Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Behaviour/development

Talk to others about child development and behaviour stages here. You can find more information on our development calendar.

Flip

1 2

Original poster

Still in Pull ups at age 4....

39 replies

geminigirl · 26/11/2011 23:03

Do I take the bull by the horns and take them off him and see if he gets up himself if the jammies are wet or do I wait till the pull ups are dry???

I know that sometimes the vasopressin hormone takes a while to kick in but is there a behavioural/habit aspect to this as well?

Please tell me what you did...all opinions welcomed.

OP posts:

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

tryingtobemarypoppins2 · 26/11/2011 23:12

DS just 4 goes to bed in pull up but often the potty in his room (he is on the 3rd floor) is full when I go up to get him and his pull up is dry.

Other mornings he is soaking.

I would give it a while longer but ensure he goes to the loo before bed and first thing in the morning as he could be going first thing and its easier to go in his pull up??

TheAvocadoOfWisdom · 26/11/2011 23:15

totally normal. Could be he's dry tomorrow, could be another couple of years. Would still be normal.

Wait until the pull ups are dry, unless you have a laundry vocation.

Original poster

geminigirl · 26/11/2011 23:18

I'm tending to lean towards the 'just wait and see' course of action...or rather non-action but he's going to reception class in January and wonder if , by some bizarre chance that the fact that he wears pull ups could come out and I will be blasted as a lazy mother who can't be bothered to 'train' my DS at night. Jeez, i really tend to over analyse things 'eh?

OP posts:

TheAvocadoOfWisdom · 26/11/2011 23:23

honestly: relax. There will be three or four others in his class, probably boys, who also wear pull-ups. And a couple will still be in them in Y1...

tryingtobemarypoppins2 · 26/11/2011 23:27

I'm not sure you can 'night train'. I am going with the flow with my DS.....so to speak!

leftmymistletoeatthedoor · 26/11/2011 23:29

Ds is 5 at xmas and still in pull ups.

I thought it was within the range of normal?

StrictlySazz · 26/11/2011 23:29

My DD1 is still in night pants and has just turned 5. We give it a go every so often and see if she is ready and if not we go back to pull ups. AFAIK nothing has been mentioned at school and i know at least one of her friends (girl) is in the same situation

whomovedmychocolate · 26/11/2011 23:37

My five year old is still in pull ups at night. No biggie. Just wait it out.

Original poster

geminigirl · 26/11/2011 23:47

Oh this is very reassuring.....it's just one of these things that I just didn't have any experience of..he'll be dry at night for maybe 3 nights in a row and then a huge big sopper of a pull up and wet jammies the 4th night. My SIL is going through the same thing at the minute and her 4yo DD does ok for a few nights and then soaks everything but she's not wearing pull ups...ends up in a laundraton a couple of times a week.....I'm just a lazy fecker who hates the thought of all the washing!!!

OP posts:

jubilee10 · 27/11/2011 09:47

Ds3 (5.5) is still in pull-ups at night. Until a few months ago he was wet every night now he is dry at least half the time. He will continue to wear pull-ups until he is dry almost every night or until he is worried about it. I am not.

mejon · 27/11/2011 13:46

Perfectly normal. DD1 is 5.3 and still wears pull-ups at night. They aren't as wet as they used to be as she no longer has a beaker of milk before bed but definitely not dry enough to try without yet. GPs don't consider it to be a 'problem' until DCs are at least 7 as far as I am aware.

RosemaryandThyme · 27/11/2011 14:21

Going against the grain here but if there is nothing wrong physically with this child why on earth the pull-ups ??

For the mum that thinks its' normal - has she just picked this idea up from the packaging of these pull-ups ??? Just because they sell them for kids aged 5/6/7 etc does not mean we should be using them.

Its' totally a marketing ploy that you've fallen for if you think its normal for kids to be wetting the bed at this sort of age.
Yes a few will have toileting problems, probably as part of wider/more deep seated needs.

And for the mum who says the kiddie is dry for three nights and then wets on the fourth thus shove them back into essentially nappies - that is soooo cruel - of course kids have night accidents when training, just as they do when training in the day - deal with it, wash the sheets, let the kid know that it's uncomfortable to sleep in a wet bed, help them with a night light for getting to the loo etc - and for goodness sake ditch the blinking pull-ups.

Katy1368 · 27/11/2011 16:53

My DD is still in pull ups and will be 4 in Feb - i'm not even bothered about giving it a try until spring when she will be out of her zip up sleepsuit and just in PJ's hence making things easier.

And for what it is worth I haven't fallen for any marketing ploy or packaging, i'm not that thick thankyou - I feel no need to force my child into doing something she is not ready for, it was the same for day training, I did it when she was ready and not before and it was pretty much painless.

MitziKinsky · 27/11/2011 16:57

Only at night?

Chill out.

Post again if he's still wearing them at 7.

ragged · 27/11/2011 17:01

DS2 was well into y3 before he was dry at night.

Going against the grain here but if there is nothing wrong physically with this child why on earth the pull-ups ??

What do you mean by "physically wrong"?
It's not cruel to have them wear a pullup if everyone sleeps better & feels more in control.
Over the years we tried many nights without pullups but trying to persist with it just made DS2 upset & stressed that he couldn't be dry consistently. I had to take all the pressure off & just wait (& wait) until his body was ready. He had had 7 or so dry nights in a row when he finally went pullup free.

philmassive · 27/11/2011 17:02

Rosemary & Thyme, you are wrong there and what you say is rude IMO. Some children do take longer as the vasopressin hormone does not kick in. It often is inherited and can sometimes be addressed with medication, and sometimes not. My fil wet the bed every night until he was 23. Extreme example but nonetheless true.

Both my ds's have the same problem and it is a real fear that they might suffer as he did. it isn't helpful for people to suggest that it is something that they do purposely, believe me my 9 year old would give anything to have it sorted out and be able to go on sleepiness and go on school trips.

philmassive · 27/11/2011 17:03

Sleepovers.

shesparkles · 27/11/2011 17:03

Wait till the pull ups are dry for a very long stretch of nights!
My ds is 9 and only became reliably dry about a year ago (at night) and still take pj pants with him on sleepovers.
It's more common than not for boys to be late at being dry at night, from what I've heard

ragged · 27/11/2011 17:08

is there a behavioural/habit aspect to this as well?

DC2 was nearly 6yo before ditching night nappies. But we KNEW for years (probably) that with her that it was a habit/comfort thing. She would literally lie about having had a bed time wee, then wee in her nappy 2 minutes after putting it on. We tried various strategies (punishment, reward, scolding, changing the nappy as soon as she was wet so she didn't get the comfort of sleeping in the wet nappy, ignoring it completely) to get her to stop weeing so deliberately; the only one that maybe worked was ignoring; just one day she didn't want to have one any more.

So ime, it's very obvious when there's a behaviour aspect to it. And not a lot you can do to stop it if they're very willful, not without being very harsh, anyway.

Original poster

geminigirl · 27/11/2011 19:50

Rosemaryand Thyme, thanks for the alternative view, much appreciated.....this was the planned course of action until I started talking to other parents who all but 1 told me to wait till he's in a dry pull up for a month so am dithering a bit. I just like to hear what has worked for others....possibly in a less itrate tone thanks all the same...ahem...

OP posts:

survivingsummer · 27/11/2011 20:48

Absolutely right about the hormone element - there isn't much you can do until this develops - I googled for a bit more info:

'This is a hormone cycle that reduces the body's urine production. At about sunset each day, the body releases a minute burst of antidiuretic hormone (also known as arginine vasopressin or AVP). This hormone burst reduces the kidney's urine output well into the night so that the bladder does not get full until morning. This hormone cycle is not present at birth. Many children develop it between the ages of two and six years old, others between six and the end of puberty, and some not at all.'

FWIW my DS was well over 5 when he was out of pull ups at night and I waited until he was bone dry most nights of the week before I put him through a wet bed every night to 'help' him learn. My DD is 4.5 and soaking every night so I will be doing the same with her

Original poster

geminigirl · 27/11/2011 20:57

survivingsummer, that helps actually, I bought those absorbent mats that you can put under the sheet to mop up most of the wee in preparation for the withdrawl of the pull up. How long was your DS wet at night before he 'got it' ?

OP posts:

survivingsummer · 27/11/2011 21:10

geminigirl - DS was probably wetting the bed about once a fortnight to start with, then once a month. He's now 7 and still wets from time to time and will never get up in the night to have a wee. I still use those mats just in case - they are a godsend!

youarekidding · 27/11/2011 21:16

I would wait. DS was an early trainer (surprising 'cos he's a lazy sod!) and was also dry at night by 3yo Started school when 4.03 and regressed for 6 months. He has bouts now of wetting the bed - if it happens once it seems to happen 3/4 days in a row. He is 7yo but they say it's 7/8 yo before bed wetting beomes a problem and even then it needs to be a lot and constant.

I also use the mats they're great!

countrybump · 27/11/2011 21:18

My DS is 5.3 and is still in pull ups at night. Most nights he's dry, then he might go a fortnight and be wet every night. It's go worse since he started school. I've had to buy bigger pull ups recently.

Thing is, if the bed is wet and we have to change it in the night, not only is the extra laundry a pain for me, but my DS gets a disturbed night, is sometimes very upset, and we're sure to have a grumpy day the next day. This then makes him more tired, and again more likely to wet the bed (this was when the pull ups I was using weren't able to hold it all), and we got into a cycle of wet beds every night.

So, I decided to stop worrying about it, got him better pull ups (as in bigger ones) and bought extra bedding to make it easier to change the bed at night.

We'll keep the pull ups until he's ready to go without.

It's no big deal really, and even if we have sleepovers, he doesn't seem bothered about it. Certainly not as bothered as he would be if he wet the bed while away or while friends were staying.

Flip

1 2