Is/was your 5 year old dry at night?

[mealychump]

My just turned 5yo DS is still in nappies at night.

During the day he is fine, generally. We potty trained him at 2.5, it was too early but nursery told us he was ready so we went for it. It was a slog but he was reliably trained at just gone 3.

He's never been dry at night. Never ever had a dry nappy in the morning. I understand that a hormone is responsible for supressing urine at night and assume this hasn't kicked in for him yet.

The other night I went upstairs half an hour after putting him to bed. He was still awake but his nappy was wet . I had words with him and told him that wasn't really OK and if he was awake he definitely needed to use the toilet.

In the morning he's never in a rush to take his nappy off. He will if asked but sometimes he will sneak downstairs in the morning to watch TV and won't take it off. I suspect he may have the odd sneaky wee in when he's awake first thing.

Given its the holidays, this week we went without nappies. He was happy to do so. We stopped all drinks 2 hours before bed etc. But he's literally wet by 10pm and we have done several changes of bedding a night. So we have stopped and gone back to the nappies. He's obviously not ready. He also doesn't wake up when he's wet, its us noticing and waking him to
change the bed, not him.

How usual is all of this?

I am surprised he isn't bothered by a big damp, smelly nappy when he wakes up. If your DC is a similar age and in nappies at night, what do they do in the morning? Is it really unusual for him to not be that bothered by needing/wearing a nappy still?

I have some queries as to wether he may have some sensory issues, so half wondering if this is bundled in with that. But I'm just not sure if this is actually fairly typical or not.

I think all children are different myself in went dry at 2.5 all day and night but then dsd was not dry until she was 8. So it's so different for all children I would stick to pull ups for now and if u r concerned speak to Dr . But I really would try not to worry to much

My DS wasn't reliably dry at night until he was 7, nearly 8. While he was pretty old, when he started going on beaver camp when he was 6 there were quite a few still wearing pull ups. I do think it's more common with boys and at 5 your DS is still within fairly normal ranges.
We used a bed wetting alarm in the end with our DS, but we only did that when he started to be bothered/embarrassed by it, before then we just let him get on with it.
His brother was dry at night before he was 3 so they're all different.

My daughter age 5 is not dry at night, but she has mild development delay. The charity ERIC have useful advice and suggest you seek help from GP starting from 5 yrs old. I'm not making an issue of it yet, she is late to do everything so far.

Our (just) 6yo DD was still in pull ups at 5.5. We tried a few times but instead of getting up with a heavy pull up, we were changing sheets and duvets every night. (WHY did she always have to wrap herself up in the duvet before she pissed?!!)

She cracked it just after her 6th birthday when we tried again. We think that she just wasn't ready initially (they need to develop the hormone that wakens you to pee) and not motivated enough laterally. Her motivation in the end was the chat amongst her friendship group about sleepovers. there's no fricking way I'm hosting 6 year olds on sleepovers

He'll get there when he's ready. Try not to worry about it.

Ds1 is 4.5. He potty trained at 2.5 , g it it straight away, no accidents after day 2. Was dry at night after 4 days (I was ASTOUNDED, he'd been soaking and leaking night nappies, but just stopped seeing in the overnight!) After a few weeks of dry nappies I stopped using them. 6 months later he started having night accidents. It coincided with illness and tiredness (starting longer days at pre school). But he's not been dry since. Also, doesn't wake up. We tried a few weeks ago. It didn't work, he got really upset as he clearly doesn't "feel" it in his sleep. I'm leaving it for now.

Nope my 5.5 year old boy is not dry and is really embarrassed to wear nappies. Not sure how to tackle. Tried alarm- 80 pounds of broken tosh. Following thread for ideas.

He has a pull up on last thing before bed and it comes off first thing in the morning.

Mine were all out of night nappies by 2.5ish but I never waited for dry nappies in the morning - we just went for it once they were trained in the day and had a week or so of accidents.

Do yours all willingly take off their pullups without being asked in the morning?? He will when asked but would quite happily Potter around in it and his PJs for quite a while otherwise

My DS has just turned 6 and he has only been dry at night for the last 3/4 months. I thought he would never get there but it just stopped all of a sudden.

DD1 is 5 and a half. She's in pull ups at night. On occasion she's been dry in the morning, but only once or twice. She used to wee in it before going to sleep so we switched routine to putting pull up on last thing before bed. She takes it off as soon as she wakes. I'm not stressing, cant be doing with the laundry!

No, and the school nurse said it was because he wasn't drinking enough during the day at school, so I asked his teacher to remind him, I marked his water bottle and he had to drink to the next line every time, absolutely no drinks an hour before bed. Now at 8 he drinks right up until bedtime and during the night, and wakes up to go to the toilet if necessary.

My ds was reliably dry at night by 3.5 but did have one or two accidents in the first term of school (4yo), I think he was just too knackered to wake up but that resolved itself fairly quickly.

We left his potty in his room at night with the instruction that he was to use it if he was awake either after being put to bed or before getting up (no bathroom upstairs and had to go downstairs and through living room, kitchen, dining room and utility room before you got to the bathroom, it was a close call for me the odd morning never mind a 3yo).

He was potty trained at 3 in about two weeks with only the odd accident (usually involving a big drink and a bit too long between toilet breaks).

Otoh, I wasn't dry at night until I was about 6, dp was 2 and my cousin was 8.

It's luck of the draw I think, they have no control over night dryness really until the hormone kicks in

Our son was dry at night immediately at 2.5yo. He's now 8yo and his best friend still wears pull-ups at night. I think the umbrella over 'normal' is quite large and nothing to worry about yet.

I would say please don't let him worry about it or blame him in any way, that really won't help. He can help put fresh sheets on, or turn the dial with you on the washing machine or something, then have a big hug and just get on with the day.

If you are really worried then take him to the GP

Think age 5 is still normal.
On holiday with my DS and Dnephew both age 5. Reliably day time potty trained from around 3. Both still wear night time pull-ups. Both are capable of waking in the night and taking themselves to the bathroom if they need a wee, but also if they are deeply asleep they will wee in the pull-up. By the morning DS normally has accumulated a couple of pull-ups with the first very wet - he is so deeply asleep he sleeps through any wees from 8pm to 2am - and the second pull-up he puts on when he wakes around 2am after a loo trip will invariably remain dry, either because he’s not peeing or because he takes himself to the bathroom again.

I bad for him that he is still producing so much urine and that he is now conscious of it so it’s disrupting his sleep, but hopefully only another year or so like this.

Interesting to hear of going to the GP from 5. I thought as per another PP that the Eric website advised until 7 was still normal for nighttime wetting so I hadn’t bothered to take any further, but maybe I’ll ask now.

Yeah I've just been in and popped a pull-up on him. I'll definitely leave him in them for a while. Might try going cold turkey again in the spring unless his nappies seem dry overnight before that.

This has been reassuring. I'm not worried about the wetting at night now.

Just still wondering if his potential sensory issues are playing a part in it still.

I've heard 7 too.

FYI we have never been cross with him or disappointed about the night wetting.

The only time I've been a bit cross and annoyed is when I realised he had done a pee in it after we had tucked him in but we'll before he was asleep!

ds1 was dry at night by 2.5.

ds2 was not reliably dry at night until he was over 6. He would go weeks of being dry and then have an "accident" so we didn't have him in pull ups as it didn't happen that often. But we didnt get rid of the waterproof mattress protector until he was 7.

I don't think 5 is particularly unusual.

My three all were. However my cousins two children both weren't for quite some time after five. So I reckon its maybe genetic with when the hormone that makes them not wee at night kicks in. One of the mums in my sons class was saying before xmas her 6yo dd still has accidents every night. So a fair amount of kids are still wet at that age.

Ds is approaching 6 and has just cracked it. He sounds very similar to your DC (wees in it before even getting into bed, leaves it on in the morning etc). I was waiting for a dry nappy in the morning before even thinks about no nappies at night but it didn't come. He wasn't bothered about trying until his much younger sibling stopping wearing them over the summer.

I decided to let him try no nappies for a week at his request. I emphasize his body might not be ready and not to worry etc but we would "practice" for a week. We did lift him in his sleep around 10pm just to give him a bit of confidence (some nights he would have already had an accident by then!!) and around day 6, he went the rest of the night without an accident. After a few more days (possibly 5-10days I can't remember now), we stopped the lifting. It took around a month of some good nights, some bad but now rarely get an accident unless there's a change in bedtime routine. Every week got better. He sleeps very deeply so imo he had to practice feeling the signal to wake up.

In our case, I think I needed to gently encourage progress . I'd still be waiting for a dry nappy otherwise. I read somewhere that yes the hormone needs to be produced but the habits of listening to your body still need to be practiced.

My eldest was 7 when he stopped peeing at night, I was still putting his younger brother in pull ups until 5 because I was putting them on DS1 but DS2 didn't need them! It is purely hormonal, I worked in a paediatric urology clinic when I was a young woman and we didn't even take referrals until they were 6, some children the hormone kicks in around 2-3 and for others it's a lot later and that's all there is to it. You just have to wait until it works. My friends son was in year 6 before he was even partly dry at night and as an adult now he's just fine!

Yes started toilet training at 2yr 9 month, she's 6 soon. And was dry in the night before she was in the day.
But she has 4 cousins from 3-5 yrs old. 2 are and 2 aren't. We have a variety of other relatives that were dry as kids and some that went into the teens not being dry at night. I have friends who have kids that are dry before 5yrs old and some who have kids that were around 8 before being dry. And Bil (40s) still isn't dry if he's had too much on a weekend. Everyone is different, and while it is hard work and stressful, you'll get there.

My dd trained easily in the day at 2.5 and was dry at night quite quickly after, then had a few wet nights for a couple of weeks, so I put her back in pull ups as a temporary measure... And 3 years later was still using the f'ing things! So annoying!

What worked for us (after a while) was making sure she drank loads and loads of water, especially first thing in the morning. Literally I was standing over her while she glugged a full, big sippy cup of water, then trying to get more in her during the day, but it wasn't always easy as she was at school, so I'd get her to drink lots after school if her school bottle was still full.

I also massively increased the fruit & veg (including prunes and apricots etc) she ate, as I read there's a huge link between constipation and bed wetting.

In hindsight I assume constipation is why she started wetting again - she never showed real signs of constipation, but apparently kids often don't, but there's still some blockage that totally affects their bladder control at night. I was annoyed that if you Google bedwetting it doesn't suggest constipation, but if you Google constipation then it says bedwetting is a symptom! Dd certainly became much more regular and found pooing easier with the new regime so it helped her anyway.

She was completely dry at night after a few months of this regime and I was honest with her about needing to drink lots/eating x as it'd help her have dry nappies. She's now 6 and has been dry for ages, so its worth persevering.

What isn't worth it (IMHO) is going cold turkey on nappies because well meaning people tell you that the kid is relying on them & just being lazy or because you've had 1 dry night and get excited! The resultant laundry & bed/child changing at silly o'clock in the morning just makes it all unbearable, so we had a good month of dryness before we finally ditched the nappies.

My girl potty trained just before 3 and was dry I the night at the same time. No accidents ever. But I didn’t do anything to make that happen - they’re all different.

@Zebrasinpyjamas they do sound similar! Thanks for sharing. What happened the first few nights when you went cold turkey?

On our first night he did really well. He was dry when we lifted him at 10pm and woke us twice to tell us he was wet. I was really pleased with this because when we tried no nappies beforehand he would just wake up at the normal time in sodden sheets! Obviously not waking after weeing.

Second and third nights he was wet by 10pm and didn't wake all night despite being wet through.

Checked on him at 9pm tonight and he was already soaked. He's now back in his pullup.