Night training | Imamother

amother

Mon, Sep 27 2021, 12:42 pm

My 4- and 3-year-old are not night trained. I don't know how to start. We've tried, but it doesn't work. (I know 3 might be young, but I thought 4 was normal?)

If they have an accident at night, do you wash them and change their linen in the morning? I'm out by 7 AM and don't have time for that, and my husband is on a tight schedule. I don't know what to do.

I don't like putting them in pull-ups at night, because what I found when I did was that they would save up during the day and then go #2 at night. It's really hard to clean up when it's in a pull-up.

Suggestions? What do you do to keep your kids and their beds clean during the night training process?

miami85

Mon, Sep 27 2021, 1:00 pm

I have found that night-training is linked more to hormones than knowing what to do. Our bodies have hormones that relax the bladder muscles and that's why as adults we usually don't just pee in our sleep but babies do. And it's also that hormone that wakes us up if we really need to go. So until those hormones kick in, it's very difficult to "train" kids to not pee at night. This can happen up until the age of 7 and be considered normal.

However, there are some mitigation strategies to help in the meantime

1)Limiting liquids
2)Make some sort of contingency of them going before bed--like a sticker-prize chart, or no bedtime story until bathroom before bed etc.
3)We would put the pull-up on top of the underwear so that in case they do make a mistake, only the underwear gets wet and they feel the dampness of the underwear.
4)get mattress protectors.

I had a child who took a while to toilet train even until after 4 years old, but he's been dry at night since before 6 years old (I don't remember).

bsy

Mon, Sep 27 2021, 3:31 pm

I dont bother. It wasnt working. Went back to pull ups. At 4.5 she just started staying dry. with my 3 year old, we use diapers at night and will stop when its dry for a few nights, whether in 3 months or 2 years

amother

Mon, Sep 27 2021, 4:05 pm

bsy wrote:

Okay, fair enough. I think that's what we'll do.

amother

Maize

Mon, Sep 27 2021, 4:08 pm

In my experience, you can't night train. It has to happen on it's own. When my kids are dry afew nights in a row, I take off the diaper. I don't use pull ups. So far, my kids started being dry at night between 4-5.