Nighttime potty training

[gormin]

DS is 4.5. He was potty trained in the daytime just before his third birthday and has rarely had any accidents, but he is nowhere near being able to sleep without a nappy.

Ever since he stopped wearing nappies in the daytime he has saved his poos for nighttime. This has made us reluctant to even try him without a nappy at night. We sit him on the toilet for a few minutes before bed every night and he gets a sticker for his chart and lots of praise every time he poos in the toilet, but he still does 80% of them in the nappy. It's actually a similar story with weeing - he'll hold it in for hours during the day and refuse to go to the toilet, but in the morning his nappies are always really wet and heavy.

What can we do about this? I feel like we're making no progress and I don't know whether to keep being patient or go cold turkey with a plastic sheet.

It is hormonal at night to stay dry. It can’t be taught or trained you usually know their ready when waking up dry, I’ve known people before to put their child in a nappy too poo to begin with if child can verbalise before becoming comfortable on toile/potty

Can he tell you when he needs a poo? So for instance, assuming you're in the UK, could you let him have a nappy on when he comes home from school and watch one show on TV in the understanding that he sits on the potty whilst he has the nappy on?

If he's saving wees, that's slightly different to not producing the right hormone to stay dry at night.

I'd give him an enormous amount of praise every time he does anything in the potty or toilet.

I'd also give him lots of yummy drinks in the morning like diluted fruit juice with sparking water or homemade milkshake with milk, banana and berries?

Thanks. Yes, he definitely knows when he needs a poo and if he's not wearing a nappy he'll always tell us in time to get him to a toilet. As I say, he never has accidents in the daytime. He's just really good at holding it in!

Drinks wise he only likes water but I'll focus on giving him plenty of that in the mornings and laying on the praise really thick when he does use the toilet...