Night time potty training for 2.5 year old....insists on panties

[crayfishgirl]

Hi Mamas

My daughter is 2 yrs 9 mo and has been daytime potty trained since a little before two years old.  She pretty much trained herself....we've kept a potty in the bathroom forever and she basically started using it on her own starting at ~20 months, and was fully in panties during the day by two.  Four nights ago she decided she wanted to wear panties to bed (she was in diapers).  She woke up dry the first two mornings, but she was also congested and not sleeping well so she used the potty in the night.  The third night she wet the bed and was upset (although we weren't at all), and last night she wet the bed as well but slept through until morning (even though she was wet).

I know that the whole nighttime wetting thing is biological, but my daughter is very determined and persistent, and I don't want to have potty-related battles.  Is that silly?  Do we just insist on a diaper?  Should we wake her up to potty in the night?  Is four nights insufficient to really gauge her readiness?

Any feed back welcome (if its not obvious, I'm winging it and really have no idea how to potty train a child!)!

[crunchy_mommy]

Hmm when DS switched to underwear we did it for both day & night and he just pretty much always stayed dry with no effort. He did have one accident about a month later and slept through it like your DD. We do ask him to use the potty just before bed -- the night he had the accident, he didn't use it for some reason (maybe we forgot? IDK) So I would start there, making sure she goes just before bed...

Also, sometimes he wakes up to use the potty but he can't really express it because he's all sleepy & disoriented... so I just take him to the potty whenever he wakes up (this only happens maybe once every couple of weeks). My friend does the same thing with her DD who is a bit younger (26mos) -- anytime she wakes, she takes her straight to the potty -- and she says that works really well, but she does have to take her once or twice every night. We are both co-sleeping though so I'm not sure how this would work if you're not co-sleeping, maybe put a potty right beside her bed to make it easy for her?

If she's eager, I wouldn't discourage her, and definitely give her more than 4 nights to determine whether she's ready... maybe a week or two? And I have heard some parents say something like, "When you're sleeping your body doesn't always know that you need to go, so we'll wear diapers just at night," and I guess most kids seem to understand & accept that, so that's one way you could approach it if you did want her to wear diapers.

[Peony]

DD 2 is 5 and still wearing diapers at night. she hates it but she can not control it so diapers it is. I just explain that age can not help it. If waking her up when you go to bed allows her to stay dry all night, that might be worth a shot. Other kids, like my DD2, pee multiple times a night, unknown to then.

[YayJennie]

We're in the EXACT same position right now.  My son potty trained a little bit after he turned two, and is now 2 years and 8 months old.  He started sleeping through his (2-3 hour long) afternoon naps without a diaper a few months ago, and then the other night asked to wear his underwear to bed.  We let him, and he woke up dry.  The next day, he wore the underwear to bed again, but wet himself, although he did sleep through the night.  The next day, he wore a diaper, by his own request, and then last night, he again requested to wear underwear, and woke up to pee around 2am and was dry in the morning.  I think he's emotionally/mentally ready to be in underwear at night, but physically not able to hold it that long.  So we're investing in some "big boy" diapers (cloth diapers that look like underwear, kind of like pull ups).  We'll use those for a few weeks and see how often he's actually dry, and if it works and he can stay dry overnight, then we'll switch him to regular underwear.  I don't want to have diaper battles either, it's not worth it.  But I also don't want to be cleaning up a wet bed every morning!  So a middle ground is the best thing I could think to do, and give him "underwear" that makes him feel like he's not in diapers, but keeps his bed dry if he does wet at night.  Good luck!

[crayfishgirl]

This is what we decided to do as well.  Fiona wet the bed and woke in the middle of the night again, although luckily she decided to wear three pairs of pants to bed so it didn't soil the sheets. :)

What kind of cloth pull-ups did you get?  We use fuzzibunz and I was hoping to find something similar (i.e. pocket-style), but underwear.  I found and ordered a couple of these last night, but am not sure if they'll be absorbant enough (the seller says that with a heavy doubler other mamas have found them suitable for nighttime).

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