Night time dryness, or not.

[Sparrowlegs248]

Just been in to DS again, to find a wet bed. He is not quite 4 which I know is young, but was dry for months after starting potty training. Then started wetting which I put down to tiredness (co invited with starting pre school).

Now though I have to get him up for a wee every night. Doing it when I go to bed doesn't seem to work, as he will often still wet. Do I set an alarm. I am so tired though that so etimes I sleep through it (it has to be quiet so it doesn't wake dc2) or like tonight, I turn it off and think "get up now" and fall back to sleep.

I went in and he's fallen out if bed, wee'd laying face down on the carpet leaving a huge wet patch, then got back in bed and laid face down leaving wet sheets too.

Would you keep lifting for a wee? Or put in pull ups at night. (He REALLY isn't keen on this idea, as younger sibling is in nappies and he sees them as for babies). So I wasn't keen to use oil ups but have receny read that lifting at night is a bad idea, as it kind of trains them to need a wee, as such?

I'd be using pull ups if this was my child.

My 3.5 year old also doesn’t like the idea but has accepted that it’s pull ups or a wet cold bed in the morning. We’ve also tried waking to pee around 10 pm but still had wetting. Not going to stress about it until after 5.

Yes, lifting at night is not recommended. Just put him in pull ups.

My seven year old still wets heavily every night and gets grief occasionally from his dry four year old brother about still being in ‘nappies’. DS2 gets a very hairy eyeball from me and DS1 gets reassurance that they wouldn’t make pull ups for his age (and older) if they weren’t needed by lots of children.

It’s hormonal - it will kick in when it’s ready and there’s not much you can do to change it (and I say this having gone down the paediatrician route with DS1 over his night wetting).

My 9 yr old is only just (almost) dry at night. She still has the odd accident - maybe once a month - after a very busy day or bad sleep the night before. Her sister was dry at night at 4.

I'd put him in pull ups, if I were you!

I'd put him back in pull ups too.

Put pull ups on him and get a bed guard.

Pull ups. My son is only just dry at night at 6. We got quite regimental with reward charts/stickers/bribes to be dry at night however ultimately we were making the situation worse. As soon as we relaxed and just stopped mentioning it the pull ups were slowly drier and drier.

I'd echo the above comments that it's perfectly normal not to be dry at night at this age. BUT in your OP you said you had several months of night dryness before wetting started again - if I've read that right, I'd recommend getting the GP to double check there's no wee infection or constipation causing a relapse.

Over Easter we did bladder training with 5yo DD to see if that would help (under instructions from the continence nurse). We we told not to lift.

Basically you make them drink a LOT in the day so the bladder stretches and gets used to holding lots. No wee’s ‘just in case’ as they have to learn to hold it. Then they can cope at night.

It worked - we went from sopping full nappies every night to dry in a fortnight. Only had one accident since.

Try that in conjunction with pull ups?

Thanks all. Yes he had 6 or 7 months of dry nights, then relapsed with tiredness. I honestly do think it's tiredness. He was waking to see a d shouting for me, or sleeping through and seeing in the morning, whereas he doesn't even wake up once he's weed now.

He can hold wee a LOT in the day.

Ok, I'll try what you suggest @Collectorofcookbooks in conjunction with pull ups.

Pull ups just seemed a backwards step that he wasn't happy with but I'll give it a try!

Good luck! We did lots of drinking (not fruit juice as can irritate the bladder) during the day (3 big water bottles) with last drink at 6pm, then a ‘double wee’ before bed - wee, teeth, wee again to be sure that the bladder is empty, bed.

Thanks, I think the worst bit will be getting the pull up on. He's had a bottle of weak squash just now. He doesn't drink that much, and I do water only after lunch with a tiny bit of milk before bed (half an hour or so) and a last minute wee. I honestly am not worried about him still needing to wee but clearly what we've been doing isn't working. (Tired....)

Friend puts a pull up on her DC when he is already asleep so less fuss that way.

DC1 was in pull ups until 6 I think. Very occasionally we still get a wet bed and he's coming up 9. Younger DC was out of pull ups by 4. Totally depends on child.

Mine was like this, dry for months aged about 4 but then wet all the time and sleeping right through it. He ended up back in pull ups and we are only just starting to see some consistent dry nights and he's now 8.5.

Make sure it’s not blackcurrant squash, OP, as it irritates the bladder. Our paediatrician said juice was actually OK (and apple juice was the only way we could get DS1 drinking enough) but blackcurrant in any form should be avoided.

We did exactly as Collector describes for weeks, but it didn’t make a bit of difference here, unfortunately. The idea is it’s supposed to stretch an under-sized bladder, but since it transpires that DS1 can actually hold 1.5-2L in his bladder (yes, we had to catch several full wees over the course of a week in a measuring jug to establish this 😣) it’s obviously a hormonal cause for him, rather than a capacity issue.

He does love blackcurrant but has had apple squash and water today. 2 bottles. He's been to the toilet ONCE I think, since 5am. So yes, no capacity issue here either. Maybe twice, but I'm sure it's once.

2nd wee of the day!

Having put a very unwanted pull on last night, it was dry this morning. I didn't get him up for a wee. So after a 1 day trial I will carry on with this, as it's occurred to me that by getting him up in the night, I would never know if he'd be dry all night, unless I stopped! Whereas this way, a long run of dry pull ups will be a pretty good sign!