Help with bedwetting and broken sleep needed please!

[susanb]

My ds will be 4 in September and still wears nappies at night. He has been very reliably dry during the day for about a year but every morning his nappy his soaked so I haven't even attempted to remove it. Is is best to wait until I get a dry nappy or should he really be coming out of them at his age??

At the moment, I absolutely knackered because since the weather has warmed up, he wakes every night crying saying that his crotch is itching (he suffers from mild excema as well) and obviously the fact he has a nappy on doesn't help much either. I am trying all the obvious things. I change him again before I go to bed so he has a fresh nappy on from about 11 pm onwards, keep the room cool, put on his excema cream, etc but still every night he is in discomfort. I know I'm clutching at straws but has anyone else gone through this and what did they do? Is it best to bite the bullet and remove the nappies or can anyone recommend any nappies/cream that are good for sensitive skin?

Thanks alot
Susan

[jac34]

One of my DS's was late being dry at night, he must have been about 4 and 4 or 5 months by the time he eventually got dry.
He was a very heavy sleeper and his pull-ups would be absolutely saturated, by morning. I thought he would never be dry, but one morning he was dry, this happenrd for a few days, so I left them off. That was that, he's been dry ever since !!
It also seemed to be at a time, when he grew very quickly, I think his bladder just needed to grow that little bit extra and that was it.
As for the excema, woulden't that get worse, if you removed the nappy and he got soaked in urine.

[kmg1]

Susanb - I could have written jac34s post word-for-word.

The exact same thing happened with ds1 - most of his friends were dry at night, his nappy was completely sodden every morning. (He was and is in bed for 12-13 hrs each day). Every now and then we tried leaving the nappies off, lifting, etc., etc., but it just ended in mountains and mountains of laundry! Then suddenly, literally overnight, the nappies were dry in the mornings. So we took them off, left them off, and that was that - no accidents. He was just a couple of months off 5!

DS2 is now 4, and I'm not stressing with him - I'll just wait til he shows signs of being ready.

Sorry to hear about the excema though - hope someone here can offer some advice on that.

[Dahlia]

Yeah, my dd wasn't dry at night til she was 5, I got really stressed as she was way behind all her friends, but she just wasn't ready - then it just happened, one dry night and we went for it, used to get her out of bed when we went to bed and sit her on the loo and she would wee without really waking up, and then go back to bed. We did that for a few weeks, and then stopped and she stayed dry.

[judetheobscure]

Dd wasn't dry at night till 5 and a half and ds is only 75% reliable and will be 6 in June (and he gets lifted at 11pm ish.)

There's no point pushing it. If the bladder is not sufficiently mature it simply won't cope. Gps in general won't want to do anything about it until the age of 7, so you've got a fair way to go. Afraid that doesn't help with the eczema though. However, nappies are supposed to be better at absorbing wetness than trainer pants - with trainer pants part of the idea is that they do feel wet so the child notices (in theory) that s/he has had an accident.

[judetheobscure]

Sorry susanb, it was jac34 with the trainer pants, not you. So no help at all to you I'm afraid.

[janh]

susan, could you use a barrier like Vaseline either on top of the eczema cream or instead? Or would it aggravate the eczema even more?

Do you have cortisone cream/ointment? If you use that to clear the eczema (it does work incredibly quickly in our experience) and then use a barrier in the affected area it might get you all a better night's sleep.

The main problem with going nappy-less is the wet bedding but in this hot spell (less bedding!) could you try putting him to bed in just pants - but with good waterproofing on mattress - and see if being damp wakes him up and makes him more conscious of the whole process?

Poor little boy - must be awful for him!

[susanb]

Thanks all so much for your help. To be honest, I've just tried getting some pull ups instead of nappies at night; I know judetheobscure said they may not be so absorbent but I explained to ds they were special pants and that if he needed to scratch himself at night he could easily get to it. Obviously because they are elasticated I'm thinking this may be easier for him.

To be honest, the excema isn't particularly bad in his crotch but he's always been the sort of child who gets very itchy and irritated when he overheats and although I tried everything else like keeping his bedroom cool, etc, he's obviously getting very hot down below.

I'll also try the Vaseline.

Thanks again.

[tigermoth]

susanb, just wondered if you use absorbant mats on top of the mattress but under the sheet? Boots do them. They really suck up fluid and you can just bung them in the washing machine time and time again. We have two - usually one on the bed and one in the wash.

When my nearly 4 year old has accidents the mat absorbs much of the wetness, so he's more comfortable. Would this help with your problem?

Sorry off topic a bit but I have to say I have just breathed a huge sigh of relief after reading about all these 4 and 5 year olds who suddenly grew out of bedwetting. I too have been trusting to my son's bladder growth. And feeling bit guilty about my lazyness in the potty department. I didn't realise I others are doing this, too.

In our case potty training at night is complicated by the fact that my son sleeps in the top bunk in his older brother's room. I am worried about him negotiating his way down the ladder to go to the loo in the middle of the night. Hence me keeping him in nappies.

His old nursery room is now the new computer room. His cotbed is still here for emergencies, but I don't like him sleeping in the room in case he wakes up and does untold damage to our new PC. Luckily he's taken to his bunk bed really well. But it's near impossible for us to lift him out of it and put him on the potty without waking him up last thing at night.

I though I was a bad mother, putting new computer before night time potty training, but now I've read this thread, now I don't feel so bad after all.

Note to self - must read more potty trainig threads.

[susanb]

Hi tigermoth

I did think about the absorbent mats but the problem is that my son often leaks by the morning even with a nappy on, he has always peed alot!!

If he wees it will still go onto his sheet, legs etc so I'm wondering if this would help. I must admit I'm willing to try anything as yet again he was awake in the night scratching. I'm tempted to leave his nappies off but as I've been reassured here I can't force him to go through the night staying dry until he's ready.

Good luck with your son.

[runragged]

Have you tried the Pampers sensitive nappies? Have you been to the GP about the excema? Perhaps there is some kind off barrier cream you could use.

[judetheobscure]

The absorbent mats are brilliant. My ds also wees a lot and you'd never know anything had happened if you looked at the mat - it's just his pyjamas that get soaked. I can really recommend them - but do get two. Also availavle from jojomamanbebe if you prefer mail order.