How normal is it to have a 5 year old in nappies at night?

[WonderingAspie]

DD started school last September. She is still in nappies at night. They are pretty wet but they seem warm in the morning which makes me think she is weeing after she wakes up, I have no idea how much she does at night but sometimes they leak she has wee'd so much.

Is it normal for her to still be in nappies and be at school? None of my friends children are still in nappies, DS was dry at night before he started school. Unfortunately DD has mentioned it in school and was being picked on about it. I have told her that it's nothing to be ashamed of but we don't need to talk about it to other people because children can be unkind.

I have a friend who says she put normal pants on underneath so her DS felt when he was wet and woke up. I don't think you can train being dry at night, I thought it was one of those things that happens when it happens?

[Girlwhowearsglasses]

Totally!

It's a different mechanism to be dry at night. Requires a hormone to kick in to stop urine production. Check out the ERIC website and helpline, but don't stress it if dry in the day.

DS3 is 7 and a month ago he just went from wet pyjama pants every night to dry literally overnight. His twin similar about six months ago.

There are still some 7 year olds not dry at night I know. Nobody volunteers this information but I've seen a few threads similar and when he went dry so suddenly I've kept meaning to post about it.

[FishWithABicycle]

Totally normal. You can't make it happen before it occurs naturally.

[WonderingAspie]

That's what I thought. I have said this to my friend but she is a know it all adamant that she trained her DS by making him feel when he was wet and waking up. I have read it's something that happens when it does.

[Lamaitresse]

From what I remember with ds we were told that there needs to be a hormone present in order for the child to be aware enough to wake up to go to the loo. I might be remembering that wrongly though!
Ds was in nappies at night until he was almost 6 I think, and he wasn't the only one in his class either. We ended up lifting him and taking him to the loo when we went to bed (he wouldn't wake up & even walked himself, we just had to steer him ). We had a few accidents at night when he did come out of nappies, but not too many. We also figured out that it was easier for him if he didn't drink too much before he went to bed.

[CorBlimeyTrousers]

I don't know how normal but our 5.5 year old Year 1 son is still in nappies at night. I'm trying to be chilled and wait until he's ready. He swears he's not weeing after he wakes up but when he's asleep.

[longdiling]

Very normal. I think you wouldn't get any help from a gp until they were around 7? My elder two kids were 6 when they finally came out of night nappies. Youngest was 2! I did nothing different with any of them.

[sleepwhenidie]

Your friend didn't train her child, she just got lucky and whatever she did coincided with the natural time her child became dry at night. It's very normal to be completely toilet trained by day but not dry at night at 5 (or 6,7,8...).

[WonderingAspie]

Thanks. It's nice to have confirmed what I already suspected.

We did lift DS and he wasn't dry before we started taking his nappy off but they weren't as wet as DDs are so I know she just isn't ready yet.

[CatWithKittens]

We have four DC over 5 and only one of them was out of night nappies before she was 5 and she was only four months short of her birthday. Two of the others were six and a half and the third was a year older than that. Number 5 looks as though he is following in his siblings' footsteps - he still wets when asleep in the car or having a nap so we put him in padded trainer pants then and he has nappies at night. So in answer to your question it is eitehr 75% or 80% normal in our household, depending on your optimism for a sudden change in number 5. X5

[Heatherjayne1972]

My ex was 14 before he was dry at night. Apparently they tried everything alarms /waking for a toilet trip/ limiting fluids / getting cross ! ( least helpful imo) etc etc
So now my 6 year old is still not dry at night and I'm playing it cool
I tell him it doesn't matter/ sheets can be washed / no one knows but us if he got pull ups on / never mind etc etc - and no I never get cross
He will get there eventually

[Spandexpants007]

My 6 year old is still in nappies. Will seek help when 8

[Palomb]

My ds is 7.5 and still absolutely sodden every morning. It's just one of those things that takes a while for some children but I hope he gets it soon as the nappies cost me ages and I sick of washing wet pyjamas and sheets!

[Roseberrry]

My friends little boy still wears pull ups on a night and still has accidents during the day. Totally normal I think, they're still babies really

[IAmAPaleontologist]

Ds1 was 5 and a half, dd is 7 and still soaking. Ds2 is 4 and also in a night nappy. Wish dd would hurry up, absorbent night time pull ups for her age are expensive!

[Couchpotato3]

You only need to look at the supermarket shelves and see how many pull-ups for older children are there to know that this is a relatively common problem. My DD was in pull-ups until at least 9 or 10 (I can't actually remember). We stuck it out and didn't make a big deal of it at all. She was just an extremely heavy sleeper. Eventually she grew out of them, and has been fine ever since. I wouldn't try to do any "training" any more than I would try to potty-train a toddler who wasn't ready. Don't stress about it - it WILL sort itself out in the end.

[Paffle]

Nothing to add except that it's such a relief to read this stuff. My DS 5.8 and nowhere near.

[emza78]

We've tried "training" my 5.4 year old this Easter hold, first 3 nights dry then 6 nights wet. My theory is she slept lighter the first few nights as was a novelty then went back to the deep sleep. Pondering whether to enter the lifting crew but not really keen to start that. Does the first 3 nights indicate she may be ready tho with some perseverance?

[JeffreySadsacIsUnwell]

6yo is dry but only because we lift at the same time every night (approx 2.5hrs after bedtime) - if we're half an hour late, it'll be a wet bed.

[Saffy110]

Glad I did a search and found this thread, been wondering if dd who is 5 is making that hormone yet that stops wee production at night, how can you tell if it's that just not occurring yet, or if they are just in such a deep sleep they can't wake up to go to the toilet?

Dd goes for a wee just before bed and usually we give her plenty of fluids up til 6pm then try to limit, but because it's been warm weather recently we don't want to restrict her fluids as she suffers with POTS like me so needs to drink lots anyway, even when to not warm weather. Plus she's a v hot and sweaty child so needs to replace those fluids lost.

We then lift her 2 hours after she goes to bed as experience has taught us that any later and she wets the bed, I think it's because she's in such a deep sleep though, because after that she's dry all night til the morning when I get her up at 7 for school. Then at the weekend she naturally wakes up between 7 and 8 and goes to the toilet herself while we're still asleep (then comes in and wakes us up 🙂). Do you think that means she is producing the hormone during the night after we've lifted her? I find it really confusing 😐

[Janie32]

Have you tried putting her to bed without a pull up. My child is also 5 and has shown no signs of being ready. Soaking pull ups each night and often a wet bed. On Friday I just thought I would try no pull up. I couldn't believe it, dry pj's. The same last night.

[Emmah75]

I have a 6 yo DD, 5 yo DS and 3 yo DS all still in pull ups at night. I have a 9yo DS who has been dry for 6 years except for the odd occasion. My DD is starting to get upset so I tried taking her out of them, plenty of fluid during the day, none after 6pm, do a wee before bedtime etc etc but over a week later she was still wet every night. It's beyond frustrating but I cling to the hope that one day this magical hormone will kick in.
Rest assured, you're not on your own!