Potty Training: All Through the Night

Staying dry throughout the night will not happen anywhere near as soon as daytime control. Give your child a break. After all, he's just starting to learn how to control his bowel and bladder during the day, when he's fully awake and conscious of his body's signals. It will take your toddler more time before he maintains control when he's unconscious, too. (Nighttime urination tends to occur during the deepest stages of sleep.)

Bedwetting is a nuisance and although you can't avoid it altogether, you can significantly reduce the frequency.

Start by keeping your child in diapers (or even double diapers) at night long after he has started—and even mastered—daytime toilet training. But every night, just before he goes to bed, encourage your child to empty his bladder. Only when your toddler wakes up with a dry diaper for several nights in a row should you consider taking off the nighttime diaper. This probably won't happen until your child is three—and perhaps not until he's four.

Because accidents will still occasionally happen after you've eliminated nighttime diapers, put a plastic or rubber sheet as well as a mattress pad between the sheets and mattress of your child's bed.

If several accidents happen in the same week, ask your child what he thinks about returning to a nighttime diaper. If you handle this situation with sensitivity and avoid blaming your child, or making the return to diapers seem like a threat, or implying that he's being a baby, only good will come from this opening. Your child has two possible responses: He may realize that he's not yet ready to go without nighttime diapers and opt to try again later. Or it may strengthen your child's resolve not to need diapers anymore. Whatever your toddler decides, go along with it.