One of the questions that I get asked when people start potty training their children is when should I start thinking about nighttime training?

Now, nighttime potty training comes way after daytime potty training. We are not even really going to start worrying about nighttime potty training until we’re at least six months in.

Now this has a lot to do with just biology. For a lotta kids, their bodies are just not developed enough to send those messages to the brain stimulating a wake up if you have to use the toilet in the night. That comes with time. And there’s really nothing to be worrying about at this phase. I would way rather see a child wearing a pull-up or even a diaper to bed than getting up in the night.

I have lots of people email me and tell me that they wake up their child before they go to bed so that he doesn’t have an accident. And that breaks my hart a little bit. I really wanna tell you. You know me, and you know that sleep is so important and having consolidated nighttime sleep is absolutely the best kind of sleep to have.

So my dream for everybody is that we sleep consolidatedly through the night, we do not get up to drink water, we do not get up to use the bathroom. The nights that you sleep through, and you know, you’re gonna have a little partial awakening here and there, that’s normal. But those nights where you feel like you slept through are the best nights. Those are the best quality nights that you’re gonna have. And we know that childhood is the one time in our life when sleep is absolute perfection. Sleep, unfortunately, deteriorates the older we get. But in childhood, it is sheer perfection.

So I get a little sad when I hear that kids are being woken in the night to be dragged off to the bathroom because I know that what they should be doing is having a solid, consolidated night without any wake-ups. So if you’re finding yourself in that boat where you’re waking up a child to use the toilet, my advice is to stop! Just let it go. Put them in a pull-up, put them in a big enough diaper, I mean, diapers now go all the way to six, even. So put them in a big enough diaper that any accident is going to be contained. Get some plastic for the mattress so nothing gets ruined. And just let it go.

I would way rather have a child sleep through the night than get up to use the toilet. If you have to wake them it means they’re not ready. They should be able to wake themselves up if they need to use the toilet bad enough.

Also, have a look at consumption before bed. If your child’s drinking a big glass of milk or lots of water right before bed, try minimizing some of that, have them use the bathroom a couple of times in the hour before bed, all of these things will help. But I guess my best advice here is to just relax. Not worry so much about nighttime training and just let your children sleep.

Thanks for watching today. Sleep well!