Lifting at night

[GreenApples987]

Hi,

I'm posting here for traffic.

DH's been lifting our son (5.8 years old) at night for a wee while he sleeps (we don't wake him up for this) for a month now. We cut the drinks by 7-7:30pm, ask him to wee before going to bed (8:30ish) and DH lifts him for another wee around 11pm. Sometimes this routine works a charm and DS wakes up dry, but most of the time even after having a wee at 11, DS still wakes up wet, either in the middle of the night (2-3am) or very early in the morning (5-6am). It's been a constant with bed sets to wash nearly everyday and a grumpy child in the morning to do the school run(probably because of the bed wetting interrupting his sleep). We are all very tired and wondering if this is really the way to go to potty train him during the night.

Does anyone have a word of advice, please? We are feeling very tired and hopeless at this point.

A bit of background: we took DS off the night nappies and started the lifting mainly because the nappy was not holding the volume of wee anymore and he was already waking up wet during the night even wearing them.

Have you tried cutting the drinks earlier and maybe an earlier? We let our DS (5YO) have a drink with dinner (around 5pm). Obviously if he's thirsty later, then a little bit of water. Then a wee before bed at 6:30.

tabker desomelts? They work really well for ds.

He was dry from 3 at night and then started wetting again at 5 so started then and they really helped. He is “dry” now at nearly 8 but because he is under investigation for bladder issues and waking up 3 or 4 times a night to wee they have been restarted just to help control that.

We have just managed to get our 5.5 year to stop bed wetting a couple of months ago so been through it all very recently. We spoke to school nurse and I went to the enuresis clinic (didn't take my son as didn't want it to seem like a big deal). They have been great, main advice was:

INCREASE the volume they drink throughout the day and don't limit before bed. For a 5 year old should be drinking approx a litre a day so we filled a jug then filled school bottle/cups etc out of it so knew how much he had. The bladder is a muscle so to be able to hold a whole night's worth of urine it needs to be stretched. We monitored urine output to see if the volume he could hold went up

No blackcurrant squash - it is a bladder irritant. Preferably just water to drink

Don't reward dry nights (they can't control it)
but do reward any behaviour that contributed to it e.g. drinking the set volume for the day

Double wee before bed - get ready, pyjamas on and teeth and go for a wee. Do story etc then back for another wee

Stop using pull ups - it's a big and difficult step but nappies now are so good at absorbing the child can't really feel that it's wet so there's no trigger to wake up

Then after we'd done that for a couple of months they loaned us an enuresis alarm. Was hard work as went off every night, and quite disruptive but as long as you commit to it works amazingly! After getting alarm only took about 4 weeks to be totally dry. As soon as it goes off you take the child to the loo to finish the wee they started in bed (if not already done!). Then only after that do you sort out wet clothes/bed. The consequence being that over time the amount weed in bed decreases as the second a bit of wee is released the alarm waking them means they stop weeing in the bed and make it to the toilet.

Haven't had an accident since and he's so proud of himself

Hope that helps a bit

Good advice here. I agree that he probably isn't producing the hormone he needs to be dry at night yet.

My DS was the same, I kept him in pull ups at night and layered the bed for when they leaked. Also lifted him when I went to bed.

When he turned 6 it was as if a magic switch went off and he's been dry ever since!