Potty training - what time does your toddler have their last drink of the day?

[Sarah Lou 80]

We are not quite there yet but I can see my almost 2 year old starting to show signs of being ready to be potty trained.

I've not done a great deal of research in to it yet but was curious as to how it works at nighttime. Once they are dry in the day does it generally follow that they are dry at night?

My main concern with nighttime dryness is when to give him his last drink?He currently has milk before bed. Not to get to sleep but usually he finishes his drink within 10 minutes of going to bed. We usually have our dinner between 5 and 5.30pm and he goes to bed at 6.45pm.

 

[yazzy]

My LO was completely potty trained around her 2nd birthday, she had been dry overnight for a couple weeks already so she stopped wearing those aswell and she's always been dry at night.

I don't restrict any drinks for my daughter, she always has a drink with her all day and also through the night. If I don't leave a drink at night she will soon let me know she's thirsty lol!

 

[jd83]

I don't restrict drinks at night either. Most people have thirst at bedtime or sometimes through the night, and I don't think its fair to keep them from having a drink if they are genuinely thirsty. Both of my kids typically want a few sips of water before bed. I don't give them a full cup, maybe 1/4 of a cup just to soothe thirst before going to sleep. I also have DS1 got potty befroe tucking him in, so he goes to sleep with empty bladder. He has still not gotten fully night trained, and pees in pull up most nights, but our pediatrician says its pretty normal/common still for his age at night, and that restricting fluids won't fix the problem but can create more problems such as dehydration, UTIs from not enough fluids, etc. if he is genuinely thirsty.

To answer your question regarding day/night training, no its not always the same for all kids. Some kids go fully dry with both right away, some kids don't. NIght training is a different thing entirely, and is more to do with their physical ability to wake themselves when they need to go. THey have to physically be able to do that to get night trained. Some kids take a lot longer to reach that point. Some nights my son does wake up and go potty. MOst nights not yet, though, as he is a very deep sleeper.

 

[hattiehippo]

Day and night training are very different as night training is dependent on the child producing enough of the hormone that tells their bladder and kidneys to make the wee more concentrated and to hold it as long as possible. Until the child produced enough of this hormone they won't be able to hold their wee all night.

My DS was dry overnight from around 2.5 but refused to potty train until 3 so he was dry straight away when we took the night time nappies away. I've never restricted what he drinks and when - he has a beaker of milk still about 15 mins before bedtime and does a wee just before he gets into bed around 8pm. He's dry then until he wakes up around 6.30am.

 

[misspriss]

DS still nurses to sleep, so he drinks before bed.

He has been dry at night since around 16-18 months (I can't quite remember), but as soon as we started potty training. He was dry at night more often than not before that. He is so reliably dry at night I have no problem putting him to bed in just underwear.

I wish he was so reliable during the day, he still has daytime accidents because he doesn't want to learn to pull his pants up and down. Such a weird guy. If he is naked, he is good. If you pull his pants down, he is good. But him? Nah, too much trouble.

 

[jd83]

DS still nurses to sleep, so he drinks before bed.

He has been dry at night since around 16-18 months (I can't quite remember), but as soon as we started potty training. He was dry at night more often than not before that. He is so reliably dry at night I have no problem putting him to bed in just underwear.

I wish he was so reliable during the day, he still has daytime accidents because he doesn't want to learn to pull his pants up and down. Such a weird guy. If he is naked, he is good. If you pull his pants down, he is good. But him? Nah, too much trouble.

I think that's an age thing, he's still pretty young to reliably do that on his own. Most kids aren't able to reliably pull pants up/down every time they need to go all by themselves until closer to age 3 I think. Potty trained before then, yes, but typically with parental help with clothing.

 

[staralfur]

My LO started to be consistently dry overnight about five months after she was dry during the day. We didn't do any active night training, it's just when it started happening naturally. We don't restrict drinks, she has a cup of water in her bed overnight that she drinks from quite often.

As for pulling down/up pants, I still have to do it for her and she'll be 3 in April.

 

[misspriss]

Well, I don't mind helping him with his clothes, but he won't even tell us he needs to go when he has his pants on. Sometimes yes, but he is just so much more likely to be distracted and not go to the potty. It comes and goes, I think it may be developmental too, he seems to be going through a lot right now.

 

[jd83]

Well, I don't mind helping him with his clothes, but he won't even tell us he needs to go when he has his pants on. Sometimes yes, but he is just so much more likely to be distracted and not go to the potty. It comes and goes, I think it may be developmental too, he seems to be going through a lot right now.

I think that's very much an age thing, too. I remember with DS1 I had to ask him at interval throughout the day when he was first trained, because he would just get so engrossed in playing that he wouldn't take the time to go if I didn't tell him it was time for a potty break. As he got older, and more habitual with going potty, reminders got lessened, and now he always goes on his own.

 

[SarahBear]

I don't worry about nighttime liquid intake. She often has sips of water after she's already in bed. She also goes through phases of being dry through the night and phases of peeing in the AM hours, usually shortly before getting out of bed. I think night time dryness naturally follows from daytime dryness, but some kids need a bit of a push. I wouldn't worry about nighttime for now. I'd just focus on the daytime stuff.

 

[Sarah Lou 80]

Thanks for the replies ladies. I think I'd seen some 'expert' on the tv once say something about not letting your child drink after a certain time which us why that was in my head. Glad it's not something people do though. It did seem a bit mean! I'm always having sips of water overnight so why shouldn't LO?!

 

[StaceyKor]

Yeah my LO has a cup of milk right before bed, then goes for a pee and sometimes asks for some water as she's getting into bed. She's dry at night. I think it's a bit unfair to restrict them if they are thirsty x