Still in night-time nappies.....normal or not?

[orangekitkat]

DS will be 5 in the summer. We've never had a dry nappy in the morning. He's the kind of boy that would do anything rather than go to the loo so he often dashes off at the last minute occasionally sporting a small leak in his pants, grrr.
I've had various bits of advice ranging from don't worry about it, through lift him when we go to bed to just don't put a nappy on and he'll learn.
We've always kinda bumbled along with most parenting things and ds has got there without any 'intervention'.
Any thoughts or suggestions welcome!

[thelittlebluepills]

totally normal. as my friend reminded me "there is a reason they make night-time nappies up to aged 15"

DS1 is under the paediatrician for a couple of things including nighttime wetting - he will be doing a referral to the enuresis nurse when DS1 turns 7 as they say there's no point intervening before then - he seems very unconcerned. the paed said definitely do not lift him to the loo at night as it doesn;t train his brain to wake up when his bladder is full - apparently the enuresis nurse can lend us a mat that goes on his bed and sets off all sorts of alarms when it detects moisture - this teaches the subconsious to wake the child when their bladder is full. two friends have told me this worked brilliantly within a few days. another friend recalled how the alarms had woken the sibling, the parents and the neighbours and yet her DD slept through the entire thing (and continued to wet the bed)

DS1 is also rubbish at stopping what he's doing to go to the loo - so he also have lots of wet pants when I find a magical solution I will let you know....

[orangekitkat]

thank you!

[CMOTdibbler]

My ds will be 5 in May and is still wet every morning. But he is another 'too busy to wee', and also sleeps like the dead. Fireworks outside the house don't wake him, so not sure an alarm would.

I'm happy for him to wear pyjama pants till he sorts it out for himself

[Sleepwhenidie]

Ditto what CMOTdibbler said - my DS1 (5.5) sounds exactly the same but I'm not panicking yet.

[orangekitkat]

this is my thinking too, just need a bit of reassurance!

[hellymelly]

Mine were both dry by 24m,friends two were still in nappies at night at 5/6. I think there is a huge variety and its all probably normal.As you mention,my friends older dd in particular is a really heavy sleeper too.

[StealthPolarBear]

I don;t think there is 'normal' when it comes to dry at night other than by the time they get a boy/girl friend :o

[ceebeegeebies]

DS1 is going to be 5 in the summer aswell and he was in pull-ups at night up until Christmas. Literally (and I mean literally) overnight he went from having a very full nappy in the morning to not needing one at all - it was like a switch had been turned on in his brain. We don't lift him, he never goes to the toilet in the night and has never had an accident....I know we were probably very lucky but I guess I am posting this to say that it can happen overnight so don't worry about it. If it hadn't happened and he was still in nappies now, I wouldn't be concerned.

I read somewhere that there is some hormone that needs to be present for children to be dry at night and that can take up to at least 7 years old to appear (and is generally later in boys) but obviously you won't know when - until it is there, training children is nigh on impossible apparently.

[orangekitkat]

this is all v comforting. I'd also heard about a hormone thing.
I do sometimes suspect however he's just too idle to care and quite likes a warm nappy round his bits