To be concerned that my 6 year old DS is not dry at night

[ChipsCheeseAndBeans]

He wears a pull up to bed. If he has a pull up on he will pee in it even if he is awake.

If he wears pants, when he is awake he will get up to go to the toilet.

When he is asleep he wets the bed and doesn’t even wake up when he has done it.

If he wears a pull up to bed it is really full in the morning.

I have tried waking him up before I go to bed to pee but normally he has already gone by this point and is wet, or if he has gone it still makes no difference and will still be soaking by the morning.

I don’t know what to do.

My now age 13 DS and age 9 DD we’re both wet at night until 7.5 years. My husband was also wet at night until nearly age 10. Apparently it’s hereditary. They both got there in the end.

My ds of the same age is the same! Trying him without pull-ups just now and that's been a week tomorrow and he's been wet every night. I'm giving it a few more days then I'm putting him back in the pull ups.
I've had to wash his duvet today as he peed lying on his back overnight. I read a leaflet to try for over a week that I picked up from school. When he does wear them, he pees in them rather than go to toilet even if he's awake

I really wouldn’t worry.One of mine was dry at 5.5. The second one at 6.5. Just over night. He went from totally soaking to consistently dry. He did wee in the pull up when awake. The only accidents he had once out of the pull ups were when he forgot he wasn’t wearing it and knowingly weed himself. A friend’s 9 year old is still in pull ups. My friend is a doctor and not concerned.

My brother and DH were both wetting into their teens.

Oh and school nurse is your starting point for help if you want it at this point.

My DS1 took ages to be dry at night and was in washable pullups which he could sort himself until he was 7 or 8. DS2 on the other hand was dry during the day at 18 months and at 3 at night!

It's horses for courses and just one of those things.

We had a belt and braces approach for DS1 and had a full waterproof sheet and then a waterproof draw sheet (best value from Age Concern) which could be whipped off with his fitted sheet and bunged in the washer and then tumbled when he leaked (which happened quite regularly).

However, he's 13 now and hasn't had any form of accident in years, so it does just take time. I did find that once I relaxed about it, that it was easier to handle.

My DS was exactly like yours and I worried about it endlessly. We went with an alarm in the end. Took about 6 -8 weeks or so but it worked and he's now reliably dry at nearly 8.

My DD was wet until she left home, but she had serious bladder issues. She could sleep through the alarm, which was annoying. We had waterproof sheets under her normal fitted sheet. I would be annoyed at your DS peeing in the pull up when he is awake - that is laziness. However, he can't help it when he's asleep and as others have said, it isn't unusual at this age.

How do the alarms work? They don’t seem comfortable attached to the PJs. My DS is such a wriggler and flip flops all over the bed all night would also be worried about the wire becoming tangled.

My eldest was dry at about 8, younger was nearer 10. In the end we got an alarm for him and it worked. However, they do recommend that you limit orange juice, blackcurrant juice and squash in general as it can stimulate the bladder and make staying dry harder. I think it does make a difference tbh so it's worth cutting that out in the later part of the day to see if it helps. Up to age 7 is fairly normal though OP.

We went to the GP with DS for the same reason when he was 6 then again when he was 7, when we were referred to the school nurse. We didn’t want to go down the medication route so had a bed wetting alarm and he had his first ever dry night on day 3, and was dry consistently after a week or so.

I used a panty liner with a hole cut in it to pop the alarm into. The wire comes up the inside of the PJ top and then you clip the alarm to the shoulder of their PJ top. It's too short to get tangled.

My son was like this! He is 9 now and no problems. Think about 7 when he was dry ever night. Daughter dry at 3.5!

We used a Rodger alarm - there aren't any wires, just special shorts and a plastic button. We bought ours on eBay, and have been really pleased with it.

My totally unscientific very small sample size feeling is that it’s very dependent on muscle tone. Swimming/trampolining/cycling...

Her alarm had a little sensor that went in the middle of two pairs of pants if that makes sense. It had started to worry her as she was beginning to be invited on sleep overs which is why she sought help despite not thinking they would give it yet. To her surprise they gave her the alarm

Agree with the alarm but he may be too young still. There’s a reason night time pull ups go to age 14. He’s not unusual, it’s just not really discussed to be honest. Our Dd had sleep apnoea which meant she never got into the deep enough sleep to produce the hormone. She had her tonsils and adenoids out just before she was 7 which cured the apnoea. She wasn’t dry until 8.5 though. We bought an alarm and put it between her pants and some pull ups. She was dry in 4 nights. Do it in the holidays though as neither of you will sleep well! Try not to worry.

One of mine wet the bet until 10..quite a few boys in his clasd did too.
Though they were all potty trained very young..it's a hormonal development delay.

Our 7.5 yr old is still wet at night too. Pigeonpie you mentioned washable pull ups. Would you mind telling me what you used? Feeling bad at both the expense and the waste of using disposable ones each night.... Thank you!

My DD was still not dry at night at 6 years old. She'd been day potty trained since she was 2 so I was getting a bit concerned. Made worse by some snarky comments from MIL and even DH.

Did ALL the research and thought about getting alarms, special sheets etc instead of the pull-ups. But just when I was starting to feel stressed about it (caused mainly by other family member comments I have to say) the pull ups suddenly started being dry and I tried her without them and that was it.

It can be worth being patient and reminding yourself that children are all on slightly different internal schedules.

I think my boy was 9 and the doctor gave him some tablets to help. That seemed to kick start him and all was ok. But the docs wouldn’t do anything about it for quite a while.

Watching with interest. Our ds is 8 and still in pull ups. We've tried lifting, gp prescribed medication, then a stronger dose of medication, getting him to drink more during the day, limiting fluid intake before bed - nothing has worked. Gp won't do anything else until we've tried a bed wetting alarm, so that's the next stop for us. Ds is a heavy sleeper so we need one that will wake him.

Make sure he drinks plenty of plain water during day. This stretches his bladder. Many children who wet during night do so because their bladder cannot hold urine all night. Avoid fizzy drinks completely. No drink at all from 2 1/2 hours before bed. Tell him he must get up to go to the toilet when he is still awake. Get matress coated in waterproof material like ued in hospitals. I would not use pullups as they don't feel wet so don't make connection between feeling wet and uncomfortable and weeing.

It's a hormone thing. He can't yet produce the hormone that stops him producing urine at night.
Either wait till it happens naturally, usually at puberty, or get the doctor to prescribe the hormone in tablet form.
It's nothing to do with drinking too much before bedtime🙄

I was 10 before I stopped wetting the bed .... my daughter was dry at 2.5 whereas my son wore pull ups til he was almost 8, when he became dry overnight.

I never tried lifting or alarms or anything else - kids grow out of it when they’re ready and in the meantime pyjama pants save a lot of trauma and endless washing

Whatafustercluck, oh, the Rodger alarm is loud 😄.