Advice for managing nighttime potty training that regular mamas have found successful in our helpful series of potty training tips.
While your little one might have day training mastered, nighttime potty training can take a little (or a lot) longer, as your child’s body must learn to be alert to bladder urges while they sleep. It is not considered unusual for a child to still be bedwetting up to the age of around five years.
Today we are asking our panel of experienced mamas;
How did you go about nighttime potty training?
- J was sleep trained 2 months after day time was mastered. This was not a conscious decision, just one that came about after I forgot to put a nappy on her and she woke up dry. E was about 8 months after day trained. I started to cotton on to the fact that he was just weeing in his nappy after he woke up because it was easy to do. TW
- Around the age of 3.5 my daughter was dry for her afternoon sleeps but she still wears a pull up nappy pant at night at age five. Once we feel that she is mostly dry first time in the morning, we’ll stop the pull ups. AH
- When they are waking up dry for about 2 weeks I put them in undies. I take them for an extra “sleep wee” before I go to bed until they get the hang of it and layer extra sheets and protectors under the top sheet and mattress protector for quick changes. SH
- Once my daughter was well and truly toilet trained during the day, night time dryness naturally followed. At 2 1/2 we stopped putting a nappy on her overnight because it was almost always dry in the morning. But do be sure to remind your child to use the toilet before bed. When they are really tired and they have not been, even a child doing well with nighttime training can have an accident. CO
- The girls (twins) were not night trained until they were 5 and a half. They simply couldn’t hold enough wee in their bladder to last the night and their sphincter muscles weren’t strong enough to hold it in even if they could. We tried waking them in the middle of the night to get them to wee but Z. would never wee and it would often trigger a night terror for I., so we just had to accept that they weren’t ready. Eventually, at a time when I was really down about it all and blogged a huge whingy post, out of the blue I. asked for no night nappy and the rest is history! M. is 3yrs 4 months now and he still has a night nappy. Just between you and me, I think he’d be fine over night without it as he is often dry in the morning, or he wakes up at about 2am and asks to go to the toilet but just because he is ready doesn’t mean than I am ready to get up at 2am and take him to the toilet, or cope with the odd wet bed! So while he is happy to have a night nappy, I am happy for him to have one ‘just in case’ at least until N. is older and I am getting a bit more sleep! KF
For nighttime training, you will need;
- Nighttime nappy/diaper pants
- A waterproof sheet or mattress protector
- A good dose of patience
For the next installment of our How to Potty Train series, we’re talking about teaching kids how to wipe! Or you can head back to the beginning of the series for information regarding how to know if your child is ready to potty train.
Thanks for sharing so generously Shae (Mum to 3 girls), Tanya (Mum to a pigeon pair), Amanda (Mum to 2 girls), Kate (Mum to 4 – two of each) and Cath (Mum to 1+1).
Christie Burnett is an early childhood teacher, presenter, writer and the editor of Childhood 101. More importantly, she is a Mum who believes wholeheartedly in the value of children learning through play, the importance of quality early education, and the togetherness of family.
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