Night time toilet training can be a difficult time for little ones and their parents, but it doesn’t need to be a stressful thing. Read below to see my tips and what advice our online community had to offer one mum seeking some toilet training tips.
Letting go of the security of wearing nappies at night can be daunting for your child. They could be anxious about wetting the bed, or afraid of walking through a darkened house to go to the toilet. Whenever you start night time toilet training, remember to have a relaxed and positive attitude, encourage your child and offer support at every corner, because each child is different. While some take to it like a duck to water, others will take a lot longer and deal with many frustrations.
NIGHT TIME TOILET TRAINING
My twins had very uncanny similarities while growing up. They got their first tooth together, with both teeth showing up on the same day (oh those cheeky little grins with that first little tooth, I remember it like it was yesterday, not 17 years ago). They also started walking on the same day and toilet trained together in the same short period, so they had each other to depend on, which I think actually made it easier for me. My youngest child, on the other hand, had a completely different toilet training experience compared to the twins. This showed me that every child is truly different. We used a lot of encouragement in my household during night time toilet training. My biggest tip for you is to never compare your child’s experience and troubles to another, as they will all eventually get there in good time. Here are my are other top tips.
MY TOPS TIPS FOR DRY NIGHT TOILET TRAINING
1. MAKE SURE THEY ARE READY – If you try to night-time toilet train before your child is ready then it will be a frustrating and upsetting process for both them and you! Signs that they might be ready are, they are confident with their day time toileting. They are waking up with a dry nappy, or are wanting to go to the toilet during the night.
2. CREATE A ROUTINE – Create a routine that they can follow every day. Evening – clean bedroom, brush teeth, go to the toilet, read a book in bed, lights out. Morning – go to the toilet, eat breakfast, brush teeth etc….. I have personalised routine charts available to order that can include toilet time to help with night time potty training. I find a chart is a great reminder for children to help remember what they have to do each day.
ORDER HERE: Personalised Routine Charts
3. MAKE IT EASIER FOR YOURSELF – Back in my day (lol, all those 16 years ago, my kids trained at 2 years old) I had 3 sets of sheets and waterproof mattress protectors for each of the kid’s beds. But, I used to have to pull the sheets off the bed and replace the protector and sheet, which was a big process in the middle of the night when you’re tired.
I did a little hack for my youngest daughter, I went to Spotlight and got a plastic tablecloth with the fabric backing, the ones you find on the roll. I got 2m of it and cut into 2 pieces. I laid one of them over the area where she slept (above the bottom sheet) and topped it with a big soft beach towel. This was my makeshift ‘I don’t have to strip the whole bed protector’!! So if she happened to wet the bed during the night all I had to do was pull them both off the bed and put on the 2nd one I had with another beach towel. This saved lots of washing too! The next day all I had to do was wash the beach towel and I wiped down the tablecloth with disinfectant and hung it on the line to get sunshine. I thought I was so clever!!
But now there is a new product that has been released since my kids were toilet training and boy do I wish I had something available like these Brolley sheets in my time, which would have meant no more changing wet sheets in the middle of the night!
Brolley sheets are waterproof sheets that go on your child’s bed overtop of the sheets and when there is an accident, you just take off the brolley sheet, and the bedding underneath is fine. They protect the bed, stopping liquid from entering the sheets and mattress. The brolley sheets come in a range of different patterns and styles and make dealing with any night time accidents so much easier! And because I think the concept is that brilliant we now stock them in my online shop, Organised HQ!
PURCHASE ONLINE HERE: Brolley Sheets
4. LIMIT DRINKS – We limited drinks between dinner and bed, less fluid in their bladder. I struggled initially with this concept, thinking I was depriving them of water, but they were fine and it actually helped and made the training process easier.
5. USE NIGHT LIGHTS – If your child is a little bit scared of the dark, or uncertain about walking from their bedroom to the bathroom, then a little night light in the hallway might help them. You can buy inexpensive ones from department stores and Bunnings that plug into power points and sense movement and turn on.
POTTY TRAINING CHARTS
Something else that helped my kids were my Potty Training Charts (I made them especially for the kids). The reward system helped them to get excited about actually going potty, and it also helped them to remember simple things like going to the toilet before they went to bed to help avoid night time accidents. Encouragement is the best form of achievement when it comes to night time potty training, so remember to always encourage them and not be hard on them when an accident happens.
DOWNLOAD HERE: Potty Training Chart
DRY NIGHT TOILET TRAINING TIPS FROM OUR COMMUNITY
I asked my online community what their advice was when it comes to night time training and here’s what some of our readers had to say. I hope you find some of these tips helpful for you and your little one:
Melanie – We battled with a bed-wetter and a really great tip from an enuresis nurse was to get our young fella to drink cupfuls of water at a time rather than sips from a water bottle during the day. This allowed the bladder to be full and trained his brain to be triggered on a full bladder rather than a small amount in his bladder. This made a huge difference and he was able to ‘hold on’ for much longer. (Hope this makes sense) But in general, toilet before bed and be prepared to persevere. Our 3 other children simply just stopped wetting through the night between the ages of 2 and 3. Good luck!
Lisa Maree – Limit drinks an hour before bed, wee before bed, wear pull ups to bed and straight to toilet when they wake. You can’t really ‘train’ night time dry so don’t set yourselves up to fail. If not night dry by 5/6yrs then chat with Dr but I think it’s 7 before it’s not considered an issue… night dry is dependant on a brain chemical, give your child tools and good habits but don’t stress about it.
Narelle – Don’t stress! I had 3 who were dry at night pretty much from the time they were ‘dry’ in the day but one who was dry in the day at 2 1/2 but not at night until almost six. Just use ‘Pull Ups’ & again, don’t stress, especially not before 6 or 7 years of age. My experience was that it happened when their body was ‘ready’ & not before, even when there were encouragements & ‘incentives’.
Manda – Time and patience. It is that simple. Limiting and waking is not the right way.
Jodie – I was once told by a doctor that there is no such thing as toilet training, it is toilet timing. It will happen when their individual bodies are ready!
Lisa – Toilet before bed and then a pull-up. Don’t try, he’ll get it when he’s ready.
Nakita – Take the little one to the toilet before she goes to bed. Stop any water intake an hour or 2 before bed
take her to the toilet BEFORE you go to bed. Depending on how old they are, I wake them through the night once to go.
As soon as you get up, take them to the toilet. Pull-ups are great as well. Also, reward and praise go a long way.
Kylie – As a doctor said to my husband when we were worried about our child not having dry nights… do you ever hear about a teenager/adult consistently wetting the bed? No, we all stop wetting the bed at one stage or other. Don’t stress – it will happen eventually. Pull-ups were used until it did.
Sarah – I found ( and this was a while ago as my youngest is `13 now) that with toilet training, I allowed them to call the shots. So I waited until summertime. and let them wear “Big kid” underwear, and just replaced it as they wet. It wasn’t long until they stopped as they didn’t like being wet. Of a night time, I would put them in pull-ups overnight ( when you have 3 kids you don’t have time to be washing bedding daily!) and just as I was going to bed I would go into the child and carry them to the loo and put them on the toilet while half asleep. This allowed them to develop a routine of waking up enough to recognise the need for the toilet. As little ones, they don’t know what that need is, so this just helps kickstart that.
Caroline – Someone suggested making the bed twice. So I do a set of sheets, then a double size waterproof mattress protector before the next set. So easy to just take off during the night without re-making the bed! My 3yo is often dry but my 5yo is usually wet by 10 pm. His body is just not ready yet.
Megan – Get the little one up and put them on the toilet a few hours after they’ve gone to bed before you go to bed yourself. I was horrified at even the thought of this when my little chap was learning, but it was actually extremely effective. From memory, we only ever had a couple of overnight accidents.
Kellie – Brolley sheets! Best invention ever! And also making the child use the bathroom before bed.
Jo – I had a waterproof mattress protector and towels under their sheets. Pull-ups were good too. They were re-used for the next night if they were dry. I used a little chart. They would get a star for every dry night. They would get a ‘treat’ after say 5 dry nights in a row. Then I would extend it to 10 dry nights. Then a larger ‘treat’. I extended the time out to a month for the final ‘treat’. The reward chart started again if they had a wet night. The treat is up to you. I think I said they could get a chocolate/lollipop up to $1 then I slowly increased the value of the treat. The final treat was a soft toy type thing up to the value of about $20. Baring in mind, my kids went through this 10 years ago. I had to teach my kids that they didn’t need to wait until they were busting to tell me they needed to go.
Michelle – Just wait until their little body is ready. They need a special hormone that develops and shuts down urine production during sleep. If you try and train them at night, it will just lead to anxiety and frustration for all. My two kids were so different. My eldest took a long time, still in night time pull ups at 8 even though I did all the “training”. However my youngest was dry overnight from 2.5yrs old. Just leave them be in a night nappy until they don’t need it.
Wendy – My first (boy) was dry at night at 3 (we didn’t realise for a while because he’d take his nappy off in the morning and put it in the bin). My second (girl) has been very different. She was wearing pull-ups at night until she was 7 and had no inclination to stop. I tried all sorts of incentives and approaches over the years with zero success. She decided a week before she was due to have a school sleepover to stop wearing them. Has only had an occasional accident since. Different kids, different approaches but both controlled the situation themselves regardless of what I did! ? Big parenting lesson right there! Good luck!!
What is your best tip for night time toilet training?
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