Night training?

catycate · April 2014

DS has been potty trained since January, but his night diapers are still full (sometimes leaking out) in the morning. Is night training something I should be talking about or pushing? I was under the impression that it just happened, but a friend was shocked that he was still in diapers at night.

dmurrie · April 2014

DD is in a similar situation, although some mornings she wakes up dry now. I'm not too worried at this point. We have twins on the way, too, so we expect there may be a little regression when they appear this summer. If he's overflowing them at night, though, that was always our sign to think about moving up a size. Usually, that made matters less messy in the morning.

vlagrl29 · April 2014

DD was fully potty trained during the day at 2yrs and 3 months. She still wears pull ups at night at 3 years old. I've always heard that night training can't be taught, so we are just going with the flow so to speak.

eaglesfan700 · April 2014

DS is 6 and still wears pull-ups at night. I will bring it up at his next well visit, but from everything I have read and heard, it is just a developmental milestone that you can't/shouldn't push, it just happens when they are ready. He just sleeps so deeply he never wakes up

alli2672 · April 2014

Mine took a while to be night trained. It took DS2 about 6 months after being trained during the day. We just continued in pull-ups until then. DS1 is 5.5, and still not night trained. He didn't want to wear pull-ups anymore because his little brother didn't have to, and he found them uncomfortable, so we bought an alarm that wakes him up when he is wet.
It's been going well for him, but it's not something I would have started at 3 years old.

kcisthebombdotcom · April 2014

You're right--it's something that just happens when their bodies are ready and it's nothing you need to push. I don't know of a single kid besides ds who was night trained at your ds's age. IME it seems pretty common.

meglew · April 2014

alli2672 said:

Mine took a while to be night trained. It took DS2 about 6 months after being trained during the day. We just continued in pull-ups until then. DS1 is 5.5, and still not night trained. He didn't want to wear pull-ups anymore because his little brother didn't have to, and he found them uncomfortable, so we bought an alarm that wakes him up when he is wet.
It's been going well for him, but it's not something I would have started at 3 years old.

DD1 is not night trained either (though will have stretches every few weeks or so of dry nights) and I when I brought it up at her last pedi appt, the pedi suggested the alarm as well. It is something I am looking into, so I am glad to hear that it has worked well for your DS. She is such a heavy sleeper and just has a hard time rousing to go in the middle of the night. We has a fire alarm go off a few months ago and she slept through the entire thing. When I asked the pedi about me going in and waking and taking her to the bathroom during the night, she said that trains me and not DD b/c she still has to learn to wake herself.

notreallyirish · April 2014

DS1 was actually dry at night for a few months before he was dry during the day (which was around 3). It was a comlete fluke. I know that's not helpful, but it just shows all kids are different and it can happen without any kind of teaching or training. I wouldn't worry until 5 or 6.

penguingrrl · April 2014

Not a concern at 3. My niece is 8 and only stopped needing pull ups at night a year ago. Her mom is a ped. and also brought it up with her ped. and they were just starting to look into whether there was an issue when she finally was able to hold it at night. This is not something you can train. They tried an alarm when she was 5 but it didn't help at all. It woke her up, but only after she peed so it didn't help her body wake her in time to avoid an accident.

hokies94 · April 2014

I'm in the camp that it happens when they're ready and you can't force them earlier. DS is still in pull-ups at night at 4 1/2. He's just not ready and I'm fine with that.

By contrast, both DDs said they were ready for underwear at night around 3 1/2 or 4 and rarely had accidents.

sunnydays99 · April 2014

Everything I've heard and read has said that overnight bladder control cannot be "trained", it just happens naturally on its own.

DS was 26 months when we potty trained him. He started occasionally waking up dry around age 3 and was consistently dry in the morning since last summer when get was 3.5 ish.

I've had friends who's LOs were day & night trained right from the start and some who are still soaking through diapers at 4.5. It depends on the kids and us not something you can push, in my experience.

A couple things that helped my DS was limiting water 1/2 hour before bedtime, making sure he peed right before bed. Also, we found that he was waking in the middle of the night so we'd have him go pee then as well. Now he sleeps straight through.

Angela814 · April 2014

Same as everyone else, night time dryness isn't something you can really train.

DD1 potty trained at 2.5 years and didn't start waking up dry until she turned 6.

DD2 potty trained at 27 months and still wears a diaper to bed at 3.5 years. She'll be dry a couple nights in a row and then go back to wetting.

alli2672 · April 2014

meglew said:

alli2672 said:

Mine took a while to be night trained. It took DS2 about 6 months after being trained during the day. We just continued in pull-ups until then. DS1 is 5.5, and still not night trained. He didn't want to wear pull-ups anymore because his little brother didn't have to, and he found them uncomfortable, so we bought an alarm that wakes him up when he is wet.
It's been going well for him, but it's not something I would have started at 3 years old.

DD1 is not night trained either (though will have stretches every few weeks or so of dry nights) and I when I brought it up at her last pedi appt, the pedi suggested the alarm as well. It is something I am looking into, so I am glad to hear that it has worked well for your DS. She is such a heavy sleeper and just has a hard time rousing to go in the middle of the night. We has a fire alarm go off a few months ago and she slept through the entire thing. When I asked the pedi about me going in and waking and taking her to the bathroom during the night, she said that trains me and not DD b/c she still has to learn to wake herself.

I know that it doesn't work for everyone, but we have been using it about a month now, and he has started waking himself up at night, and been completely dry for a week now. The alarm did wake him up, and it woke me up in the other room as well

Good luck finding something that works for you!

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