To ask how long it took for your DC to be dry at night

[speedawarenesscourse]

DC1 is 5 and a few months and not yet dry at night. I had been waiting for dry nappies in the morning, but it hasn’t happened yet, and they are very aware that friends don’t now wear nappies so are asking not to.

It’s been about ten days so far, and every night has been like clockwork: fine and dry all night until 5.30-6am, when they come in to say that they have done a wee.

I was just wondering how long it has taken other DC to learn, and if we should just keep on as we are, or if there is something else I can do to help them?

(Sadly I am aware of the very persistent piss troll, so would ask that people don’t give any actual details about their DC that he might enjoy, just how long it took/anything else I can do, thank you so much!)

@Bizawit

My baby was dry at night by 10 months. This is the problem with contemporary attitudes to toilet training / modern nappies.

🤣

It takes longer for boys (dunnow if your kid is)
Try an alarm
And try restriction water before bedtime.
And wear special underwear that absorbs urine vs the nappie that your kid feels (and is) too old for.
Good luck
Mine was 5+ when he was dry at night. But only after using an alarm . Was a life saver for us

Could it be black current juice or other cordials with artificial sweeteners that is causing the bed wetting?

I was a Ribena junkie as a kid and my parents never made the connection between blackcurrent juice/ cordials and my late bed wetting.

They were not cruel about it in any way and let me wear night nappies to bed so as to avoid soaked sheets (there were no Pull-Ups or DryNites then), with occasional periods of “trying without”. I wore nappies to bed far older than your DS is now.

Fast forward and both DD’s had the same issue as me and I just assumed that they had inherited my bladder issues.

I didn’t want to stress either of them out and they both wore DryNites without getting embarrassed or upset (the fact that they go up to age 15 and say so on the pack helped, I think!)

Then a friend told me about blackcurrent juice and how it irritates the bladder causing it to empty by reflex and how other cordials and “juice drinks” with artificial sweeteners have the same effect.

We experimented, initially for just a week, with just water and milk.

It was like a miracle cure. Almost overnight the bed wetting stopped and after a few nights of dry DryNites we donated the remaining supplies to the food bank.

We added fresh fruit juices back into the mix as an experiment a few weeks later and that didn’t cause any problems but neither have cordials any more, and neither has wet the bed since.

My eldest was eleven at the time and had never been dry.

We had already done the whole experimenting without the DryNites for a few nights, cutting out fluids after 6pm, even the alarm thing (which we ditched after less than a week because it woke us all up) and GP hadn’t identified any issues. Both are NT, no disabilities or anything like that.

So if he has cordials (blackcurrent juiced and Fruit Shoots are the worst) try going to just water and milk for a week and see if it becomes your miracle cure too.

I wish my parents had known this as they would have saved hundreds of pounds on night nappies if they had stopped me having Ribena and had I tried this earlier I might have also saved hundreds on Pull-Ups and later DryNites!

I’ve posted this same response on other posts here because I’m a bit of an evangelist- it was like a miracle cure for mine and I hope it is for yours too.

Good luck!

They need the hormone

Don’t limit drinks or lift at 11 fir a dream wee

If they are ready /have the hormone then usually dry at night by 2/3mths from potty training

Dd dry daytime just after 3rd bday ; dry nappy’s at night a month or so after , kept on for few weeks but always dry so bit the bullet and no nappy’s. Been dry now think 4mths at night. Is 3 3/4

DD just turned 4 in November and is dry at night as well. If she's been very sleepy though she can have an accident. It did take her till just after 4 to fully ditch nappies at night as she refused to poop in the loo but just went one day and that's her done. We waited till she was ready. So probably a bit older than most.

Lot of judging and competitive parenting here.

Kids are all different.

It's not their fault they are wetting the bed.

It's not the fault of modern nappies. In the past there would have been an awful lots of smelly nasty beds and kids.

Whatever you do don't restrict liquid intake! The bladder needs education on what full feels like

www.eric.org.uk/pages/category/bedwetting

Dd1 - dry day just after 2 and night 2.5 (including refusing to wear pull ups when she broke her leg and was in a cast from ankle to top of her thigh but she a very determined stubborn kid at times)

Dd2 - dry day and night at 3.5 (she would tell you she had put her nappy on under her pjs but actually hadn’t but stayed dry so we went with it)

Both girls do have a brolly sheet (cotton bed wetting sheet thingy) on their bed though just in case.

Mine was dry at night before he was during the day! Is that odd? Never mind. However what you describe is not unusual, plenty of small children wee during the night/very early morning at your son's age. Not helpful right now but he will outgrow it and if it is only one nappy or nappy pants per night, not such a big deal. Though, as previously stated, wearing a nappy could relax him enough in his sleep to wee whereas, being without, may push him to get up and go to the toilet.

Please don't stress about this, there is nothing wrong and don't listen to what other parents say, your child is an individual. You don't have to discuss wee and nappies with other mothers, I never did. In any case, it won't make any difference at all when they are older if they wet the bed as a small child. It's not a competition.

Ribena has been the connection of any of the odd bed wetting accidents here too.

DD was dry at night at about 3 and a half

DS was nearly six before he was - he was just an incredibly heavy sleeper and could sleep through soaking himself. After that it stopped quite suddenly and he had 4 or 5 accidents the next 18 months and nothing since.

Ds was completely dry at 4. In fact the very first night, we woke him up and he was very upset. So the next night he woke us up around 6 and said he needs a wee. He is 4.5 now and wakes up and takes himself to the loo and then comes and wakes us up.
We cut out all night time drinks an hour before he sleeps.

Varies wildly DS1 took ages to take to toilet training so 3.5 but immediately dry at night. DS2 had regular nighttime wees till 6.5ish but fine now. DT's dry at night age 2.

Not uncommon for kids not to be dry at night, a couple of parents have told me thier kids still wear pullups at night (aged 6+)

@DappledThings it’s true! I knew it wouldn’t make me popular to say so, and I appreciate it’s not very helpful in the OP’s current situation, but the original question was “how long did it take your DC to be dry at night” so I just wanted to share my experience and contribute a different perspective to the debate.

Agree lots of kids are in nappies in reception and yr 1

Just no one talks about it

If not ready don’t worry

2 and 7 (SN though). Does your child drink enough during the day? we saw the incontinence nurse for DC2 who though she didn't drink enough and therefore, her bladder never learned to keep enough urine.

She was put on a drinking schedule during the day (nothing after 6 pm) and the issue was sorted withing 4 months.

[quote Bizawit]@DappledThings it’s true! I knew it wouldn’t make me popular to say so, and I appreciate it’s not very helpful in the OP’s current situation, but the original question was “how long did it take your DC to be dry at night” so I just wanted to share my experience and contribute a different perspective to the debate.[/quote]
It may well be true your child was dry very early but it's luck and sod all to do with "contemporary attitudes to toilet training"

My little one has been dry since she was 28mths my other 2 were 3 and 6 respectively. I think boys are harder to get dry at night though

Ds was dry during the day at 2 and then he was night dry at just 3. Completely by accident mind, we'd forgotten to get night nappies so prepped the bed and extra bedding thinging we'd have a go and he was dry. He maybe has one accident a month at the most but usually just a little on pjs. We think he thought that he may as well wee in his nappy while he was wearing it but without it he cottoned on very fast

I thought that kids don't become dry in the night until a certain hormone starts and that it isn't something they can control.

@DappledThings it’s definitely not luck. I practiced “EC” (elimination communication) with my child since she was newborn. This is a common practice in much of the non- western world and was traditional here too before widespread access to really absorbent disposable nappies.
My child stopped pooping in her nappy (apart from very occasionally) sometime between 4-6 months, she stopped wetting the bed at around 10 months, and was completely out of nappies / potty trained by 15/16 months. This is completely normal/ a typical timeline for children who are pottied from birth - nothing unique or lucky about it . In the UK today it is the mainstream belief that children aren’t biologically or psychologically ready for potty training until much later. This isn’t due to biological/ innate factors, this is because we train children from birth to use nappies as a toilet. Then we have to ‘untrain’ them later on which is difficult.

I also did EC full-time from birth, and I only recall a few accidents at night, within the first year. My daughter slept on a waterproof mat, and I had a potty under the bed to put her on when she wriggled (we co-slept).

I still take her to the toilet in the middle of the night now, when I go to bed. I don't know why more people don't do this (my mum didn't do EC with me, but she did take me to the toilet in the night as a young child).

@tabernacles thank you for corroborating that I’m not completely crazy 😂😜.

I agree although I’ve personally found I didn’t need to take my DC to the toilet during the night since about 10 months, she’ll just hold until the morning. (Aside from the very occasional accident, or very occasionally she’ll wake up and ask to go to the loo). I think toddlers have the capacity for much more bladder control than people think.

[quote Bizawit]@tabernacles thank you for corroborating that I’m not completely crazy 😂😜.

I agree although I’ve personally found I didn’t need to take my DC to the toilet during the night since about 10 months, she’ll just hold until the morning. (Aside from the very occasional accident, or very occasionally she’ll wake up and ask to go to the loo). I think toddlers have the capacity for much more bladder control than people think.[/quote]
Well my main reason for taking her still is so she doesn't wake up early in the morning needing to go (and then not go back to sleep afterwards).

I always read about parents complaining their children are waking up at 5am for the day, and wonder if they've tried taking them to the toilet at night.

Some children just have better bladder control than others. Some need to wee during the night, some don't. Some of the ones who wee at night wake up to do so and some don't, that's when it becomes an issue. My eldest had a bladder of steel. I remember once walking home from school when she was 4 and she said she needed to go which was very unusual. Turns out she hadn't been since bedtime the night before!

I had practically the exact same with my dd when she was little. I started setting an alarm for 5am to go and wake her up. It only took a few weeks and she started waking up at that time to go on her own