Potty Training at Night for 3 1/2 Yr Old

I disagree with the person that said you shouldn't use diapers at night. That advice really only applies to day training. As someone else said, you can't really night train - the body is either physiologically ready, or it's not. It's not a conscious decision.

My daughter is just now night trained, and it happened at about 3.5. BUt, I actually think that was somewhat early. She went from being very wet every morning (even going through diapers) to being dry every morning in literally a few days. I think you'd be hard pressed to find a pediatrician that was concerned about a 3 year-old still being wet at night. Not to worry!

I would say don't worry about it. I envy you even! My 3 1/2 is still not interested in using the potty! I have to insist it all the time. And night time training takes a long time for most kids. My 6 year old niece still wears pull-ups at night.

Hi,

My daughter will be 7 in Sept and she is still wearing pull ups at night. I have taken her to the doctor as well and he said not to worry. I have been told by others that it will happen when it happens. My mom told me my sister wet the bed till she was 10. I hope we don't go that far.

She is a very sound sleeper. Even when I get her up in the middle of the night, she doesn't remember. I am going to read the website that someone gave you. Hope it helps us both and all others out there with the same problem.

Good luck
J.

We are going through the same thing. My little boy is 4 1/2 and continually fills his diaper (and sometimes the bed) in the middle of the night. He is completely potty trained during the day and has been since he was 2 1/2. I was told by several Mamasource moms that this is all perfectly normal. There is a particular hormone that kick in at different ages (2, 3, 4 sometimes not until 10) that enables a child to make it through the night without filling a diaper. Be patient and remember that it is not controlable by the child. For the time being, we just keep using night time pull ups.

Put a diaper on him at night and wait until he's older. When you see dry diapers consistently over a period of several weeks, try underware at night.

R.,

Sounds like he needs diapers. He is still very young.

My daughter day trained at 3 years 2 months. She just night trained at 5, but will still have an accident if she has too much liquid before bed. She can hold it, as long as there is not much to hold. She still seems to not wake up if she has to go more urgently. She also doesn't like these accidents and it was her decision to night train to begin with. I don't think it is defiance or negligence on her part. She wants to wake up to go, she just doesn't always yet. I've heard it may take until 6 or 7.

Good luck.

what I did that really seemed to help was this: I would wake myself up during the night and go wake my daughter up, take her to the bathroom and then put her back in bed. We did this everynight for a while until she got used to the idea and went on her own. She is now 5 and sleeps all night and goes after she wakes up. I kept her monitor in my room until she was 4, so if I heard her fretting or something during the night, I took that as a hint to go get her up. It worked wonders for us and I hope it will for you too!
B.

Are you actually using diapers, or pull-ups? If so, use the pull-ups that cause a cold sensation, and it could be just enough to get him up to go. make sure he is wearing loose enough jammies to get there and get the job done by himself. Whatever the bed time is, make sure you stop all liquids two hours prior, maybe a small sip if he is used to a drink before bed. It will happen, just praise the heck out of the dry times and don't make a big deal out of the accidents. Good Luck!

Hi R.,

My 4 1/2 year old son is wearing pull ups at night. He's gatting close to not wearing them. Some kids just sleep more soundly than others. My girlfriends daughter wore pullups past age 5. If you think about it, a lot of the commercials for night time pullups show older children. I wouldn't stress about it too much.

Just keep on with night time pull ups. I also invested in a plastic cover to protect the mattress. And just yesterday, I ran across an article that may explain a few things too, "Brain may ignore bladder signals, causing bed-wetting". You can read it online at the following address http://www.babycenter.com/204_brain-may-ignore-bladder-si.... Please let me know if you can't get to it from the URL I attached and I'll send it to you.

Thanks, A. H.

In my experience its really to young for a boy especially to be potty trained at night. I would boy some over nights at wait to worry until he is 5 if he is still peeing in the bed at five then ask a professional (I have 3 boys so I know this)

limit liquids 1-2 hours before bed time
make sure he potties right before he gets into bed

that might help

A. J

Hi R.. I am going through the EXACT same thing right now except my son is 5 1/2. He has been wearing pullups at night for 3 years. I kept thinking he'd outgrow the night-time wetting (since he's dry during the day) but no luck yet. My first bit of advice would be, don't wait any longer like I did. Secondly, a pediatrician friend told me to do the "normal stuff" - don't let him drink in the evening, pee before bed, etc. Then also make him understand how he's a big boy and needs to make sure he takes care of himself and his pee. Now we wake my son up after he's gone to bed, to help him get used to the sensation of being 1/2 awake and going to the potty in the toilet. It has only been 4 days but it's been pretty successful. the Pediatrician told me to wake him 45 minutes after he goes to sleep but for us he usually pees after 3-4 hours of sleep (Otherwise he just stands there but won't pee in the toilet).
Good luck!!!

I had this same problem. I just ended up keeping him diapers. My friend used a shower liner in between sheets and striped off the sheet if there was an accident. Several of my friends have found that with girls - no underwear works.

I think they are sleeping too sound to wake up and go. Maybe try not too many liquids of an evening, and I had a friend that her child couldn't have dairy products for supper or of an evening or they would wet the bed, she noticed cottage cheese and ice cream both.

I wish I had a great answer for you... my now 5 year old is still wearing pull ups at night. He just doesn't know when he pees during the night. My pedi says it is neurological and he will get there on his own time frame. When his brain is able to send a signal to him that he has to pee, he will know to get up to do it, but right now he is not neurologically ready. He constantly reassures me that this is no big deal. Sometimes I still get really worked up over it, so would be interested if anyone has any great ideas.

Hi R.,

When my son was about the same age he had the same issue. The last thing for him to figure out was how to avoid wetting the bed. We limited his water intake & tried to have him pee before bed, etc. He still woke up wet. Fortunately, we were able to figure out that he was wetting about the same time every night because he woke up & cried.

Once we knew that at about 11 pm he'd have an accident, we'd go wake him up at around 10:30 pm and take the sleepy guy to the potty, talking to him, turning lights on & trying to get him to wake up enough to participate. We did this for about a month or so and his body clock just set itself to wake up automatically at 10:30. After that, he had very few accidents. He'd wake up on his own around 10:30 every night and call us to help him go potty. He did that until about 4 years old and then was ready to be completely independent.

If you don't know when he's having accidents, you might try checking him 2-3 hours after you put him down like just before you & hubby go to bed (so that his bladder has time to fill up again). If you can catch him long enough after bed time when he's still dry but needs to go again then you can take him potty at the same time every night.

B.

we are just now starting to night train our 4 1/2 yr old who has been day trained for a while now. we stop liquids and food at 8 pm, take him potty right before bedtime, and hope for the best. in this past week (the first week of it) he's stayed dry half the time and peed the other half. but he's only pooped in his pants once. previously he'd wake up most mornings soaked and poopie in his pullup. so needless to say, we're impressed enough to keep going. he's ready and hopefully your son is too! this is the last kid of 4 kids that i have helped potty train and i'm sick of it! LOL

I have always been told that you should never put them in diapers or pull up after you start potty training. I would keep him in his underwear at night and just get up once during the night to take him to the potty. Hopefully after a couple of weeks of this he will start going on his own. Make sure to stop all liquids two hours before bedtime. I would also call you doctor he might have an inmature bladder I think there is medication they can give him for that.

He is still very young, I would just use pull-ups for a few years. But my daughter went thru the Hargitt House bedwetting program, and they told her to not have dairy after 6:00. No pizza, ranch dressing, and of course milk. It worked for her. The dairy causes you to sleep more soundly. Some truth to the old 'warm milk before bed' routine! Good luck. J.

No, you shouldn't give up. You probably should take him to a urologist, he may have a medical problem. My son did and the doctors had to open up his urethra. He continued to have problems until he was older. We just put pull-ups on him at night. He wore underware during the day. He is all grown up and in the Navy. Your child will grow out of this as with alot of other things. Good luck!

Keep the diapers at night if he's still waking up wet. You can't "train" someone if they're dead asleep. You also don't want ot mess up his sleep by waking him to go potty. It's not going to help and will only drive you crazy.

The ability to sleep the entire night without wetting has to do with the body's release of a particular hormone. For some kids it kicks in sooner than others. Most peds don't consider it a problem until the child is about 6 or so. Keep him in the pull ups or diapers and, if you notice he goes for several weeks without wetting, then you might try going without them.

Good luck!!

hi! i had the same issues w/my son when he was three...even still at four 1/2 we have to make sure he goes before bedtime! anyhow, i started taking him in his sleep when i went to bed at 11pm or so...if he was wet the next morning i set my alarm and took him later in the night! SO not easy for a sleep deprived mama, but, SO worth it b/c the wet sheets really got old! also, i didn't wake him up when i took him...just carried him to the bathroom and whispered the whole way "hi, we have to go potty so we don't have an accident...here we are at the toilet...go ahead go potty...aim down...etc" he literally went RIGHT back to sleep after he would go to the bathroom...he'd go then fall back into my arms!

Hi R.,

Have you tried getting up throughout the night to take him to the potty. It may require you setting your alarm clock but once he gets use to it may begin to get up on his own.

If you yourself gets up in the night to urinate, you might try and get your child up as well. That's what I did with my child...

This might sound kinda silly. My mom potty trained me at 16 months for no diappers during the day or night. Now that my son is day potty trained I am going to try this same method. She said she put my hands in warm water...yeah like the old slumber party tricks, and after a few minutes she would wake me up and say lets go potty. She said after about a week I woke myself up to go potty.

My son did this too until he was about 5 1/2yrs old. He out grew it all on his own. But as a child myself I wet the bed until I was 8 or 9 yrs. old. My mother took me to the doctor and found out that I was a very heavy sleeper and couldn't wake up. She was able to find a company that made a bed wetting machine. You slept over it and if you wet the bed an alarm went off. Then your parent would have to wake you up and you had to go wash your face with very cold water and then try to use the potty. Even if you didn't have to go. You would then have to change the machine and go back to bed. I was broke in less than 4 months. It trained me to wake up. I'm sure you could find something like this on the internet if he doesn't out grow this. Good Luck!

I would wait until his body lets him know that he needs to use the bathroom. you might try limiting his liquid intake 1-2 hours before bedtime. stock up on pull-ups for now.

We would let our little guy fall asleep in underwear and explain prior to going to bed that we didn't want to "have an accident" during the night, so to be sure to get up and wake mommy or daddy if you need to go to the bathroom at night. We left a nightlight on as well, so he wouldn't be afraid to get up in the dark to go to the potty.

Also, after he fell asleep, we would put a Nighttime Pull Up on over the underwear "just in case", until he was completely potty trained through the night.

We also bought a magnetic "responsibility chart" at Barnes & Noble, which has several "responsibilities" for children (i.e.: brush teeth, get dressed, pick up toys, etc.). In addition to the pre-made responsibility pieces, there are blank ones for you to fill in your own responsibilities-- we made one for "dry pullup/underwear" and put a smiley face next to each responsiblity that is fulfilled each day. (The chart comes with magnetic multi-color smiley faces as well!) He really loves adding the smiley faces as he accomplishes his daily responsibiilties!

My oldest didn't stop wearing pull-ups at night until she was about 3.5. I don't think this is anything to be concerned about, kids will be ready to "hold it" all night when they're ready. I agree with the previous responses that there is no "training" at night. A child's bladder is very small compared to us adults and depending on the amount of liquid they have had in a day it can be difficult to contain at it a night. The pull-ups definitely helped my little girl sleep better and feel less guilty or ashamed if she wet at night.