Night Time Potty Training - Morrisville,PA

I think Lee hit it on the head. This isn't a "trainable" thing. They can either hold it or not. They either wake up to pee or they don't, so what good is it doing him for you to wake him up to pee? O. less wet Pull Up? Honestly, I'd leave him in the night pull ups til he's had a week's worth of dry nights in a row. Sometimes it's not an issue of waking up when you have to pee, it's combined with bladder muscles still not being developed enough to "hold" it that long. He's still pretty young to be expecting him t hold it all night. O. other note: My son is 7 and although we have no potty "issues" he NEVER, EVER wakes up and goes to the bathroom at night. I guess he's a heavy sleeper.

The difference between day and night "training" is that during the day a child is aware of needing to void and can learn to control those muscles. At night they have no awareness and cannot control their muscles. It can take days, weeks or months for a child's bladder muscles to get strong enough to hold urine all night long. Don't worry. Your child is right on track. Keep the Pull Up on. It may take a while but eventually he will start having drier or a day night. Celebrate! Give him a treat! There will be set backs but that's ok. Do not wake him up to go. It's just upsetting to him and needless since his bladder muscles are not formed enough to last an entire night, hours and hours long. You are right to stop his drinks after dinner. Have him "double void" where you have him potty before bath, and then have him potty again as he goes down, about 30 minutes apart or so. Be patient. It will come. The time frame varied for all 5 of my children and it was all normal for children.

K. B
mom to 5 including triplets

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Your son is still really young and potty-trained pretty early for most boys. We were concerned when our 3 year-old boy hadn't potty trained by 3, and our pediatrician said that their ability to sense needing to go isn't as keen as girls at the same age. Most boys learn between 3-4.

As for nighttime, I honestly don't think you can teach him. In my opinion, having gone through it, if he's still waking with a wet pull-up, he's not ready to be in underwear yet.

Even though we want them to be done with it, if they don't have the sensitivity that they need to go, we can't really train that overnight - especially if they are heavy sleepers. Our son occasionally has to wear a pull-up because of accidents.

We have friends whose 6 year-old daughter still has to wear them (which I'm beginning to find is very common) because she's a heavy sleeper and can't recognize when she needs to go in the middle of the night.

My personal advice: be patient, it will come. He's really strides ahead of other kids at this point.

I agree with Dana. My son is turning 4 this month, and still wears a pull up for sleep. He has been totally potty trained during the day since around 3, but there are still mornings when he will wake with a wet pull up. He will not pee in the pull up if he is awake, he takes it off to pee, and if it's night time, he puts it back on. If it's day time, he will get undies and put them on. We make no issue of this. I totally believe that if it's happening in the middle of the night, he CAN'T control it, therefore, it would do no good to have him go through peeing in undies, wetting the bed, and going through that routine.

I wet the bed well into my early elementary years, and I promise you I had NO CONTROL over it. There was NO behavioral component to it. I just didn't wake when I needed to go. I wish I had had pull ups or the night "diapers" for older kids. It would have saved me a lot of embarrassment as a child. Incidentally, it did subside sometime during elementary school, so it doesn't last forever.

SOOOO, I feel strongly that you should just allow your son to develop naturally at his pace. And realize that it may be sometime before he is able to consistently wake when he has to pee. It may happen sooner for him, but just realize that if it doesn't, it doesn't necessarily mean that there is something behavioral that's going on that you can change. It may just be that he's physically not able to wake in the night when he has to pee.

Your son is way too young to be expected to stay dry all night. It is unreasonable to expect a 3yr old child to stay dry all night. You can't potty train for night-time. When your son is old enough to sense it himself while he is sleeping, it will happen naturally. Don't wake him up in the middle of the night to go potty. That is just disrupting his sleep and won't do you or him any good. Consider yourself lucky to have a 3yr old boy potty trained during the day. Be glad for that and just let the rest happen on his time schedule, not yours.

My son is 4 yr old, will be 5 in May. He has just recently gotten idea for going potty during the day. He still wears pull-ups/Goodnights at night. His pull-ups are wet every morning and sometimes, it is so bad that I have to change the sheets in the morning.