Any tips for night training a shameless 5 year old!

[Renwein]

Hi,

DS will be 6 in August. He is a lovely boy but fairly lazy and not bothered about doing things for himself. He only started using the potty because nappies weren't allowed in the pre-school room at nursery and only moved from potty to toilet aged 5 because we hid the potty in the garage and forced him into it! He has been in pull ups at night and I have been waiting for him to be dry in the morning or show some sign he wants to be dry at night. But I have recently figured out from things he has said to me that he's just weeing in the pull ups for convenience even when he's wide awake and capable of going to the loo. He does it before he goes to bed and in the morning before he takes them off.

I figure I need to take the pull ups away so that option isn't available to him. Anyone else been in a situation like this? Do you think those bed mats might be a better option? Or do I just need to prepare for a few nights of wet sheets. I wondered about waiting till the school hols or at least only doing it at weekends so he isn't too tired at school.

TIA
Renwein

[nannyl]

i expect you will get lots of answers saying its normal for children to be in night nappies at 7 (or even older)

However if i really is doing it to be lazy then get rid of them and see what happens! The holidays are coming up so you could wait a month, or you could do it now and see what happens.
i dont think doing it weekends only is a good idea though

[backjustforaminute]

I have this problem with my DD who has just turned 5. We stopped the night nappies last week, and so far she has wet the bed every night, except for one night when she didn't. I check her last thing at night and sometimes around 3 - 4 a.m and she's always dry then, but by 7 she is usually soaked. It does sound as though she doesn't like going to the loo early in the morning, so maybe laziness but she is never told off, I just explain that she needs to go to the toilet.

We use those bed mats, so the sheets don't need changing every time thankfully. Maybe it's worth trying, just to see what happens?

DD has a little bedside light that she can turn on herself, and in theory she likes the idea of switching the light on & taking herself to the toilet, so there is hope!

[Renwein]

Thanks for replies. DH got some bed mats because they were on special offer and DS saw them and said he wanted to use them so has just gone to sleep without a pull up. A really good sign even if he is wet tonight. Now to deal with DS2 who has just turned two and shouts "no" every time we show him the potty!