Can you train a child to be dry at night or is it a physical thing?

[Poppychick]

Any opinions on this?

[DavidGest]

I think there are things you can do to help improve occasional night wetness, ie. limiting drinks, making sure they use the loo before bed and are confident to find the bathroom during the night etc but cali is right, they'll be dry when their body is ready to be.

I know several 7yo's that are still in nappies at night and the health profs don't consider it a problem in the slightest.

[smartiejake]

I remember hearing about the the hormone thing too. DD1 was dry at night from 3.2 and has never had a wet bed since.

DD2 was not properly dry until about 7 with still occasional accidents when she was ill.

[anotherdayyetanothernickame]

Agree with DG - there are little things you can do but not much.
Ds was dry at night at 2.9 and I take absolutely no credit, nor do I think he is some potty training genius - he just holds it in well!

[anotherdayyetanothernickame]

And by that I'm not saying he even does anything to hold it in (sorry if I implied that) - it must indeed be down to this hormone

[harpomarx]

I was wondering about this - thinking of taking dd out of nappies at night. She is nearly 4. I do wonder if she just doesn't bother to get up at night because she has nappies on, she seems very keen to keep them on in the morning too . She has been dry during the day since about 2.

[bossybritches]

"Anti-diuretic Hormone" !

Makes your urine production slow down at night, until that kicks in you have no hope!!

When you find they wake up with a dry nappy 3/4 nights a week & stagger to the loo for a HUGE wee, then you're on the way.

[bossybritches]

useful link

[Turniphead1]

My DD was slow to potty train during the day - she was about 3. But suddenly went dry at night at about 3.5 off her own bat.
My DS is nearly 3 and think he will be ages before being dry at night although he self-trained at 2 during the day.

My cousin said she was told that there is a "window" of opportunity when they potty train during the day (of about 2 weeks) that if you take them out of nappies at night at the same time they will be dry at night. I was sceptical but it has worked with all 3 of her DC (her DD is dry night and day aged 2.5) and a lot of her friends (where she lives its a commonly used method).

I am fascinated and will try it on DC3 when time comes. Worth a go imo, although don't understand how it could work.

[specialmagiclady]

When my DS1 was potty training he was dry at night a lot. Now much less so.

[christywhisty]

DS was dry at night before he was dry during the day at 2.9, we realised that he was filling his nappy when he woke up in the morning. He never ever wet the bed.

DD was a nasty shock afterwards. She was dry during the day at about 2.3 on her own initiative.She had a skin graft taken from her inside thigh and were told to put off potty training until it healed, but she just asked to use the toilet to be like her brother.

But she was not dry at night for another 2 years. She would have a few weeks of dry nights then start wetting again.

[Amphibimum]

my 4 and 5 yos just dried up at night by themselves. the 4yo did it earlier i think... dunno. about 3 they were, but late 3 (i think). the 2yo still in nappies at night, but hes had dry nappies in the morning a few times already.

i am far too lazy to press the issue tbh. i have/will put nappies on them/him until it is abundantly clear that it is no longer necessary.

[LittleMoosh]

No you can't train them to be dry at night. It will happen when they are ready. My six year old still wets at night.

[Poppychick]

Thanks everyone, very useful replies.

[NomDePlume]

My DD is 6 in a couple of weeks and is still not dry at night. Nothing I can do

[piratecat]

same with my dd who is 6. i will just wait.

huggies pullups are normally on offer bogof, so it keeps the cost down.

[brimfull]

I think it's a physical thing,both mine were dry straight away with no training..nothing I did.

[unfitmother]

My 11yr old DS has had no more than 10 dry nights in his life!

We threw out the night time pants about 3 years ago as they'll never learn whilst still wearing them. He takes Desmopressin tablets but no sucess yet.

[NotQuiteCockney]

It is absolutely a physical thing - nothing you can do. Both mine were dry at night from 2.5 or so - through no magical achievement on my part!

[Romy7]

just used an alarm with my 8 year old, as in some instances the kids are such heavy sleepers that they will eventually burst/leak, whether they are producing hormone or not. the alarm didn't wake her up (!) but it woke me, so i then went and woke her etc etc - eventually the body trains itself to wake when they hear the alarm (presumably as a more favourable option that me appearing, banging, clapping, putting lights, shaking her awake), and then wake before the alarm goes off... paed told me there are 3 reasons for bedwetting
1 no hormone
2 extremely deep sleep
3 mixture of the above

they usually try medicating first assuming (1), if that doesn't work, an enuresis alarm (2) or both (3)

meds didn't work for dd1, despite doubling the dose, but the alarm was truly fantastic used alone

until they are 8, no-one bothers as it's v normal.

[mrschop]

Turnip, I did the 'window of opportunity' thing with DS - he was fairly late with his potty training, but once he 'got' it (I left him till he did it himself, at about 2.8), I took nappies off at night at the same time and he's been dry since.

We do take him to the loo at our bedtime, as if we didn't he occasionally woke at 4am for a wee (with a newborn at the same time this wasn't great!). When he was little we had to take him to use the loo, so we got in that habit, though now he's 3.5 I guess he'd be able to take himself if he woke in the night.

[Romy7]

the 'window of opportunity' thing is v interesting - dd2 was instantly dry day and night, so presumably did this herself... it certainly wasn't a choice on my part, it just happened.

[unfitmother]

We tried an alarm with DS but he soon learned how to disconnect it.

[Hulababy]

IME no you can't train a child to be dry at night; not until they are ready.

DD is 6y and it has only been in last few months she has been consistently dry, and even then we ended up with a couple of accidents last week.

This is not fr want of her trying and desperately wanting to be dry. She has been dry in the day since 24 months - which was entirely self led and sorted within 3 days. She is desperately keen to be completely dry at night. She hates having accidents.

We got rid of night pants/nappies at 4yo at her request and used reuseable bed mats.

[mrschop]

I didn't push him at all - I stopped using night nappies at the same time as he started wearing pants during the day, and put him in trainer pants at night instead (the pictures disappear if they get wet - I didn't use them for potty t/g but had bought them online by mistake so used them for nighttime). He distinguished between them and his nappies and they were dry in the morning straight away, and after 4 or 5 nights he wore pants to bed.

My SIL suggested it - her friend had done the same and it worked.