Night Nappies For Dummies - please?

[BoyMeetsWorld]

Ok. I know I'm being really dense...

But I just don't get the logistics of moving DS out of night time nappies. He's 3.5, fully toilet trained by day (well, 99% of the time) and today DH raised the issue that other work colleagues of his have younger children who are already dry at night. Argh.

A) is 3.5 an age to start pushing for dry nights, even if DS is still quite happy in nappies? He's dry in the morning about 50% of the time but still soggy fairly often and sleeps like a log right through so I'm not optimistic about him getting up to go if he needs to.
B) how does one actually DO this night time toilet training business anyway? Do we just discard the nappies, fit a plastic sheet under his main one and expect a lot of washing to begin with? Or is there more of a fine art to it than that? (one of those "wish they came with a handbook" moments)

you can't train for night time dryness

if you get a series of dry nappies then go for it, otherwise, don't bother

night time dryness is hormone-related, the hormone is produced as the child's body matures and cannot be influenced by star charts or rewards

in the meantime there are things that you can do:

increase daytime fluid intake, to increase bladder volume thus holding capacity. milk/water best, avoid red/brown drinks (cola, ribena types) as they can irritate the bladder. wee/teeth/wee at bedtime (double voiding)

i would ditch the nappies once he is regularly waking up with a dry nappy. so, more often than 50% of the time

it's a chemical thing. he will do it when he is able to

Ahhh that's really useful to know its a hormone thing - definitely makes me feel better about my gut instinct that he's just not ready / there's no need yet...I'd figured until I was noticing consistently dry nappies on a longterm basis he's fine as he is at night. Just don't want to be failing him in some way unintentionally!!

They do it in their own time but if he isn't dry by 7 then you can get an alarm to train his brain but it is no use until then. elder son was dry about age 7 and younger not until nearly 9 (the alarm didn't take long, we just kept thinking that he would do it himself as his brother did). Boys tend to be slower and we have a family history on both sides of late bed wetting so they actually did remarkably well.

My DD2 wasn't dry at night and I thought I'd just chance it and use a waterproof sheet. After a week with a couple of accidents and a few more where we woke her at about 11pm to go and had no accidents we forgot to wake her and she was dry all night! I decided to try thinking we'd have a LOT of washing, but thought it was worth a try. She'll be 3 in September.
Just play it by ear. Once you do start just make it clear that accidents aren't a problem so if you do have to go back to nappies it's not a big deal.

With dd1 she was a similar age when I realised that the only reason she was wet in the morning was that she would do a big wee when she woke up. A few early mornings and she decided was less hassle to wait until she got up.

dd2 was dry at night at the same time as day (2yrs 4months). Ds has been variable, he has been out of night time nappies since 2yrs 6months as he was getting confused first thing in the morning as to whether he could just wee or had to sit on potty. He has only ever been wet once a night, often he isn't wet at all. I have discovered some mothercare training pants, they are slightly baggy with towelling lining. They were c**p for normal training with dd1 as four drops and they leaked everywhere. I now use them with pants on underneath, the pants absorb the fluid, makes him a bit soggy and he wakes up, and the waterproof pants means that it doesn't go everywhere, even his pj are usually dry.

Often he is dry and he is no longer confused during the early morning as to whether he has pants on or not. Also he generally goes straight back to sleep. It is no hardship washing a pair of pants and a waterproof pant in return for dry mornings.

I personally would say that if you want to, give it a go for a week or so and see how he gets on, he might be like dd1 who just couldn't be bothered first thing, he might be a deep sleeper who doesn't tend to wake up but is dry for quite a few hours, and may learn to either wake up or not wee, or he may have a lack of hormone in which case you just need to wait until he is older at which point if he still isn't dry you can get a prescription. I'm sure that since he has raised the issue, your dh will be happy to help with the night wakings and extra laundry!

You're not being dense at all. There's no reason why your DS shouldn't still be happy in night nappies as he has never known any different. And neither can you push for dry nights or do night time toilet training. They can either stay dry during the night or they can't.

In our case DS (3.2) had never had a dry nappy in the morning, so it was a huge leap of faith to leave his nappy off at night. So I bought a plastic sheet and hoped for the best. And he just did not wet the bed. The plastic sheet came off at bed sheet change and was never used again. I now think that prior to this, DS was just having a massive wee in his nappy between waking up first thing in the morning and being changed, so when he no longer had the nappy, he went to the toilet instead.

So, I would say it is worth a try, give it a week, and if you have a few wet beds you can always put him back in a nappy or pull up and try again in a few months time.

If you do give it a try I would recommend:
Waterproof sheet
Talking about it without it being a big deal
Lots of fluid in the day, but none past 5ish (whenever your tea is)
Wake at about 11 to go for a wee - make sure he's properly awake or you reinforce weeing while asleep. Eventually you can wean off this waking up by doing it earlier and earlier.
Putting the pot in his room or making sure he can get to it as soon as he wakes.
If he has 7 wet nights after a week just stop and leave til he's older.

It's pot luckl - once you regularly start getting dry nappies in the morning, go for it. DD2 was 2.6 when she became dry at night, DD1 is nearly 6 and still has PJ pants which are wet every morning. We havent done anything different, she is just not ready. And she is gutted that her little sister is dry before her