When & How to Nighttime Potty Train? | Potty Training Tips for Toddlers & Preschoolers

0:00 so your little one is completely or almost completely uh daytime potty trained and now you're wondering about naps and night time i mean how do you know when they're ready where do you even begin how do you set them up for success well if you have some of those similar questions and this video is for you i'm dr jasmine i'm a clinical psychologist and mom of two and in today's video i'm gonna be sharing all of what you need to know when it

0:23 comes to nap and nighttime potty training so let's dive in okay really quickly before we get started with the video i just want to briefly shout out my potty training book if you are looking for an all-in-one guide on party training from start to end then definitely check out my book i'll leave the description or the link down in this description box also shout out to everybody who has left me an honest review on amazon it

0:52 really helps the book more than you know so thank you so so so so much for taking the time to leave a review and share your experience about my book okay let's dive into nap and nighttime potty training so here's the most important thing to remember when it comes to this kind of potty training is that it is so different than daytime potty training readiness right when we think of daytime potty training readiness i always talk about how it's so

1:21 important to um make sure your child is developmentally ready when it comes to psychological readiness motor development readiness um emotional readiness uh communication speech and communication readiness it's so important to make sure that they are developmentally ready and i actually have some free checklists that help you kind of determine whether or not your child is developmentally ready to start daytime potty training so i'll leave the links uh in the description below for those

1:52 checklists they're completely free it also includes a checklist on helpful things to say during potty training um so keep in mind daytime potty training is largely dependent on a wide variety of developmental readiness whereas sleep potty training largely is dependent on physiological development largely about their bladder size their bladder control um how deep of a sleeper they are their ability to uh send that cue to

2:24 their brain to then wake up when their bladder is full so it's largely physiologically ready and that's really important to keep in mind because we can't speed up this process and i'll talk about some you know ways that you can you know help if you don't want to opt for pull-ups which we'll talk about in a second but it's really important that to remember it's largely dependent on their physiological development so with that being said let's talk about

2:51 nap time potty training because i do believe you should first start with nap time potty training and then work your way up to bedtime sleep potty training so when it comes to nap time first and foremost do you want to make sure that they are fully or almost completely fully daytime potty training so i wouldn't even start to think about nap time potty training until at least around six months after daytime potty training so you want

3:20 to make sure that they are having fewer and fewer accidents during the day that you have a solid daytime potty routine down pat um and that ultimately they are having less and less accident so again i would wait for that before you start to introduce nap time potty training the reason for this is when you want to make sure that your routine is down pat because nap time and nighttime potty training will uh largely help if you have a solid

3:52 routine down that they're already used to we'll talk a little bit about that in a second also it's important because you don't want to overload them with trying to learn too much all at once so again make sure they're first familiar um and have you know mastered or almost completely mastered daytime potty training now in the meantime while you wait for them to one be physiologically ready um but also master daytime potty training you can opt for nighttime

4:25 underpants or pull-ups right so these are the ones that we use disclosure both of my children are still using um nighttime potty uh nighttime pull-ups now we don't call them diapers okay we don't even call them pull-ups we call them underpants and so these would be our um toy story underpants we also have pj masks underpants whatever character they are using you can lay label them that um but we use these and we put them

4:57 on right before they go to bed so they go potty every time before they go to sleep whether it's nap or nighttime and then we put these on we don't call them diapers again and then we take them off immediately after they wake up now if you suspect that your little one is waking up and then going to the potty then wake them up five to ten minutes before they usually wake up and take these off immediately and have

5:23 them go potty and that can you know obviously cut back on accidents and help you kind of determine are they having are they peeing while they're sleeping or are they peeing when they wake up because that's commonly what's happening is they're peeing when they're waking up okay and then once they are waking up from their nap several days in a row i would say at least three days um then that could be your indication your sign

5:47 that they are ready to ditch the underpants okay um and if you want to do this gradually then what you can do is put on their underwear first and then put their pull up or their underpants on over their underwear what this helps with is one it obviously cuts back on the accident but it's also a nice way one to help them get some feedback if they do have an accident they can feel it right because these completely absorb

6:16 the urine um so if they have an accident or if it's poop too they'll really get that feedback um they this that can kind of help them with learning about you know their bodies and how it's working um and also it's a way to do it gradually right if you're afraid oh i think they're ready but i'm not sure let me ease into this then doing the underwear before the pull-up can be a great gradual way

6:41 um the other thing you want to make sure that you have is a mattress cover and i'll go ahead and link my favorite down in the description below but definitely have a mattress cover because you want to be ready for accidents because they will probably more than likely happen even if you've deemed them ready now if you're noticing that they're having a lot of accidents especially several days in a row that might be your cue to go back to the

7:05 underpants and try again later that just might just mean that they're not physiologically ready yet to ditch the nighttime pull-ups now let's get into nighttime potty training so again i wouldn't start this until you have they have completely mastered daytime potty training and they're doing well with naps right because again naps are only an hour or two long versus night time is hours and hours and hours

7:35 at a time so you want to make sure they first master just a couple hours before you move on to a harder skill which is going hours and hours without using the bathroom the other important thing that you want to make sure is that they're in a toddler bed and they're able to get up and go to the bathroom should they need to right you don't want to you don't want to do this when they are still in the crib it won't

7:59 make sense right because they will have no way to eliminate during the middle of the night if they wake up and have to go and that can cause a lot of unnecessary stress and panic so your child will not be ready to nighttime potty train until they are in a toddler bed and they have enough motor skills you know to be able to walk to the potty and go independently in the middle of the night um on their own the other sign that

8:25 they'll be ready for nighttime potty training is their ability to self-initiate going to the potty and going independently so again a good rule of thumb is that generally speaking children don't start nighttime potty training until about 6 to 12 months or even much later than that after they've learned daytime potty training so again wait give your child some time to master daytime potty training before you throw in another another skill for them to master

8:56 okay so in the meantime while you're waiting and also if you've decided that they are ready irregardless right right now what you want to make sure is that they have a good bedtime potty routine so generally you want to make sure they go to bed 30 i mean go to bed go to the potty 30 minutes before they go to bed and then right before they go to bed the other thing you want to do is limit

9:19 sugary drinks like juice two hours before bedtime because that's uh tends to put a lot of water in their bladder um so water is fine but you wanna limit the sugary drinks especially two hours before bedtime now if you're like okay i think that they're ready but i'm not sure again you can do the same trick where you have them put on their underwear and then their underpants um and test that out for a couple days

9:44 and if they're still waking up dry that's a really good sign that they're ready to ditch the pull-ups all together but again you want to prepare for accidents so a good uh helpful trick is to line your mattress with a mattress cover put on some sheets and then line your mattress with another mattress cover and put on some more sheets and what that'll help you do is in the middle of the night if they have accident they wake up all wet

10:11 all you have to do is strip down um the first layer right get rid of the sheets and the mattress cover throw that in the washer and then they can still go to bed um so you're not over there fumbling around in the middle of the night getting frustrated and all of that now some parents opt to kind of i guess help speed this process along by waking up their child 60 to 90 minutes after they've fallen asleep

10:37 or wake them up right before they go to go to bed or wake them up in the middle of the night now that's not going to technically speed up their physiological development but it can cut back on accidents throughout the night and i'm okay with that strategy as long as it's not interfering with their sleep with your child sleep right so you can try it out you know sometimes these things take some trial and error so if you would rather go that route

11:04 and wake them up um then that's okay with me but just make sure it's not interfering with their sleep and also your sleep too i don't want you doing anything that's gonna make you feel more cranky in the morning so again i am totally fine with using the underpants just don't call them diapers okay we we move past that call them their you know nighttime underpants or whatever and then make sure you always have them take them off right when they

11:30 wake up and you know if you're suspecting that they are going to the bathroom right when they wake up then wake them up a little bit before and take them off and have them go to the bathroom um and when to worry because that's a common question i get as a okay should i be worried about this uh generally speaking most children will become nighttime potty trained by the age of five um and generally the recommendation is

11:56 to don't start to worry um until your child is around seven and they're having you know frequent accidents i would say a couple times a week then i would definitely check in with your pediatrician let them know your concerns and what's happening um full disclosure here i was a late um nighttime potty trainer i don't think i'd fully mastered it until i was like nine which is really late um and it actually contributed to a lot of shame

12:27 um and so be sure that you are you know handling their accidents with a good attitude because i still remember to this day how the adults in my life handled my nighttime accidents because it's a lot of embarrassment right especially as you're getting older but a good thing to keep in mind um is a lot of it is genetics related that's why i'm not putting a lot of pressure on my little ones to master this skill um really quickly um i

12:51 know that it will come with time and often again it has nothing to do with their conscious awareness they're not trying to make a mess they're not doing this in spite or to annoy you it just simply has to do with either they're a really deep sleeper their bladder is not large enough or that signal that goes from their bladder to their brain is not fully developed um and so they just need a little bit more time a little bit more patience and

13:15 grace so i really hope this video was helpful for you let me know if you have any other questions down below make sure you give this video a thumbs up if it was helpful share with some family or friends and i will see you in the next one bye