty training.

Daughter is 2.5 and really cracked potty training in the day no problems now.

A week or so ago she refused a nappy at bedtime and was screaming and running off so no option really so I let her go to bed with no nappy.

She's done really well overall - probably having one accident every other night but is waking about two or three times to use her potty in the night and shouting out for us to come and empty the potty. We are exhausted as have a ten month old too who is also getting woken by this.

Any thoughts? Am I just doing this too early as clearly she can't go all night without needing a wee? Should I stop her having a drink at a certain time? What is the view on waking her to see at certain times?

I've tried bribing her with stickers if she doesn't shout out and wake us when she does her wee's on the potty tonight and have told her we now empty the potty in the morning not in the night but as a household we are so tired.

Any advice??

I think she’s doing really well. Do you go in to her and put her on the potty? You should do that twice a night at first (eg when you got to bed say 10/11 and then around 2,3 (whenever up with baby!!)). That’s better because it’s on your terms. You can then drop the later on and just move to one potty visit per night.

I would restrict liquids for 2 hours before bed, she should compensate by drinking lots in the morning.

No we haven't put her on so I will give that a go tonight and thank you for the tip about liquids I will start that properly tomorrow as she is still having a big glass of milk before bed so I need to knock that on the head. Thank you! I wasn't sure if I should just force her to have a nappy but then thought that we have done some of the hard work so seems silly to give up and I don't want to confuse her.

The ability not to need a wee is down to a specific hormone that gets our bodies to concentrate our urine overnight.

It happens when your body is ready! You can improve the chance of it developing by increasing fluid intake during the day.

Other than that it's just a case of waiting it's not uncommon for it to take until age 7/8 and obviously for a few much older.

So is it better to leave a nappy on her at night do you think or just accept lots of getting up to wee? Not sure what to do for the best!

Yes I would say go for it, it can take a while but I found going in to my dd much better. It’s great that she can get up on her own though, that took a while for dd1. Also you probably have one already but I found a proper waterproof undersheet invaluable!

Personally I'd do anything to avoid night wakings but I wouldn't want to "force" it...

I would be making a massive effort to increase the daytime fluids though.

If you’re up with a 10 month old anyway I would just go in to her then, stick her on the potty and then empty potty, that’s it then back to bed. Dd stayed asleep pretty much so it didn’t cause problems. There’s no chance I would wait til 7 or 8, most children can do it from 2 or 3 no problem in my experience and according to what I’ve read.

@schopenhauer 7/8 is not "typical" but the whole point is that I child can not control if they need to urinate during the night!!

Hormone production regulates when the urine is concentrated enough that their bladder doesn't need to be emptied!

Ok thanks everyone - plan is then lots of drinks in the morning, no drinks from 5:30, put her on potty at 11ish and again at some point towards 3am when up with the little one and hope stickers bribery stops her shouting out for me to empty her potty when she does do a wee of her own accord on the potty. Gosh children are hard work hahahahaha! I thought things got easier when they weren't a baby anymore then we did potty training lol.

2.5 is pretty young to be dry overnight. In your situation I would be putting the night nappy back on (by whatever means you can get her to agree!) and forget it until she is waking up dry relatively regularly herself. My DS is 3.5, uses the toilet fine during the day but has a pull up at night. My friends with kids the same ish age only ditched pull ups at night when the kids had been reliably dry for a couple of weeks.

Yes that's what I was worried about really that she is too young. Perhaps I shouldn't have been guided by her not wanting the nappy. Oh dear it's such a confusing one as I wanted to encourage her as she doesn't want it on but at the same time I need my sleep and so does the rest of the family!!!

I would have a look at the ERIC website as it gives lots of practical facts about toiletting. I personally would not wake her in the night. If she wakes herself then that is fine but the ideal is to sleep through and use the toilet first thing and waking her will not encourage this. The age at which children are dry at night is mainly due to genes so just go with it. Things that help are lots of drinks in the day, avoid black currant, no drinks an hour before bed. I would make any time she wakes in the night very low key and boring. Minimal lights, talking, etc