Last week I shared with you how Nighttime Potty Training was going in our house {it's not} and a Tutorial for a DIY Waterproof Mattress Pad.
This week I'm sharing 5 tips that will making Nighttime Potty Training a Success {hopefully!}
5 Tips to Successful Nighttime Potty Training
1. Wait Until Your Child is Physically Developmentally Ready.
We've tried a couple of times to get Sophia potty trained at night, one just recently, with little success. She is just not developmentally ready. So, how do you know if your child is? He/She should be waking up dry at least 5-6 mornings out of the week. Sophia would occasionally, but that just wasn't enough. To have success, this is important that your child's bladder can handle holding the liquid all night.
2. Limit Liquids at Night.
We found the most success when we limited Sophia's liquids for 2-3 hours before she laid down. We usually start her bedtime routine at 8pm, but she gets up to use the bathroom one last time at 9. So we limited liquids to a small drink of water after 6:30 pm.
The same can be said for day time potty training too. I know that juice and water make her use the bathroom more frequently, so if I know we're going to be in public, where potty training is harder, I limit the amount of liquids she has throughout the day. Not take them away – just limit.
3. Rewards
Although some might disagree, I like to use rewards with any type of potty training. We used a sticker chart in the early days of day time potty training that worked tremendously, so we brought it back for nighttime.
Every morning that she woke up dry, she'd put a sticker on the chart, after 3 she gets to pick from her Treasure Chest {that contains little snacks and toys}.
4. Nighttime Potty Trips
This is a controversial one and I see both sides. Waking your child {or in our case, carrying to the potty and helping sleep potty} can tremendously increase the success of nighttime potty training, but at a price. It interrupts both the parents and the child's sleep cycles and can inadvertently cause more harm than good.
We were doing this with Sophia and it proved to be the only way that I could seem to get her to wake up dry, but it really did do more harm. She would be moody during the days {even more than a normal day with a two year old} and really, so would I. I found that it really wasn't worth it to wake use both up until she was really developmentally ready.
5. Relax!
When I began washing sheets twice a day, I started getting a little stressed out. It seemed like, although I wasn't meaning to, I was putting extra pressure on Sophia and actually making her have more accidents in the process. I didn't realize I was doing this until after we relaxed. Now she's wearing pull-ups during the night and there's no pressure on it being dry, but if it is we CELEBRATE!
Potty Training is hard on both the child and the parents, especially Nighttime Potty Training. The thing that I've taken away from this process {twice now} is that just because Sophia totally understands and can sucessfully potty during the day doesn't mean the same goes for nighttime. Read your child's cues and go at YOUR pace – there's no right or wrong strategy or time.
5 Days Left 
Good to know since we just started potty training for day time.
candice recently posted…Chobani Banana Muffins | Tasty Tuesday
These are tried and true tips! We are still struggling with bed wetting on the nights when my boy is constipated, but we have started using the GoodNites bed mats and they have saved our mattress!
We haven’t started day time training yet. Rissa was showing interest until her brother arrived. She hates diaper changes now though so maybe it will start to motivate her.
Darcy recently posted…The Differences in Diapering Baby Boys and Girls
We are potty trained during the day but far form it at night. We limit liquids and he wakes up dry half the time. I figure a couple more months and we will give nighttime training a trial run. Thank you for the tips.
Brandy recently posted…Phone Dump Friday – Boxed In
These are great tips. With my 2nd son, we kept trying, and nothing worked, he just wasn’t ready. One day, he decided he wanted to do it, and zero accidents since, LOL
Karen recently posted…A Luring Murder $10 Barnes & Noble GC #Giveaway (Ends 3/9)
I am so glad you started by saying to wait until your child is ready. It’s so tempting to push our kids, based on a random number, yet all children are different.
Angela recently posted…Reveal Your Best Skin Ever #DoveTruth
Yikes! My daughter is starting to show signs of readiness. However, I just said to my husband the other day, it’s the ONLY thing I dread about being a mama. Your tips will hopefully give us a good start when the time comes.
Great tips. Love your sticker system. Looks like she has been doing great.
My son is almost 4 and still only wakes up dry a couple of nights a week. I choose not to wake him up because he tends to have a very hard time going back down. My oldest son was 12 when I finally didn’t have to wake him up at midnight to go so he wouldn’t have an accident and I have a 9 year old daughter who still occasionally has accidents. I think sometimes it’s just in genetics. I don’t stress over it, just do more laundry and everyone has a plastic sheet to protect the bed!