Why has night training become so difficult?

Somewhere along the line, keeping children in night pull-ups for years became the standard. Here’s the deal: many children will naturally improve their ability and capacity to stay dry overnight as they become more accustom to holding and consolidating their urine during the day.

However, if this hasn’t happened by the time your child has reached three-and-a-half years old, then not to sound alarmist, but it is imperative that you take the initiative to attend to night training. It’s not just a nice-to-have.

Because the bladder is still developing during this sensitive age, if it continues to develop with no practice of holding and consolidating, the muscles will atrophy and it will become increasingly more difficult to remain dry. This increases the risk of bed wetting later on. It’s one thing if a toddler wets the bed, however the shame and embarrassment that an eight-year-old may carry is a situation we want to do our best to avoid.

So, what changed over the past couple of generations aside from the proliferation and accessibility of disposable diapers and pull-ups in all sizes? One big factor is night training wasn’t disparate from day training! It was all one and the same. Sound questionable? Ask a woman grandparent or great-grandparent age (depending on your age). Something that actually helped night training go well aside from tackling it alongside day training and entering it with the right minset was the fact that disposable diapers, particularly the ones in larger sizes with extra absorbency, were not even available as an option.

The issue is, we actually want our children to feel the sensation of wetness as a result of peeing (as counterintuitive as that may sound), however these high-absorbency nighttime pullups marketed to children with their favorite cartoons showcased on the box are severing children from their biological instincts. So, they do not feel wet. This sounds like a convenience because we want our children to sleep through the night so that we do, however we are inadvertently training our children to continue to wet themselves and override their instincts.

In order for night training to go well, we parents do have to make some modifications to the nighttime routtine and environment. Nothing crazy, but we want to set our children up for success.

If you are reading this feeling anxious about leaving your little one in an overnight pullup, I can assure you this is reversible. Book a session with me so we can create a night training plan for your child’s specific situation. There are a few tricks to make the transition to night training way smoother both for you and your little one.