Hi all! My question is how do you night train?? Mason has been day trained for awhile now, but he has never woken up dry. I do the typical things like eliminating drinks after 6pm and making him go potty before bed, but he is wet every morning when wakes up.
Mason has also struggled with going poop in the toilet...he had years of problems with constipation but now that seems to be better...so somehow he has regulated himself to go at night, after I put the pull-up on him for bedtime. I always make him sit on the toilet to go, but he never does.
So the other day we decided to put him to bed in his underwear--just to see what would happen. We talked to him a lot about going poopy and potty in the toilet. even though he might be sleeping, he can wake up and get Mommy and still go. I printed up some pictures of the toilet and hung them by his bed, thought maybe that could be a visual reminder if he would wake up in the night. Bought the mattress protector and went for it...the first night he didn't go poop, but did wet the bed...I even woke him up around midnight when I was going to bed to see if he would go potty...he went into the bathroom, but didn't go. Second night he actually went poop on the toilet before bed, but still wet the bed that night...third and fourth night went the same as the second. So I have seemed to got the poopy thing down for him, but he still wets everynight.
So now I don't want to go back to pull-ups bcuz I don't want him to start pooping in them again. Is there anything I can do to get him to stop wetting too? I have thought about changing him into a pull-up after he falls asleep, but I'm not sure how he would respond to waking up with one on. But I don't think he has the bladder control for overnight. Also, he doesn't seem to respond to the wetness, bcuz twice now he woke up before me in the morning and went downstairs with wet clothes and didn't come get me!! The other times, luckily, I woke up before him.
Is there such a thing as nighttime potty training, or is this something he will just eventually learn...should I be pushing this or am I just making more work for myself? Thanks all for the help!!
edited: oh yeah...I did promise him a surprise each night if he woke up dry.
My night-owl husband kept getting DS up as late as possible (the middle of his sleep period) to pee. It helped.
So does a LOT OF PRAISE, for staying dry! I did a lot of laundering of sheets. for many months. We kept it as low-key as we could, and as positive. It just takes patience. I DO think much of it for boys is hormonal and they mature into it.
I have the same problem here (wetting at least!) and am looking forward to the responses. We took away the cup of water in his room at night - hasn't helped much. He is occasionally getting up to go pee in the middle of the night by himself, but it still isn't working.
I may print a picture of a toilet and put it near his bed (anyone know how to make a glow-in-the-dark one?
We have had dry nights - but none since we first told him we were moving (back in March) and we have been here for about 2 1/2 months now. I didn't want to push it, but I'm starting to feel that 6 is getting old for this - especially since he was day-trained before he was 4. And, he HAS had dry nights so we know it's not something physiological.
I am getting to that point where underwear will probably have to happen soon. Sigh. I got to that point in daytime potty training and he was trained within a week - not holding my breath on this one though!
For kids who are otherwise using the toilet reliably, I think that the nighttime thing is more or less maturity related and I'm not sure there's much you can do about it except wait until they are read (ready, meaning that they will wake up when they have to go!).
We had a fairly easy time with this, knock on wood - the girls night trained within a few weeks of day training. We promised them lots of rewards and such if they managed to say dry all night, and for whatever reason, they did without any problems. So I really don't have much advice, but perhaps some consolation. Many NT kids have this problem, too. My seven year old nephew and a just-turned-five year old NT acquaintence of the family both still sleep in overnights. Some kids just take a long time to mature out of this phase. I think 6 is still within the normal range for kids having overnight incontinence, though I could be wrong - at least, the parents of the NT kids I'm speaking of don't seem to be overly concerned about it.
I typically go to bed at midnight. For a while, before I would go to bed, I would wake C up, march him into the bathroom, and make him go. That helped ALOT. Like you we had already limited drinks in the evening, made him go before bed, etc. Luckily in our case, the boys have their own bathroom off of their room, and C is a great sleeper and goes right back to bed after potty and is back asleep in 30 seconds. So this wasn't a big drama to do. After a while we stopped this, and now he gets up on his own to go at night if he has to. He still has the occasional accident, usually if he's been around my mother who gives him a drink whenever he asks, regardless of the time.
I just know that ds does on some level WANT to be dry at night - he is SO proud of himself when he is. Right now, I would just settle for ONE dry night so that he could remember that proud feeling - I think that would encourage him tremendously!
This has become exacerbated recently as our just-turned 3 year old is now dry at night. It is hard balancing praising her for being dry and for not doing it SO much as to make ds feel bad. The other morning, dd rushed up to ds and said, "DS, I was DRY!" During daytime potty training for her, ds was very encouraging of her and would always say something like, "GREAT! Good job, dd!" But that morning he said a forlorn, "Good job, dd" and walked away. I know he felt bad.
We are trying to be positive about this and not guilt him into it (I am Catholic and guilt often comes second-nature - so I'm trying to push that instinct down!). And also trying to make him feel good about small successes - like if he was a lot drier than the previous night.
Anyway, I'm sure it will happen. I think dh was late in both potty training and night-time. But he had some physical issues (surgeries) that made that worse as well. I was trained day and night by 2 1/2 my parents tell me (repeatedly, I might add - there goes that Catholic guilt again!).
I just gotta get up my nerve to do underwear. Keep talking me into it people - please!
The absolute best thing we did was ... my husband (who I usually complain buys in excess!) buy 2 - 3 waterproof mattress pads and sheet sets and comforters. And resign yourself to LAUNDERING. And do it without complaint (or at least in front of the kid).
It IS a pain to store all the extra linens.
In that situation, I say give it a few weeks and give up if you have no success. This will only be a pain to you and will probably make your son feel bad. If he has had no dry nights, I would also suggest you take him in to rule out physiological issues. Our ped said that since ds has had dry nights (several in a row at one point) that they could rule out physiological problems). He may not physically be ready yet - but he doesn't have any physical conditions that prevent him from being dry.
Just my thoughts...
I guess I was spoiled in the fact that I never had to night train my other kids...it just came with day training and if memory serves me right within a week I was putting all my other kids to bed without pull-ups! But they had those very consistent nights of not wetting.
Mason on the other hand has never had a dry night...NEVER. So maybe that is the sign that he is just not ready. Especially since he is waking up wet and not caring!! I think I am going to keep trying for at least another week and see if we can't get at least one dry night...if not I might do the sneaking in and putting a pull-up on him after he is sleeping. It has seemed to help with the pooping issue, so I don't want to regress in that area!! It's just so hard to keep up with laundry for 6 ppl the way it is, and now having to do an extra load of blankets everyday...UGH!! Maybe I'm just being lazy...do you think I should just keep going until it happens, since I have started the process, or is there a point where I say he isn't ready and try again in the future?
Thanks snoopywoman...I will keep going for at least a few weeks.
We have an evaluation coming up on Aug 15 with the neuropsych...so I will talk to her about this too and see what she says/recommends!
Thanks for all the help everyone!! And good luck to all of you still working on this!!