lazy bedwetter/s - advice please?!

[VandT]

Both my children (DS 5.5 and DD 3) still wear nappies at night. I don't have any problem with this if they genuinely aren't dry at night, but they are incredibly lazy and will lie there, of an evening/ morning, chatting away to themselves while peeing freely into their nappies. I find it infuriating. I really want to break their lazy habit, and i'd also like to be able to have some indicator of when they might be dry at night, but their lazy-peeing habits make it all v misleading. We have tried to go nappy free in the past but generally have a 50/50 success rate, so revert back to nappies.
Anyone else ever experienced this? Any tips on how to stop the habit much appreciated! thanks

if you think that they are doing it while awake then i would bite the bullet and go nappy-free.
start with your son and tell him no more nappies, and if he needs a wee in the night then he must use the toilet. make sure you leave a nightlight in the hall or whatever so he can see his way to the toilet.

then layer the bed. waterproof, then sheet, then waterproof, then sheet. as many times as you want (or use the disposable ones).
that way if he wets in the night you can just take thte top layer off and pop him back.

thanks, thisisyesterday. I would anticipate him having probably 1 accident a night... do i just carry on with the sheet layering/changing until he eventually gets the hang of it (envisages months of the house looking like a laundrette!)? I.e. should I persevere even if he's still having regular accidents months down the line? Not ideal but part of me thinks at least his body might start reading the cues for needing to wake up and go to the loo...

i wouldn't go on for months, no.
I think if he is just being lazy and weeing before he goes to sleep or after he wakes up then he will get used to the no nappy really quickly and stop it.

i would maybe check him when you go to bed to see if he is wet then perhaps?

but if he is still wetting after a week or so then I'd go back to nappies.

I believe that it's actually a chemical process that enables children to wake when they need the toilet, so no amount of practice will help unfortunately and it's quite normal for kids of his age not to be dry at night- i don't think GP's will do anything until they're about 7.
But as I say, if he is just using the nappy because it's convenient then this should be a fairly quick way of stopping it

It is possible you are right about them peeing in their nappies while they are playing chatting in the mornings. DS was always wet through in the mornings and I was reluctant to take him out of nappies at night. But when I did, he was dry in the morning, so think he must have been having a massive pee on waking up. So I would follow thisis yesterday's advice and also make sure they go to the loo first thing in the morning.

Hi, my eldest child is 8 and still wets the bed sometimes..I know he hates waking up wet and gets angry with himself for not waking up to pee in the night so I know its not down to laziness or fear as I know there have been times that he's woken up in the night in the past and got up to use the toilet..could there be a medical problem? His 5 yr old sister is dry 99% of the time so I'm not sure what the problem is..any advice or anyone have older children with bed wetting probs? thanks.

I would put a nappy on last minute when they go to bed and check it first thing. If it is still wet chances are they are not producing the chemical called vasopressin which limits the amount of urine produced at night so there is no need to empty the bladder.

I would also remove their nappies first thing when they get up and put some pants on them. This way it should be a clear indication of whether they are just not ready or being a bit lazy.

If a parent wet the bed then there are higher chances that the child will.

katiecoocoo your eldest seems to not be at the stage where he produces vasopressin. My own son was 7 when we sought help as he was going on a school residential trip so we firstly tried all of the advice on the ERIC website and then went to our GP.

He prescribed Desmopressin which mimics vasopressin and we my son was then dry, this showed that he didn't produce vasopressin himself. He took it for the school trip and we used it when we went on holiday and stayed in hotels. He is now nearly 9 and completely dry.

Thanks alot Fizzylemonade, I really appreciate your advice..I'm planning on speaking to the doctor about it very soon. cheers hon x :)