Night Time Potty Training

Potty Training! Oh, the fun. ;) I'm certainly not an expert when it comes to potty training, since I've only potty trained one child thus far, but I'd like to share a little tip that helped us with night time potty training.

I didn't have any special deadlines for night time potty training. I have never limited my childrens' water intake at bedtime, simply because water is so beneficial, and I couldn't stand the thought of my child being thirsty at night and unable to get a drink! I would much rather change a wet diaper in the morning than to have my child wake up semi-dehydrated. I know, I know, the "experts" say to limit bedtime fluid intake. I tell my children to take a drink of water before bed. And I often give them sips of water during the night, whenever they wake. Health is always more important than potty training. :)

All that to say that I expected it would take a long time for my two-year-old son to stay dry all night. Others moms who had potty-training experience told me to just keep using diapers (I use cloth, by the way, so he could feel it when he was wet) until he started waking up dry every morning.

Well, the magic "waking up dry" in the morning "happened" a couple times, but after awhile, I realized that the times when my son stayed dry all night were the nights when I had taken him potty at least once during the night. Since I had a new baby at the time, I was up frequently during the night, anyway.

I decided to start taking my son potty every night, whether or not he woke on his own. By this time, he was 32 months old, and had been day-potty-trained for 3 months.

Taking him potty during the night worked! He immediately started staying dry all night every night, by going potty right before bed, at least once (more often if he woke up crying) during the night, and first thing in the morning.

Taking him potty during the night was much nicer than changing a wet diaper in the morning. And after a couple months with NO accidents, we replaced the diaper with underwear at night. That works for me [1]!!

After a couple of wet beds just recently, I started making him wear a diaper again, but he hasn't had any accidents for several weeks now, so we'll see when I feel brave enough to risk the extra laundry! ;)

Disclaimer: I am no expert in this field and cannot make any guarantees that your child will respond to this method of night time potty training. ;)