Still wet in the night

[familygirl30]

Hi, my boy turned 4 in June, he starts school in Sept, he has some dry pull ups in the morn but still has wet ones too, he's been dry in the day since 2.5. My plan was to start sending him to bed with pants on aft his birthday but then my baby was born 10 weeks early so was lots of change for him so wasn't the right time, our baby was in sbcu for 7 weeks and now been home for a couple of weeks. Shall I just start now sending him to bed with pants ready for starting school or wait? Anyone else's child still wet during the night at this age? I read somewhere how your child shouldn't still be in training pants at bedtime when starting school

 

[happynewmom1]

Our son is 7..we were just able to take him out of trainers at night 2 weeks ago. We've tried many times before then and he just wasn't ready. He is quite a deep sleeper so I feel that had something to do with it. I'm pretty big on not pushing kids until they are ready and not necessarily go by a time line. For most things. Less pressure on all of us that way. When we took him out of trainers this time he was ready and has been dry since. I think it takes longer for boys. Our daughter asked to quit trainers when she was 3.5 and was dry every night.

 

[sil]

My ds was 4 in June too. He also still wets his trainer every night. He has been dry in the day since 2.5 without a single accident in over a year. I heard night time potty is hormonal and not something that's trainable

 

[pinkstarbinks]

Hey my child is the same age and does, I googled the other day and it sounded somewhat common, ours is a deep sleeper, but I had read about it being because the child's waiting on the hormone release too. Sounds like schools don't see it as a problem until age 7, but that it's worth mentioning to a doctor if it's persisting past age 5

 

[Teri7489]

Try not to focus on the age, it may just be that physically he's not ready. Some children (some up to almost teens) just cannot stay dry at night just to a hormone imbalance. A hormone called ADH (antidiuretic hormone) helps to reduce the amount of urine we produce while we sleep but if we don't have enough of this then we make too much urine, which often leads to bedwetting, especially if you are a heavy sleeper. Until this hormone balance is regulated then the bedwetting will continue. Going to the toilet just before bed, limiting fluid before bed and taking pull up from him won't change this. If it is concerning you then visit the gp and have a chat about it. Time is often all that is needed though, just can be frustrating when you see younger children dry at night. X

 

[daniyaaq]

My daughter is 7 and still has some wet nights. The way I manage is i take her to toilet 2 hours after she sleeps, then she wakes up in the morning dry.

 

[MindUtopia]

Mine is the same age as yours (4.5) and starting school. My understanding is it's perfectly normal for them to be wet at night still at this age and there is often little you can do to encourage it other than to just let it happen. Mine does still have a cup of milk before bed, plus a cup of water at dinner about 30 minutes before that. So she has a lot of fluid right before bedtime. We are going to switch the cup of milk to the morning and start making her wee before bed every night (now she only goes if she needs to). And then just give it time. She's been completely dry and in pants during the day for 2 years now. It will happen in it's own time as far as I'm concerned and frankly that seems easier than dealing with changing sheets due to accidents in the middle of the night especially with a young baby (I'm pregnant too at the moment).

 

[familygirl30]

Mine is the same age as yours (4.5) and starting school. My understanding is it's perfectly normal for them to be wet at night still at this age and there is often little you can do to encourage it other than to just let it happen. Mine does still have a cup of milk before bed, plus a cup of water at dinner about 30 minutes before that. So she has a lot of fluid right before bedtime. We are going to switch the cup of milk to the morning and start making her wee before bed every night (now she only goes if she needs to). And then just give it time. She's been completely dry and in pants during the day for 2 years now. It will happen in it's own time as far as I'm concerned and frankly that seems easier than dealing with changing sheets due to accidents in the middle of the night especially with a young baby (I'm pregnant too at the moment).

Yeah I always thought it will all happen when he's ready, but when saw this comment that someone had wrote on a post on internet about how if they going to b going to school they shouldn't be still in nappies/pull-ups at night! Im a bit hormonal at the Mo and thought I must b a bad mum etc lol, your post made me feel better though thank u

 

[AngelUK]

One of my twins (almost 5 1/2) still needs a pull up at night too. I am not too worried as I have read it is all down to hormones and nothing you can do about it.

 

[blake12336]

My little boy will be five in November. He's still in nappies at night time and will be until he's ready to come out of them. He also doesn't sleep through the night yet and never has done. They will do things in their own time try not to worry x

 

[Eleanor ace]

Please don't worry about it at all, this is definitely not a reflection on your parenting! Day and night training are totally different ball games and in my experience, the majority of children come out of nappies at night a good while after they come out of nappies in the day. Your son wearing a nappy at night will have no impact on his schooling!

 

[luz]

My daughter is almost 4 and still wakes up with a wet pull up every day. She begs to go to sleep in her undies but whenever I let her she pees the bed. I'm pretty sure she less in her sleep, because she tells me every morning that she didn't pee in her pull up and went straight to the potty, yet the pull up is full.

It's a new thing for us, my son was trained Day and night by the time he turned 3. I guess some kids just take a little longer

 

[Bevziibubble]

My DD is 5 and still wears a pull up at night. She's been dry in the day for years but is such a heavy sleeper she doesn't know she's doing it.

 

[aquababy]

My 6 yr old still isn't dry at night, he too was dry during the day from 2.5. You can be referred to an enuresis clinic, we went and were offered medication or a bed wetting alarm. We did try the medication but have now stopped due to other medical issues. Hopefully he'll be dry in his own time. His 3yr old sister on the other hand is pretty much dry every night!

 

[SarahBear]

It's perfectly normal for a 4 year old to still have accidents. I just kept using pull ups until Violet was consistently dry. Then when she had an accident or two, we went back to pull ups until she was consistently dry again. Violet is nearly 5 and has been out of pull ups for a bit now. She does, however, get up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom.

 

[mazndave]

Every child is different and will be dry at their own pace. My son was dry in the day around 2.5, but was still in pull ups until he was 4. He insisted he wanted to stop wearing pull ups from his 4th birthday so we let him, and we probably had accidents 50% off the time to start with. It gradually decreased and now at almost 5 we have probably had 2 accidents in 6 months, think he was in too deep a sleep. My daughter on the other hand was dry in the day from 2 years 3 months, and was out of pull ups at night around 2 weeks later. It just all seemed to click with her at exactly the same time, dry pull ups as soon as she came out of nappies in the day. Not had one accident in the last 8 months (touch wood!)

I don't see why it would matter if they were still in pull ups at night at school age, it's not as if the school have to change them or deal with it in any way. Think it would only cause a problem if slightly older and they were having sleepovers, the child might feel a bit embarrassed with their friends.

 

[Zephram]

Hi, my boy turned 4 in June, he starts school in Sept, he has some dry pull ups in the morn but still has wet ones too, he's been dry in the day since 2.5. My plan was to start sending him to bed with pants on aft his birthday but then my baby was born 10 weeks early so was lots of change for him so wasn't the right time, our baby was in sbcu for 7 weeks and now been home for a couple of weeks. Shall I just start now sending him to bed with pants ready for starting school or wait? Anyone else's child still wet during the night at this age? I read somewhere how your child shouldn't still be in training pants at bedtime when starting school

Age is really irrelevant. Some kids do have hormonal issues that mean they aren't dry at night until they're older, but if your son is having some dry nights, then I'm going to have to go against the grain here! Some older kids will continue to wet a pull up out of convenience because they're wearing it and they know there are no consequences if they do - i.e. they don't get wet pyjamas or a wet bed and they don't have to get out of a warm bed to go to the toilet.

If I was in your situation I would take the pull ups away and give your kid some incentive to actually go to the toilet at night or to hold it. Tell him what's what, he has to either hold it or get up to go to the toilet and give it a good go for a reasonable length of time. Start a sticker chart for a fun reward or something to go along with it and see how he goes. Most kids wil still occasionally wet the bed even after night training, so in my book it's really not a prerequisite to be dry every single night before you try.

So remove the pull ups for a good length of time so you can at least rule out laziness! We figured out pretty quickly that my DS1 just couldn't be bothered getting out of bed, rather than he couldn't hold it, when MIL came to stay and I asked him to try really hard in the kindest manner not to have a wet bed because we'd probably wake her up with all the kerfuffle in the middle of the night. Lo and behold he magically started getting up to go to the toilet after that.

 

[CaliDreaming]

This is entirely normal for a 4 year old and even much older. Unless doctors suspect a medical problem (rare), they won't even look into this until the child is at least 8. Although the vast majority will stay dry by 8, some kids don't stay dry until they are nearly close to puberty.

Night time dryness is a much more complicated process than daytime dryness. It's is entirely a matter of how whether your child's body and brain have physically matured to the point where it is capable of staying dry at night. One big factor in that is whether your child's body is producing a hormone that causes the body to stop producing urine at night. Also, the brain needs to mature to the point where it can signal to the child during sleep that he needs to go. Often children who sleep deeply are bedwetters.

Bottom line: If you child is dry during the day, there's absolutely nothing to do to help your child be dry at night. You just need to be patient and don't shame him over it. He can't control it. Trying to speed this process up is kind of like trying to speed along puberty. Some kids' bodies just mature more slowly than others.

My 6 year old dd wet heavily just about every single night until she was six years old. Then suddenly after her sixth birthday, I started noticing that she was dry more often than wet. Now at 6.5, she is finally going to bed in underwear. She still does not wake up in the middle of the night to go, but her body is now producing less urine at night.