Children usually need more time to
achieve nighttime dryness than to achieve daytime dryness. The first attempt of
trying to leave your child without a diaper during the night relies on how reliably potty-trained in the day she is. So once
she has started to wake up with a dry or slightly damp diaper for a few mornings/after
a few naps in a row, this indicates that she is ready for a trial of nighttime
sleep without diaper. This is not expected to happen before the age of three years in general. Remember to clearly explain to her what you're doing, and
why, because she needs to understand that she cannot pee at night unless this
is in her potty or in the toilet.
Once you've decided to start night-time training, use
a waterproof sheet or mattress cover under the bed sheet to protect the
mattress. Start by setting a routine of having your daughter to use the toilet
or potty last thing before going to bed. You need to make sure that
she can easily get out of bed and reach the bathroom in the night or the early
morning. An alternative would be to leave her potty in her room so she doesn't
have to go far, but make sure no objects are in the way so that she wouldn’t trip
over them. A night light in the room will make things easier for her as well.
Some parents choose to wake their children up and
carry them to the toilet at night when they go to bed themselves. This is known
as lifting, and some report finding it an effective way of speeding up the
process of helping their children reaching dryness at night. However your child
needs to be alert enough to have a conversation, because you don’t want to just
teach her to pee in her sleep. You could give it a try it for a couple of
nights and see what happens.
In the morning, it is important to have your
daughter sit on her potty right after she wakes up, whether she's dry or not.
If she is dry in the morning, provide her with lots of cheering and encouragement. Bear in
mind that things may not work out right away and require some time, because not
all children mature at the same rate, so the process of achieving dry diaper
may require that you try again in a few months.
Plenty of children age three years and four years may
still wet themselves at night and so need a diaper. In any case, remember that bed-wetting
is considered to be normal up to the age of five. One in six five year old children wets the bed either occasionally or regularly.
