Oh Crap! Potty Training

On that note, there is no such thing as just nap training. You can
always try to go with a diaper for nap, but there is nothing we can do
to assist the child (i.e., you can’t wake a child midnap to help them
empty their bladder).
It’s always best to ditch all diapers as soon as you are able. But
night training can be wonky because there really is an issue of
whether or not the child’s bladder is able to hold and consolidate for
such a long time.
My bottom line is that night training can be on the back burner
until around three to three and a half. If it hasn’t naturally occurred
by then, you must attend to it. The bladder is being developed at this
age, and if it develops fully without the practice of holding and
consolidating, those muscles will atrophy, and you will struggle
indefinitely with bedwetting.
I can in no way know for certain what is true for every single child
out there. I just can’t. But I can see trends in the thousands of kids I
have worked with. A very real and serious trend I see is that once a
child is past the age of four, night training becomes near impossible.
I regularly get clients, including pediatricians, with five-, six-, and
seven-year-olds in nighttime diapers (pull-ups, which are diapers).
They think they don’t have to attend to night training, and time just
keeps marching on. And then the child’s muscles are atrophied, and
night training is incredibly hard.
Now granted, there are some truly tough and rare cases. But the
sheer volume of kids currently over four in night diapers is not right.
It’s not an issue of the kids not being able to do it. It’s an issue of the
wicking of disposables, the child not feeling the wetness, and the
aggressive marketing on the part of the big diaper companies.