5.5 yr old DD still in pull ups at night

[SydneyB]

As the thread title says really. She's never been dry at night. Every morning she wakes to a full, sodden drynite pull up or whatever. We've tried a few times over the last year or so to take them away but she's wet by 9, again by 1, again by 5 and it's just been too distressing and upsetting for her. Her 3 yr old brother has been dry at night since before he was 3 which adds to her distress. I know the theory behind them just being ready at a certain age and that it happens to different children at a different age but I'm just beginning to wonder whether I should do something (not sure what) to address it now. Or to wait it out. Anecdotal survey of friends same age seems to show she's the only one (although that's probably not quite true). It took a looong time for her to be completely dry in the day and she still lets little leaks out if she can't be bothered to run to the loo so I'm wondering if that's related..

DS is still in nappies at night (5.9). We had a run of 6 dry nappies the other week when he was unwell but has gone back to wetting again. We have been referred now to the enuresis (sp?) clinic in a couple of weeks time so hope to start getting to the bottom of it then.

My gut feeling is that he is one of the ones who just isn't ready yet. He is a very deep sleeper usually and my uncle wet the bed until he was 13 (despite my Grandad beating him on a daily basis for it!).

I don't know of any other children who have still been wet at this age so it does help to come on here and fine that it is more normal/usual than you think.

Try seeing if you can get a referral for the bed wetting clinic from your GP. Will let you know how we get on.

DD has only just stopped wearing them (she's also 5 and a half). She just stopped wetting them so after 10 days or so of them being dry I let her go without. I didn't do anything other than to tell her that she could stop wearing them if she was dry and reminded her to go to the toilet before bed and first thing instead of weeing in her nappy. It's really not that unusual at this age.

dd had a problem with bed wetting (and she was much older than 5!). Her consultant told us 10% of 5 year olds and 5% of 10 year olds wet the bed.

5.5 is still so young. Please don't worry, she'll get the hang of it eventually :)

i was gonna post about this, ds 5.4 still in pull ups atnight. Was dry inday by 2.3 so rather puzzing that he is not getting dry at night I do;t make adeal of it but will occasionally say that he should try and notice when he needs a wee and go to the loo.

My daughter is nearly 7 and is justthe same as your daughter. She usually wets through her pull ups at night and has to have a matrace protector as well.

This is all reassuring! She is a VERY heavy sleeper, very hard to wake up and I've always wondered if that has something to do with it. I'm a bit reluctant to start talking to GPs and bedwetting clinics as I don't want to stress her out - she's going through a bit of a health anxiety phase about illness/dying and I don't want to freak her out unnecessarily at this stage. Is there an age when you should really worry though? I'd heard somewhere that 7 was when a GP would take it seriously but not sure if that's right.

My daughter is also a very heavy sleeper. I remember I was too as a child and I wet the bed on and off until I was about 10 I think. My mum did take me to the docs but I can't remember what he said.

Our specialist wouldn't accept referrals until 7, as so many children wet the bed until then.

I've never 'worried' about it - I was convinced she'd be dry at night before she left home! it was more the hassle factor (huge anounts of landry with 3 other children too) and the fact that she was having interrupted sleep due to sheet changes (not always - she often slept through it!) so wasn't sleeping as well as she could be (so was grumpy the next day).

In the end dd was medicated as sleepovers / brownie camp etc were tricky with pull ups.

my DD is also 5.4 and has the heaviest pj pants in the morning. She has been dry in the day since 2. Dr said the ywoudlnt do anything till 6+. I know of two others in her class who are still in night nappies.

DS1 was six and a half before I got him out of pull-ups. He just suddenly became dry. I think generally the medical professions won't do anything until they're 7. He is the heaviest sleeper ever though.

DS2 on the other hand was dry at night when three. He still now aged 7 gets up at 1am to use the bathroom. He also then invariably gets into bed with us urrrggghhh. He has always generally been a poor sleeper although much better when in bed with us!!!

Ds is nearly 8 & still wets regularly - although not every night now. There are medications you can take to help the hormone kick in, but certainly around here they won't prescribe before they hit 7. There's also an alarm you can try, but ds is such a heavy sleeper he just slept through it, so made no difference to us.

Ds (luckily) is supremely unconcerned about his bedwetting - we've always been relaxed about it & he knows it's something he will grow out of/he can't control. He is a very un-worldy child though!

He did get conscious of his pj pants (pullups) around sleepovers, but a quiet word with relevant adults to ensure he can put them on out of view seemed to sort that out.

Oh, and dd was dry at night from 3years too - he had a little wobble at that age, but keeping things matter-of-fact (we said girl and boy bladders were just different sometimes with night time wee, and they both accepted that. Although actually, not sure that my feminist creds will be helped by that statement!)

Isn't it to do with a hormone produced in the brain? Have a look at this link, hopefully it will work, am on iPhone at the mo.
www.kapiolani.org/docs/peds-uro-svcs/D%20Nocturnal%20Enuresis.pdf

I was told it is all about hormone release and can be hereditary. Ds1 (8) has been on desmopressin for 12 mths and it is working for him but he isn't ready to come off it yet.

Ds2 (nearly 5) has lots of dry nights yet dd (his twin) has a soaking pull up in the morning and leaks during the day as well. Will probably need referring at 7.

Ds3 (just 3) is only just toilet trained.

Dh had problems as a child as well.

hi
my DD has just turned 6 and is still wet about 4 nights in 7. its not a big deal as children, especially girls, tend to become dry by themselves its a hormonal thing and the hormone will kick in by itself. i try not to make a big deal about it, after all, it isnt her fault. i bought a bucket for in her room for middle of the night, sleepy wees and wake her when i can to do a wee. she has had 2 days dry this week so we are sticking with the plan and not putting a pull-up on her tonight as she has asked to stop wearing them and i think she is old enough to make this decision and see where we go with it

i believe it runs in families.i was not 100% dry until i left junior school AFAIK i always believed it was due to stress of bullying in school (apparantly i smelled of wee because my dad decided to punish me for wetting by beating me with a slipper and refusing to let me wash before school- to teach me a lesson) i now think there was more to it and the lesson was a hard one to learn due to an absence of the right hormone.

i would suggest persevering and dont make her feel ashamed. maybe if she gets to 7 or 8 and you are concerned then approach the GP but she may well be dry by herself before then

No more marbles - that is so sad

Watching with interest as my eldest is almost 5 and still wet at night. For the past four days he's asked to go without a pull-up, but has wet the bed twice each night, once at around 1am and again at around 5am.

I really don't want to put him back in nappies as he is so proud of himself for trying, but am beginning to wonder if it is a case of him missing the necessary hormone to control it.

We put two sheets on his bed with disposable Pampers bed mats under each one so we can whip the wet one off with miminal fuss, but I knwo he will be SO proud when he manages to stay dry, bless him.

My DS1 wore pull-up's at night till he was nearly 8. DS2 and 3 were dry ALOT younger. It's weird but we never really worried about it, or mentioned it. As he started to get older (5+) we encouraged him to drink more through the day and then stopped any drinks 2/3 hrs or so before bed. This helped alot. However it's just one of those things that they do in their own sweet time. Please don't stress about it as it's very common - people often don't discuss it as it seems sometimes like there is a bit of a stigma (and for some reason which I never figured out there is such competitiveness about children's bladder control!) Let your DC know you are not bothered - it's no big deal and until the time comes she can just keep on with the pull up's. There are some things you can't control and I just don't think all these referrals and things at such a young age is emotionally healthy for a child - it's a huge amount of pressure. I personally would not have looked at seeking advice until the age of about 9/10!!!

I feel so much better after all these responses! Thanks all. You're right conorsrockers there does seem to be such a competitiveness about bladder control, ridiculous! Anyway, I think we're just going to carry on as is for now. She seems happy enough putting on a pull up at night - we've found some which have photos of much older girls on which is good - and I guess we're not really going to have to deal with the sleepover situation until she's quite a bit older. She's in Reception and tired enough as it is without having to be woken up with a wet bed 2/3 times a night.

a friend of mine's dd became dry at 6yrs 4 mnths overnight, after soaking pullups every night for the previous years of her life. my ds was dry for a few weeks around 3yrs, then wet most nights to 4.5, then finally out of pull ups at 4yrs 9months. it's a long slog if it doesnt come naturally - but i do think it's worth doing all the old no drinks after 5pm, take them for a wee as you go to bed, and let them have a week of no pull ups - make a deal they understand " okay, no pull ups this week, and if you have 4 dry nights this week, we'll stay out of them next week - if you have more than 3 wet nights you'll need to go back in for a few weeks."

DD1 is 4 and still wet at night. She potty trained easily at just 2. She is also a VERY heavy sleeper and I think this is part of it. We tried going cold turkey a while ago but she wouldn't wake up even if she wet herself so it was pointless. On other nights she will wee, take her pullups off in the middle of the night and then wee the bed without waking!

We talk about being dry at night lots and we are having about 2 dry nights per week now - usually on days she hasn't had as much to drink though. Trying not to worry about it or make too big a deal about it (yet).

DD1 is 5.5 and was consistently in soaking wet pull ups each morning. We decided to go cold turkey on Boxing Day - she'd wanted to do it sooner but I wanted to get the excitement of Christmas out of the way first if I was looking at having to change a wet bed in the middle of the night. So far we've only had 1 accident about a fortnight in and I'm amazed to be honest. She is a very heavy sleeper too. May be worth just going for it, bracing yourself for a night-time bed change with a ready layered bed. If it works - great (think of all the money you'll save on pull-ups!), if not, well at least you've tried and you can try again in a few months time.

That's interesting Mejon. I think I might give that a whirl during the summer holidays but I don't want to risk disrupted nights during term time, she's tired enough as it is. And I don't want to set her up to fail (this is what happened when she wanted to try when her brother was out of them) - really knocked her. I would like her to lead it too and she hasn't mentioned it for a long time now.

We tried a couple of times with dd3 with no luck. She suddenly started having dry pull ups in the morning and so we ditched them and she's never had an accident since. Something just 'clicked' on like a light switch! She was 5.6.