Night time potty "training" - train or wait?

[Sanne Panne]

My 3yo (3 years 3 months) is very keen to stop wearing nappies at night. She keeps telling me she wants to go without so I decided to give it a try two weeks ago. I did all the obvious things: no drinking after 6:30pm unless thirsty, a good pee at bedtime, no pyjama bottoms on in bed. I even put her on the potty half asleep at 10pm. It generally went well when she managed to actually pee at 10pm but whenever she was too sleepy to pee (or I skipped it) she would wet her bed.

Lot of laundry.

Convinced her to go back to pull ups (in a way that couldn't possibly affect her self esteem) but she complains every night. She's been potty trained at daytime for a year now so I understand she feels ready. I once read you can't really "night train" a child, that you just need to wait for some hormonal change that will make them wake when they need to pee.

What are your views and experience? Advice? Thanks!

[pebbles]

My views are you can't train for nighttimes as it's something to do with the brain sending messages and they'll do it when they're ready.

My 4 yr old boy - about a week before his 4th bday he told me that he was a big boy and didn't want to wear a nappy so we agreed that we would give it a ago but if he had a wee it wouldn't be very nice so probably best to go back to nappies which he was fine about. That was 3 months ago and fingers crossed no accidents and we don't lift him. He was just ready. If we had tried before i know it would have ended in lots of accidents as his nappy was always wet.

Good luck with your decision

[sanity girl]

My experience with my daughter - who potty trained at 2.5 years but only night "trained" when she was about 4 - was that I absolutely had to get her up for a wee when I went to bed around 11pm, otherwise she would more often than not wet the bed. We had about 5 months of that before she was ready to go all night. She did however still have milk at bedtime when we started and doesn't drink so much now, so it could be connected to that. I did get her some bambino mio training pants to start with which were helpful at catching a bit of wee the mornings she couldn't quite make it to the loo in time. And some a good waterproof mattress protector is a must! I use a hippychick fitted sheet protector as it's nice and soft and not at all plasticky.

[clrky501]

Hiya I would say now youve started ,stick with it-we went through a lot of washing but as long as you have waterproof sheet and spare bedclothes you will be ok.Our experience wasn't smooth -after an initial great start my daughter started wetting the bed repeatedly.We stopped for 2-3 weeks and then tried again and touch wood no more accidents so far.

Just to add for us lifting didnt make any difference.If you are BOTH ready I would say persevere-good luck

[Sanne Panne]

I don't even mind the laundry THAT much and she sorts herself out with dry pyjamas and a spare blanket on top of the wet stain if she does have an accident. So I'm willing to go for it if it's a matter of a month till we have one accident a month. But if we're going to have two accidents a week for the next six months (and you don't know of course) I'm less keen.

Don't know what to do, mentally she seems ready and keen but if you can't speed up physical readiness by letting her feel the bed get wet there's no point. And I'm just as happy with the nappy option so I would go pebbles' way if it wasn't for the fact that I have to convince my daughter that nappies are ok every single night!

Guess I just have to make a decision and stick with it.

[Nelson]

Definatey listen to them and if they want to not wear nappies then dont make them. My son just after three started asking not to wear nappies at night and now gets up himself to use the loo. I think if you make them feel like its a big deal for them and that its something they are in control of. Maybe introduce a star chart or some rewards for dry nights?

[Fidgetsmum]

I've never lifted my daughter. I just waited until her nappies were dry from the night for a reasonable stretch and then one day just said 'oh, I don't think we need to put you in this tonight... what do you think?' and she said 'no', and that was that. If she had started to wet, I would have asked her what her thoughts were on it (go back to nappies?). I think if they think it's their solution it's a lot easier to deal with self-esteem if they do have to go back to nappies.

I have a son now, and I have no expectations that he will be in any way similar to my daughter! I will be found lifting at night, pull ups and all sorts no doubt!

[DaisyDoo]

You are supposed to night & day train same time & once child is dry in day, take nappies off. That's what we did at 2:5 years of age for our daughter & bought a fab mattress protector same time, took her for a wee in her sleep at 11p.m. & a year & half later, we've had maximum 5 accidents. They get mixed messages if one rule for day & other for night & they have to get wet to realise..............

Good luck