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Potty training

Is your child ready for potty training at nursery? Here's the place for all your toilet training questions.

Nightime training

19 replies

Jannt86 · 26/05/2021 00:43

Dd age 3 has been day trained for a year. The one advice I didn't take from oh crap was to night train at the same time and wake her overnight as advised. According to the ERIC website this can mean that they don't actually train themselves to manage all night. It's mostly a hormonal thing overnight right? So they'll just do it when they do it? I'm asking because dd is seeming to want to stay dry overnight and being very cautious about weeing before bed etc but she still wakes with a wet nappy. I leave her potty by her bed but she either chooses not to use it or doesn't wake to use it. Would people advise wake her overnight to help? Or just do as I'm doing and she'll crack it on her own eventually? I'm really in no rush for night training. It only really becomes important when they do sleepovers etc surely...

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Fitforforty · 27/05/2021 16:40

Night dryness is based on hormone production which can take up to the age of 7 years old. Wake them during the night to wee just teaches that it’s OK to wee when sleepy.

YukoandHiro · 27/05/2021 16:41

Same here, 4 in august and still has a heavy nappy every morning. I haven't tried a lifting method at all.
I did hope she'd be done before school in September but I think it's unlikely

EmmaJR1 · 27/05/2021 16:47

I have a just 4 yo and an almost 3 yo both have heavy nappies in the morning.

I'm not worrying about it yet. Everything I've read says it basically can't be helped yet.

I'm definitely not waking sleeping children in the night!

WoolieLiberal · 13/07/2021 14:19

I wouldn’t worry at all. 3 is still in the realms of “perfectly normal” to need nappies at night, and this was even the case 30+ years ago.

Just in case it works, however…

Posted on an earlier thread about this topic: My story and advice in full:

Could it be black current juice or other cordials with artificial sweeteners that is causing it?

I was a Ribena junkie as a kid and my parents never made the connection between blackcurrent juice/ cordials and my late bed wetting.

They were not cruel about it in any way and bought specialist “child size” night nappies from the Chemist for me to wear to bed so as to avoid soaked sheets (there were no Pull-Ups or DryNites then).

We had occasional periods of “trying without” but I always wet my bed when this happened. I wore nappies to bed far older than your child is now.

Fast forward to being Mum, and both DD’s had the same issue as me and I just assumed that they had inherited my bladder issues.

I didn’t want to stress either of them out and they both wore DryNites without getting embarrassed or upset (the fact that they go up to age 15 and say so on the pack helped, I think!)

Then a friend told me about blackcurrent juice and how it irritates the bladder causing it to empty by reflex and how other cordials and “juice drinks” with artificial sweeteners have the same effect.

We experimented, initially for just a week, with just water and milk.

It was like a miracle cure. Almost overnight the bed wetting stopped and after a few nights of dry DryNites we donated the remaining supplies to the food bank.

We added fresh fruit juices back into the mix as an experiment a few weeks later and that didn’t cause any problems but neither have cordials any more, and neither has wet the bed since.

My eldest was eleven at the time and had never been dry.

We had already done the whole experimenting without the DryNites for a few nights, cutting out fluids after 6pm, even the alarm thing (which we ditched after less than a week because it woke us all up) and GP hadn’t identified any issues. Both are NT, no disabilities or anything like that.

So if he has cordials (blackcurrent juiced and Fruit Shoots are the worst) try going to just water and milk for a week and see if it becomes your miracle cure too.

I wish my parents had known this as they would have saved hundreds of pounds on night nappies if they had stopped me having Ribena and had I tried this earlier I might have also saved hundreds on Pull-Ups and later DryNites!

I’ve posted this on other posts here because I’m a bit of an evangelist- it was like a miracle cure for mine and I hope it is for yours too.

Good luck

Soubriquet · 13/07/2021 14:24

My 8 year old was fully dry at night by the time she turned 4 and has never had an accident

My 6 year old has only recently stopped using night time pull ups. He still has the odd accident (though touch wood hasn’t happened for a while).

It’s normal. Keep letting them wear pull ups at night and watch to see when they have dry nights before removing the pull up

BettyOBarley · 13/07/2021 14:30

My nearly 5 year old DS is still in pull ups and they are still absolutely full to the brim on a morning.
In fact it seems to be getting worse and his pull ups are leaking almost every night, it's becoming a real pain tbh. He does absolutely massive wees though!!
DD was dry at night as soon she potty trained at 2 so I just expected the same experience, but I can't see him being dry for a long time at this rate.
He never ever wakes for a wee in the night.

TheGriffle · 13/07/2021 14:31

Dd1 was dry at night from when we first potty trained her at 3. Dd2 who is 4yrs 4mnths wakes up with a full nappy every night still. She will get there, it happens when it happens and only becomes an issue to sort when they’re about 7 or 8 I think.

Opalfeet · 16/07/2021 23:34

Don't teach it, they'll do it when ready. It fooqed very shortly after daytime training for us,.it was mainly because he decided he wanted to stay dry at night. Initially this was quite hard work as he'd wake me in the middle.of the night to go on the potty. Gradually he was able to go the whole night

Lazypuppy · 16/07/2021 23:38

I followed oh crap and did away with nappies. I used to lift dd about 2hours after bedtime, then she could make the rest of the night, now i don't need to. Some nights she has anaccident, others fine.

I think the nappies confuse kids, they know they are allowed to wee in them so why would they wake up?

dementedpixie · 16/07/2021 23:41

That makes no sense. If they are asleep then they are not making a conscious decision to pee the bed

Opalfeet · 16/07/2021 23:44

@Lazypuppy that wasn't our exoerience
Our little one went to bed in a pull up and didn't want to see in it. Lifting didn't work because he would start weeing with an erection (happens during REM sleep) and wee would go everywhere. Eventually we stopped and then he'd end up waking us up. I read that lifting doesn't teach them to hold it anyway 🤷‍♀️

Lazypuppy · 16/07/2021 23:49

Of course lifting doesn't teach them to hold on, but sane as during the dd is able to go longer and lingee between wees, same tgeory at night time, didn't take long fir her to go from 7 hours to 10hours.

And its unconscious, if they know they are going to sleep wearing a nappy, then unconsciously they know they dont have to wake up

rubbletrouble · 17/07/2021 00:00

There's only a very small percentage of children who are effected by being dry at night for a medical condition.

I agree nappies confuse children. We found the book OH Crap amazing.

rubbletrouble · 17/07/2021 00:02

Also it's not about them needing to hold there wee for 12 hours, our DS gets up has a wee and goes back to bed, Just as most adults do through the night.

dementedpixie · 17/07/2021 00:15

They need to produce a hormone that reduces urine production overnight plus be able to wake up with the sensation of a full bladder. Some children get there faster than others

Opalfeet · 17/07/2021 11:31

@rubbletrouble speak for yourself. Everyone is different. I hated o crap we trained in pull ups and we took them off when our little boy was pretty much dry. He's been dry since, no stress. Each to their own. Please don't talk like yours is the only way. The o crap method of training at night is pretty laboursome and painful from what I've read and may not suit all parents/children

Jannt86 · 17/07/2021 13:58

Yeh I have to say the night training is the only advice I didn't take from oh crap. I have decided like above that she'll just be ready when she's ready really. All my nieces and nephew were quite late night training but just 'got it' on their own eventually.

OP posts:
dementedpixie · 17/07/2021 14:31

I waited until mine had a good run of dry morning nappies before I took them away. Couldn't be bothered with all the bedding washing if I did it too soon

finova · 15/08/2021 12:46

All 3 of mine were night trained within 2 weeks of beginning day training. I day trained around 3 though.
In 2/3 they objected to pull ups (nappies) being put on at bedtime. I went with it as my theory was they were very aware/focused on potty training. I didn’t want their subconscious to be aware they had a nappy.
I do wonder if ultra absorbent nappies don’t help night training.

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