NIGHTTIME TRIPS TO THE POTTY

It’s always exciting when the time comes to ditch those diapers!  However, it gets a little tricky when it comes to nighttime so I want to give you some of my personal tips and thoughts on the topic.  Obviously I believe in the importance of sleep and for this reason, I hate to see children's sleep being disrupted by having to use the potty at night.  They have their whole adult lives to deal with that!  ;)

At whatever age you begin potty training, chances are your child won’t be able to go all night without needing to use the bathroom.  And it’s typically just a matter of waiting until your child’s bladder is mature enough to do so.  For many children, that time does not come until close to age 4.  For this reason, I recommend you go diaper free during the day but plan to continue using diapers or pull ups during the night. Children are good at compartmentalizing and should be able to understand that at night they use the diaper and during the day they use the potty.  It's even a good idea to start calling them "sleeping underwear" as a way to differentiate night from day.

You can definitely try limiting fluids in the couple of hours before bed to see if this helps overnight and be sure to take your child to the bathroom as soon as they wake up in the morning.

Your toddler may use going potty as a stall tactic or an excuse to begin getting out of bed at night.  Offer a trip to the potty at the beginning and end of the bedtime routine but after that, there should be no more trips to the potty

Lastly, some children may be capable of going all night without going potty, but may simply be getting lazy and using the diaper when they wake up in the morning.  You may want to test this theory by ditching the diaper at night and using a sticker or reward chart as motivation.  Encourage independent potty use during the daytime.  And if you use an okay-to-wake clock, you can let your child have 1 “potty pass” so they know they are allowed to use the bathroom if they need to first thing in the morning even if their clock isn’t on quite yet.  Then they need to return to their bed and you should enforce this.

No matter what, you know your child and what their needs are.  Just try to be conscious of what it may do to their sleep habits and really try to protect that!  If you are concerned about how long it is taking for your child to stop going potty in the night, talk to their doctor.

If your toddler's sleep is already disrupted because they aren't sleeping through the night then I'd love to help you get this figured out!  I hate to see parents waiting years and years for their child to magically sleep through when it's a problem that can be fixed NOW!  Email me at amy@amyhoughsleepconsulting.com