Nighttime Potty Training with Your Shy Child

Many young children sleep so deeply at night that they’re difficult (or impossible) to awaken. Even if Mom or Dad is standing over them, telling them it’s time to try the potty, that kiddo just will not wake up. So there’s no way that an underdeveloped, tiny signal in the body saying, “hey, sweetie, time to go pee pee,” is strong enough to rouse them. That’s why day training and night training are two completely different animals. Because we’re simply awaiting your child’s physical development, there’s no trick to speed up nighttime potty training, so hopefully you can give your child (and yourself) a break on this one.

• Take your shy child to the potty before bed to get her into the habit.
• If your child needs extra absorbency, try Pull-Ups® Night*Time training pants at night for extra absorbency. Explain to your child that these special Night*Time Pull-Ups can make it easier to use the bathroom at night because they already knows how to use them. “As you grow, your body won’t need to pee as much at night, and you will learn to hold your pee inside you until after you wake.”
• In the mornings, emphasize that a trip to the potty is Job Number One. “Whenever you wake up, the first thing we do is go to the potty.”
How will you know when your child is ready to try moving away from using Pull-Ups at night and go into just wearing undies and jammies? If he’s consistently dry every morning, you can talk about his growing body to see if he’s interested in sleeping without Pull-Ups.


• “Your body isn’t needing to pee during the night much anymore. I think you’re ready to try sleeping in your Big Kid underwear/jammies. Would you like to give that a try tonight?” (Moms and Dads, if this makes you nervous, you can always add a GoodNites® Disposable Bed Mat for protection the first few nights to see how things go.)

Is your child over the age of 4 and fully potty trained by day, but still wetting the bed three to five times each week? You are not alone! What’s commonly known as “bedwetting” may actually be a medical condition called nocturnal enuresis, and it affects five to seven million children in the U.S. The best thing you can do for your child is to make her feel comfortable. Let her know you are not upset or disappointed, and consider products like GoodNites®, which can help ease the stress of bedwetting. Talk to your pediatrician for more information about nocturnal enuresis.