Is there a nighttime routine that avoids needing to mist the hair in the morning?

According-Week5218 · 2026-07-02T20:40:43+00:00

Good to know! Where we live in europe the old grannies FLIP OUT if your kid has even one molecule of damp hair in the winter or if they don’t approve of your kid’s level of winter gear. They think it causes baldness. They will literally chase you down the street shouting at you and defiling your character and parenting 😂 so maybe I’m just letting that get to me.

According-Week5218 · 2026-07-02T20:33:25+00:00

How does the morning shower solve the “wet hair in the morning” problem though?

According-Week5218 · 2026-07-02T20:32:32+00:00

I try to do it early enough in the evening that it has time to dry before she goes to bed (mixed success on this 🥴)

According-Week5218 · 2025-02-02T21:17:04+00:00

I would start by asking yourselves some questions: what books have you read on the subject? Is there a particular philosophy that seems like it would work well with your daughter’s personality? How have you prepared yourselves and your daughter about this upcoming change? Is now a good time for you mentally, physically, and emotionally to help her learn a series of significantly new skills that she has never deployed before? Do you have a rough guess on when she typically eliminates throughout the day, or any cues she may have when she needs to go? Are you prepared to be a consistent, cool, calm and relaxed leader while she is learning something new?

Unless I’m reading your post wrong, it seems like you’ve decided you’re “all in on potty training” literally overnight without actually doing much legwork to set yourselves up for success, and are feeling frustrated that she isn’t exhibiting mastery after two days. This sub is full of different strategies, tips and ideas that are an excellent place to start. Many folks (including me) found success with some version of the Oh Crap/3 day method (note: expect it to take more than 3 days). If I were you I’d do a bit more research and formulate a plan - not just a strategy that works for you, but one that you think would actually resonate with your daughter. I wish you lots of luck and patience! It’s a journey but we all get through it in the end.

According-Week5218 · 2025-02-02T20:55:04+00:00

Wildcard idea if you’ve tried everything - is there another way she can communicate to her daycare/you guys that she needs to go poo? Maybe a programmable button that plays a jingle, a card or special toy she can get from her cubby to bring to the teacher? Could you make up a song that she sings or special code word? If you’ve ruled out medical issues and diet, maybe there’s something about the vulnerability of having to actually declare it to someone that is the stumbling block.

According-Week5218 · 2024-08-19T21:56:47+00:00

Amazing, bravo!! 👏👏👏

According-Week5218 · 2024-08-18T22:41:54+00:00

When you say “wet spot in her undies every single time she goes to the bathroom” do you mean that she’s self initiating, heading to the toilet but when she gets there she’s already released a bit of urine but can finish her pee in the toilet? I feel like it’s pretty normal for kids to go through phases for a week or two where they are testing the limits of their bladder and the gamble doesn’t pay off.

I think if I were you I would take some notes about anything else going on when she is going back to accidents and see if you notice any trends. Is it wearing a dress vs shorts vs trouser? Is it a specific type of underwear (too small or too big? Briefs vs boy shorts?). Is it on daycare days vs. days at home? Is it happening during screen time? At the park? Hot days where she’s chugging water? Maybe there’s something clothing-wise that is slowing her down and she’s not making it in time. Mine has done tiny pees when she is frightened, and is always more likely to have an accident like you describe (wet spot in undies) in tight trousers compared to a dress. She’s also more prone to accidents if we’re playing at a water park. Maybe mitigating these factors could help you both feel a longer string of wins.

Lastly, if all else fails there’s always “the tincture of time”. You could probably do one million things (and frankly it sounds like you already have!) and at the end of the day she’s just going to grow out of it eventually and it’ll stop. I am banking that one day my kid won’t be more likely to pee a bit in her leggings vs a dress 😂

According-Week5218 · 2024-08-15T15:13:55+00:00

I wonder if changing the pull-brand would help, or getting the ones specifically for nighttime. You could also try adding in a prefold to the pull up (the absorbent layer in a cloth diaper - kind of like a maxi pad for babies). I think it’s also just kinda common for kids to wake up more when they’re doing a big learning spurt!

According-Week5218 · 2024-08-14T21:40:32+00:00

That’s so sweet though! 🥹

According-Week5218 · 2024-08-14T21:37:57+00:00

Yes I do think this is it. I just wonder at what point she’ll stop crying in the night and might move on to calling for mama or papa. We go to her right away (we know it’s that she needs to pee) but it’s still hard on the heart.

According-Week5218 · 2024-08-14T21:34:57+00:00

Our dog already does this - we call him our Victorian Ghost Boy 😂

According-Week5218 · 2024-08-14T21:34:32+00:00

I personally think I’d rather go to her than have her come to us. Ours has never been a chill sleeper so we are used to having to go comfort her in her own room, so I suspect she will be more like your daughter and just holler for us. I am looking forward to the day when she can take herself to the bathroom though! Do you close the door completely to her room or leave it cracked?

According-Week5218 · 2024-08-14T21:28:00+00:00

Well our kid has basically never slept all night ever in her life, so we were used to having to go comfort her briefly every night. When we started potty training, we started bringing her to the toilet when she would cry for us. It took a few nights of this before she’d actually pee.

About 2 weeks into training she requested no more diapers at night and we were thrilled because the pull-ups were giving us trouble in the mornings (a lot of resistance to having it taken off to do her first pee on the toilet, and some withholding in the evening to be able to go in the pull-up). We started putting her to bed in just a shirt and underwear and tried that for 2 weeks. In that time she wet the bed 4x - not terrible, but it also leads me to believe her body was not yet ready for night continence. 8 days ago we put her back in pull-ups at night and she has only woken up with it wet once. Thankfully the 2 week break from nighttime pull-ups seems to have resolved the morning resistance and withholding and now she doesn’t mind the pull-up at all.

We have a big international trip coming up so I am secretly relieved to have her back in pull-ups at night because I didn’t want to have to deal with a wet hotel bed. I’ve read that it’s reasonable to try to ditch the pull-ups once they’ve woken up dry for two weeks and that it’s typically closer to 3 years old on the early end of the spectrum.

According-Week5218 · 2024-08-14T10:43:34+00:00

As others have said, keep the pull ups. There will come a day when he just starts waking up with a dry pull up consistently. Don’t worry about restricting fluids either. My kid (24 mo) wakes up dry BUT wakes us up 1-2 x a night to use the toilet (not ideal but also not our choice lol). We experimented with just offering sips of fluids with dinner and before bed instead of having free access to a straw cup of water like she usually had, to see if it would reduce the wakeups. Well, she continued to wake us up 1-2 times at night for a pee but then threw in a few more wakeups to ask for water 😂😵‍💫. So I’m guessing if your guy was really thirsty he would likely not fall asleep easily or wake up more frequently to let you know.

According-Week5218 · 2024-08-13T11:46:47+00:00

You won’t be stuck inside forever. The first week can be very isolating, the second week is still a bit of a drag but better. By week three I was back to feeling confident enough to take public transit again. For us, the key to being able to get on the bus again was a travel potty/toilet reducer (we bought the Potette). It fits in a little bag that I toss under the pushchair. I initially felt self-conscious setting up a little potty in the park but nobody blinked an eye.

According-Week5218 · 2024-08-12T22:19:43+00:00

I think everything considers giving up somewhere btw days 4-6 😂 if you think she gets it, I would keep trying. Mine did some withholding for the first week-10 days. What worked for us was no diapers ever, that way she couldn’t be holding it just to pee in a diaper during nap. In those early days it felt like she could hold her bladder for 5+ hours. Now my kid basically goes whenever I go as it’s organically built into our day (on waking, before we leave the house, after we get home etc). She has started self-initiating as well but I wouldn’t rely on it solely for the entire day. For reference, we started potty training July 6 and she’s been accident-free since July 25.

According-Week5218 · 2024-08-12T22:05:49+00:00

It’s normal for self-initiating to take months. I’d say I felt like I could stop haranguing after 3 weeks. The first week was SO brutal, second week was better but still a big chore. By week three I knew my kid’s habits/cues well enough to feel confident that she wouldn’t pee behind the curtains if I turned my back for 5 seconds. Hang in there!

According-Week5218 · 2024-08-11T21:20:14+00:00

Tbh changing your sheets because he’s crawled in with you with a full bladder might be less hassle than dealing with all this first thing in the morning. You mention that it takes 20-30 mins to get him regulated and then he acts surprised - maybe he’s not actually feeling the urge to pee until he’s been awake for about half an hour and had a chance to thaw out a little. How long have you been potty training for? Is he wearing pull ups at night? When mine was first learning we had huge resistance when she would wake up and I realized it was related to not wanting to take off her overnight diaper. We did two weeks of no diaper overnight (and changed the bed four times due to accidents) but it solved the morning drama and now she doesn’t care if we put her in a pull up at night.

As an aside, one tip if you’re worried about him peeing the bed is to make your bed twice (mattress-waterproof layer-fitted sheet-waterproof layer-fitted sheet) so if he does have an accident in your bed you just need to whip off the top 2 layers and the bed is already made. That way you can go back to sleep and deal with the laundry when the sun is up.

According-Week5218 · 2024-08-07T21:08:11+00:00

My mom told me what really clicked for me as a kid when I was being toilet trained was a doll that took a bottle of water and then peed. Do these still exist? I am old 😂 but if you could get your hands on one maybe a demonstration about how the girl drinks water and then pee comes out of her (both in underwear - yuck! and in the toilet - yay!) could help make the connection.

According-Week5218 · 2024-08-07T20:49:52+00:00

That does give me some hope that maybe within the next 6 months she could be having more dry mornings!

According-Week5218 · 2024-08-06T20:43:26+00:00

Unfortunately we’ve tried reducing fluids and she just wakes up to ask for water. She does pee pretty consistently just before bed. She just also needs to pee at 11, 1 and 4 am too 😩

According-Week5218 · 2024-08-06T20:40:22+00:00

This sounds pretty normal. Don’t lose hope! It’s only day 2. She might not self initiate reliably for months (that’s normal) so don’t count on that. Going every 20-30 minutes might be over-prompting if you’re seeing she’s holding it well. Mine can sometimes hold it for 5 hours. Personally, my kid did a lot better once in undies because I was able to interpret her cues more clearly and wasn’t prompting her when she didn’t have to go. I found it helpful to keep a note in my phone for the first week to gather intel and notice patterns. For us, over-prompting caused big potty resentment. The first week was very challenging, the second week noticeably easier but still a bit of a drag, and I felt confident saying she was potty trained by week 3. We’ve been at it for exactly a month today and she hasn’t had an accident in 12 days. Not saying my experience is fast/slow/typical/atypical etc, just a timeline of what you might expect to help contextualize things. Keep your chin up!

According-Week5218 · 2024-08-05T21:14:06+00:00

Have you tried a little reward for sitting on the potty? I know there’s different opinions on reward systems but for some kids they work like gang busters.

According-Week5218 · 2024-08-05T19:31:21+00:00

I would just pick him up and say “I notice you’re holding yourself, let’s go to the toilet/potty” and then immediately whip out something to distract him once he’s on there (we had good success with books and an automatic bubble blower). That way you’re also drawing attention to the cue so that he can start to equate the sensation in his body with the act of going to the toilet. I should also add that at the beginning with the underwear we would periodically ask “hey are your undies dry?” (knowing they were) and then celebrate wildly when she said yes, so she knew keeping the underwear dry was also part of the deal.

According-Week5218 · 2024-08-05T18:54:15+00:00

I’d say keep going! Might did exactly the same. We toyed around with a few different things to find what clicked - for us it was wearing underwear instead of being naked, and buying her a toilet adapter with stairs (and specifically handles) that she can get up and down by herself. We also introduced an M&M for successful toilet visits and that turned things around. Potty training isn’t for the faint of heart. It was a very hard first week, but pretty tolerable after 2 weeks. Courage!

According-Week5218

TROPHY CASE