Night time potty training...

IAM4UK · April 2011

So, we are still in pull ups at night. We were waiting until Katie woke up dry several nights before letting her wear underwear to bed. I know that night time training is solely a maturity thing, but wondering if they can be trained to wake up dry?

We are having sort of an issue. It's no big deal to pee in your pull up, but Katie has recently starting pooping in her pull up. She will then go into the bathroom and try and clean herself up. It turns into a bigger mess than anything.

She replaces her pullup with a new one and goes back to bed. Needless to say her clean job isn't great and it just awful going into her room with the mess. Ugh!

We aren't sure if she is going in her sleep or waking up and just going in the pull up for shear convenience. I am thinking she is going in her sleep since she tries to clean herself after she is done.

She has a bathroom attached to her room. We put a night light in the bathroom so its not dark and scary in the middle of the night. Anything else we can do to get her to wake up and use the restroom in the middle of the night? Joe and I are at a loss.

I really don't want to have to go in a wake her up at 2am to go, but if that helps, we will do it. Any other ideas? Oh, and we limit the amount of liquid before bed, but that doesnt' help either. Ugh!

MelissaMc22 · April 2011

hmmm.... this is a tough one.

I am confused about one thing, you think she is pooping in her sleep? I have never heard of that.....not that it doesn't happen, I just haven't heard of it. Since pooping requires more "effort" I am guessing she is aware of it. Or perhaps she's just a deep sleeper? I don't know.

If you think she is aware of what she is doing that only suggestion I have is a sticker chart where she gets rewarded after X days of no accidents. But if it's a physiological issue (which many kids have) and she just isn't ready, you just gotta wait it out.

FWIW, Jack wasn't night trained until 3.5, 6 months after he was PT. He still has accidents maybe 2X a month when he sleeps so deep he can't wake up.

Goo luck!

sistrkate · April 2011

We are doing what Melissa suggested with respect to learning to stay dry at night. I let Justin pick out the stickers he wanted, and he gets to put a sticker on our calendar in the kitchen for every night he is dry. We have never gone more than 6 days in a row, so I think he's just not physically ready yet. He REALLY REALLY wants to stay dry at night, because we bought some really cool underwear that he also picked out that he gets to wear once he's dry every night.

As for your other issue, do you still have a monitor in Katie's room? Have you asked her if she is awake when she's pooping or if it's in her sleep? We still have a baby monitor in Justin's room and I have asked him to just call for us if he needs to go potty. I wonder if you could do something like that, or have her come in and wake you if she has to go or be cleaned up. I would have to think the nighttime pooping wouldn't last long. Neither one of my kids poop overnight anymore. Hopefully it won't last for Katie either.

IAM4UK · April 2011

MelissaMc22:

hmmm.... this is a tough one.

I am confused about one thing, you think she is pooping in her sleep? I have never heard of that.....not that it doesn't happen, I just haven't heard of it. Since pooping requires more "effort" I am guessing she is aware of it. Or perhaps she's just a deep sleeper? I don't know.

If you think she is aware of what she is doing that only suggestion I have is a sticker chart where she gets rewarded after X days of no accidents. But if it's a physiological issue (which many kids have) and she just isn't ready, you just gotta wait it out.

FWIW, Jack wasn't night trained until 3.5, 6 months after he was PT. He still has accidents maybe 2X a month when he sleeps so deep he can't wake up.

Goo luck!

We have asked her and she says that she is doing this while sleeping. She is a very deep sleeper. It takes awhile for her to fully wake up. I don't grasp how you can poop while sleeping, but I've heard of weirder things that people can do in their sleep.

We tell her every night before bed to come and get us or to scream for our name to come and help. She doesn't do it.

Oh well, I guess we will wait it out.

escape1st · April 2011

So she does wake up in the middle of the night and try to clean herself after she poops, right? But she says she is pooping while she is sleeping? I would encourage her to call you to help clean up and do the sticker chart thing.

I do have a friend and her son would poop in his sleep all the time, but he wouldn't wake up. She would just find it in the morning. Just FYI that it isn't unheard of! I'll ask her about the age that he gave up his nighttime poops. Stick out tongue

Good luck! Hope this is a short phase!

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