Hello and welcome to Toilet training basics: Staying dry at night.

I'm Melany, a pediatric occupational therapist with Alberta Health Services.

Toilet training is a journey, and your child will learn many new skills.

Learning to stay dry at night, also known as nighttime training, is a different skill from being daytime toilet trained.

How do you know when to start nighttime training?

If your child is fully toilet trained during the day, they may be ready to start.

If your child is waking up dry most mornings, they are ready to start.

And if your child is refusing to wear a diaper at night, they've already begun learning this skill on their own.

Putting your child to bed without a diaper can cause stress for parents and caregivers.

Here are some tips to make this a little easier for you and your child.

Double sheeting is a way to set up your child's bed that will make clean up very fast.

Start by taking all the blankets, sheets, and pillows off your child's bed.

If you have a waterproof cover on the mattress, leave it on.

On top of the mattress, lay down a pad in the area where your child typically sleeps.

Training pads made for pets work well for double sheeting.

Over top of this pad, put on a sheet.

This keeps the pad in place and keeps the bed feeling normal.

Then, lay another pad and put on another sheet.

Now the bed is ready for your child to sleep without a diaper.

If they have an accident, just remove the top sheet and pad.

No need to remake the bed in the middle of the night.

Then, you can change their pyjamas and put them right back to bed.

Bonus pee.

This is getting your child to go pee without really waking up.

This is done by carrying or guiding your sleeping child to the toilet 2 to 3 hours after they've gone to sleep.

You'll be doing all the work with clothes, wiping, and flushing.

This bonus pee can help children who sleep deeply or sleep for a long time to stay dry overnight.

This may not work with children who wake up easily and who have a hard time going back to sleep.

This also may not work if your child goes to bed at the same time as you.​​​

Limit or stop offering drinks 2 hours before bedtime.

Encourage your child to drink more in the morning and afternoon so they won't feel thirsty in the evening.

No underwear.

Put your child to bed with just pyjamas on, no underwear.

When they're sleeping, some children feel underwear fitting like a diaper.

Because their body feels this, their brain relaxes, and they pee in their sleep.

By not wearing underwear, their body doesn't have that diaper feeling and their brain wakes them up to go pee instead.

Now you're prepared to help your child stay dry overnight.

But some children will continue to be wet in the morning.

Your child might need more help to stay dry at night:

If your child is more than 5 years old and still wetting the bed.

If there's a family history of bed wetting on one or both sides of the family.

Or if your child is struggling with constipation.

If any of these apply to your child and you have been working on staying dry at night for a few months, please talk to your family doctor or public health nurse for more support.

Continue watching this video series to learn about where to find help if toilet training isn't going well.

[Outro]

Find information, support, and services for you and your child by clicking on the link in the description.​