29 Amazing Potty Training At Night Tips (And Everything Else You Need To Know)

What’s the easiest way to teach your child potty training at night? Here are 29 tips, tricks, rewards, and everything parents need to know!

Every child’s potty training journey is going to look different, so don’t be tempted to compare yourself to someone else.

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That said, there are still plenty of mom-tested tips and tricks that can help set you up for success.

Here are 29 pieces of advice I wished I’d known sooner and I know will help you, too.

Whether you’re just starting potty training or working on it for the 2nd or 3rd time, you’ll definitely want to read this list!

Start Potty Training

The first thing we really need to do is separate daytime potty training and nighttime potty training. You will have much more success if you classify these separately. Some children right off the bat will be able to do both without any problem, but they’re the exception. Most children will need time to master staying dry during the day before they can attempt staying dry at night.

Keep in mind that potty training boys usually takes a little longer than potty training girls. Your child must have a big enough bladder to hold urine all night or their brain must be mature enough to wake themselves up to go to the bathroom. Either of those can happen months or years after they learn to stay dry during the day.

Signs Your Child Is Not Ready

Here are some signs you shouldn’t even consider potty training yet:

They’re constantly wet
They don’t care if they’re wet or dry
They can’t get their pants off and on
They’re uninterested in the potty

If your child is showing one or more of these signs, it would be best to wait a while before beginning the potty training process. You want this to be the best experience it can be. Waiting a while is definitely not the worst thing. Give them some time, and they should be ready to start!

Potty Training At Night Tips

Here are some tips and tricks to help the potty training process go smoothly!

Start, by not worrying or comparing your child to anyone else’s. Each child (and person for that matter) is different. It’s not the end of the world if their not potty trained as soon as your neighbors.
Follow your child’s cues. They will give you hints they’re ready to start training at night or that they’re not ready yet. You’ll both me much happier if you let those dictate when you begin.
Pick a non-stressful time to start potty training. Don’t start training before a big move, there are holidays really close, and you don’t have any trips for a while.
Make sure you have nothing going on in the evenings for a few weeks when you potty train at night so you can be there to help your child.
Make sure your child is in a toddler bed or regular bed before you begin potty training. Ideally, you want them to be able to go to the bathroom at night completely by themselves, and they won’t be able to if they’re still in a crib.
Put a nightlight in the hall outside of your child’s room. This will help them see during the night.
Have your child drink lots of liquids a few weeks leading up to nighttime training, so they can get lots of practice recognizing the signs that you need to go to the bathroom.
Talk yourself and your child up days in advance to help you both be excited and mentally ready to go.
You can buy a book to read with your child about potty training. I listed some of my favorites and the end of this post.
Leave the bathroom light on when your child is first learning to potty train at night. That will help your child know where the need to go.
Have your child wear underwear during the day, and pull-ups or training underwear at night.
Put out an extra set of underwear and pajamas. This will make it easier if there’s an accident. You won’t have to go searching for things in the dark.
Use layered sheets! On top of the mattress, put a mattress pad and cover, fitted sheet, another mattress pad and cover, and top it with another fitted sheet. In the middle of the night, all you’ll need to do is take off the top two layers and you can go back to sleep.
Have your child stop drinking liquid two hours before they go to bed. This will help keep less in their bladder.
Ditch the juice. Juice and sugary drinks can bother their belly and actually bring more water into the bladder. We definitely don’t want that, so just give them water in the evenings.
Use language like, “When you go potty, then we will read a story!” This will help create a routine where going to the bathroom becomes natural to your child.
Make sure your child goes to the bathroom right before they go to sleep. You can even have them go twice close to bedtime to make sure their bladder is empty.
You can keep a training potty in your child’s bedroom if you’d like! This can help your child if they feel scared or cold and don’t want to go far from bed.
Wake your child up when you’re ready to go to bed (ideally 2-3 hours after they first went to bed) and have them use the bathroom.
If you are potty training a heavy sleeper, remember that they can’t wake themselves up. You’ll need to do it for a while, possibly for months, because they won’t notice the signs and will wet the bed.
Each morning your child wakes up dry, have something fun you do together. It could be a handshake, alone time, TV time, really anything as long as it’s special and just to reward being dry.
Use a chart to track your child’s success, especially if they are a visual learner.
Have your other family members ask your child if they’re dry as soon as they seem them in the morning. This will help encourage your child to stay dry when the whole family is involved.
Pick something to reward yourself with after the first week of training! It is process and you should be rewarded too.
Be patient! It takes time to train your child. It doesn’t come naturally to them. The average length of time for a child to be fully potty trained is 9 months. Try to keep that in perspective as you train your child. That should help you be realistic about your expectations.
Be calm. Your child is more likely to be upset and have a tantrum if they can tell you’re upset.
Lower your expectations. This will help you both be happy whenever success happens and not mad that it’s not happening yet.
Know when there’s a problem. It’s very common for a child to wet the bed up until the age of five, but if it’s still consistently going on after that, talk to your pediatrician.
Do your best to have fun and enjoy it! I loved the one-on-one time I got with each of my children when I trained them. I hardly ever get that with my three young children, so I try to savor each moment I get with just them, even if it’s toilet training.

Beautiful bathroom with the lights on for potty training.

Potty Training At Night Process

To be able to start potty training at night, your child needs to have mastered potty training during the day. Then, they need to be dry after naps. Next, they need to stay dry for at least a week to a month before you can start nighttime potty training.

After you notice that your child wakes up for at least a week dry, you can begin potty training at night.

When you begin, make sure to leave the bathroom light on. That will help your child know where the need to go.
Have them go to the bathroom twice within an hour of putting them to bed.
Wake your child up when you’re ready to go to bed (ideally 2-3 hours after they first went to bed) and have them use the bathroom.
You can wake up in the middle of the night if you think your child might need it. I haven’t had to do this with my children, but you totally could if you think it would help.
If they have an accident, have them try to go to the bathroom to make sure their bladder is empty. Then, change them and put them right back to bed.
Celebrate with them if they wake up dry!
If they didn’t, try waking them in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom.

Accidents are going to happen, so expect them, change them quickly, and you can get back to enjoying your sleep!

Success Rewards

There are so many things you could do to reward your child when they have potty training success! What does your child like? Snacks, new toy, alone time with one parent, having a party, going somewhere fun, watching a movie and having popcorn?

You could make this homemade playdough, dye rice or pasta, give them a homemade playdough kit, or make edible dirt for them to play with as a reward. Think of something you know they will be soooo excited to get. It will help keep them motivated when it gets tough for them.

Six rolls of toilet paper for potty training at night.

Potty Training Books

My favorite potty training book is Toilet Training In Less Than A Day

My son would die over this Paw Patrol potty training book!

This one has amazing reviews on Amazon!

FAQs

What age should child be dry at night?

Every child is different, so there’s no exact age, but the average age is about three and a half years old.

How do I potty train my child at night?

Have your child stop drinking liquids two hours before bed. Have them go to the bathroom a half an hour to an hour before bedtime and once right before bed. You can wake them up to go when you go to sleep. Keep waking up them when you go to sleep until they can be successful for the rest of the night. After they don’t have any accidents for the rest of the night, you can drop waking them up before you go to bed.

Is night potty training necessary?

Some children will not need special night potty training, but most will need a separation for regular training because their bladders aren’t big enough yet, and their brain isn’t mature enough to wake them up.

Should you wake your child to pee at night?

When your child is first learning to potty train at night, it wouldn’t hurt to wake them up for the first week or so to help them. Once they’ve made it through the rest of the night without any accidents, you can stop waking them up for a night and see how it goes. If they have an accident, go back to waking them up, but if they don’t, stop waking them up.