It’s official! My family is done with the potty training phase! Potty training is difficult. Not only do you have to retrain the brain from the “I have to pee, go anywhere” method to the conscious effort to hold the pee until you get to the appropriate spot. With many challenges and distractions, it is amazing that a 2 or 3 year old can master this huge change.
Once you have the initial concept of relieving oneself in the bathroom, it’s time to throw another curveball into the mix; SLEEP. Night time potty training is a whole other ball game. Even children who master day time easily can sometimes still have trouble with nighttime potty training. Having lived through this phase three times, I can tell you that it sucks being woken up at 2 in the morning to shower and change your child then remake you child’s bed so they can go back to sleep. By the time the entire task is complete, you are either too awake to go back to sleep or it is so close to the time your alarm clock goes off that it’s pointless to do so.
Many children under the age of 5 are fully potty trained during the day, but still have troubles waking up during the night. Whether they are unable to acknowledge the feeling of a full bladder, unable to wake themselves up or are too drowsy to connect the two, is unknown. Nighttime bed wetting can be a challenge, but don’t be discouraged it is obtainable!
Here are a few tips to help your child master Nighttime Bed Wetting:
- Stop Fluids at dinner time – If the tank is empty, there is less likely to be an accident. Stopping fluids around dinner time, allows your child to process any liquids and eliminate it before bed
- Take your child to the bathroom before you go to bed – My children are very easy to manipulate when they are asleep. I can easily wake them up, walk them to the washroom, ask them to pee and walk them back to bed where they will fall back asleep with no problem. After doing this every night at my bedtime (same time each night), my children got into the habit of getting up and would eventually go on their own.
- Get in the habit of going pee before bed – Another trick I use is getting the kids to go pee before bed. This allows them to go to sleep with an empty bladder. We incorporated a washroom break into our normal bedtime routine and it was easy to do.
- Use an accident pad or mattress cover – No matter how well you prepare, an accident is bound to happen. It is better to be prepared then be caught off guard. It also makes clean up in the middle of the night a lot easier too!
- Avoid nighttime diapers – This one is a bit controversial. Although nighttime diapers prevent true accidents and make clean up a breeze, they can become a crutch for your child. My youngest is a good example of this. She would wet herself at night when she was wearing a diaper. When we forgot to put one on, she was wake up dry.
Remember whether you are going to the washroom day or night, is very important to teach our children proper hygiene skills and who better to help out the KANDOO!
