Dry at night?

[littlestgirlguide]

Is it possible to do anything to help 'train' a child to be dry at night?
DD is 3.3 and though shes been dry in rhe daytime dor a year or so, ahe is still wearing what she calls 'bedtime pants' these are pull up nappies. Very occasionally she does wake up with a dry nappy but very very rarely, and as shes getting bigger the nappies are not really enough for the quantity of liquid. I've had to change her bed an pj's in the night twice in the last week.
My mum suggested getting her up and sitting her on the potty as we go to bed, but when I've tried this she doesn't wee, just sits there all sleepy till I put her back in bed.
Is there anything to do, or do we just wait?

you cannot train for night time dryness, it's hormone-driven, dependent on the child's body maturing

lifting the child doesn't help, in fact could be reinforcing the wee-in-sleep because as you have found out, the child doesn't waken fully

you can do stuff like:
increase fluid intake during the day, to increase bladder volume and thus holding capapcity
wee/teeth/wee at bedtime (known as double voiding)
avoid red/brown drinks (ie cola, tea, ribena) as they can irritate the bladder; milk/water best

this website is fab

What Raisin said - it's completely involuntary and 3.3 would be very young anyway. Lifting doesn't help. You could try no drinks after about 5pm but at this age I would anticipate another six months and probably another year of nighttime weeing. You could try putting her in two nappies.

Thanks both, that's what I thought really - only lifted her a couple of times and felt really bad doing it. Going to invest in some better nappies I think - she's just got tesco pull ups at the moment. Which would you recommend?

Dd was 3.5 and dry during the day for a year. What worked with us was coming back from holiday and running out of nappies. She went to bed without one - and baring the odd accident, that was that. She had rarely had a dry nappy before that.

I left the potty in her room and she would wake herself to get up and use it.

I use the Huggies night-time pull-ups for my 3yo, they're expensive but are often on offer. Saying that, i've no idea if they're better than own-brand ones. We have a pull-up leak now and again even with these.

My DD just stopped one night after she turned 3.6 - said I dont want pull ups anymore and was just dry! We've had 3 accidents in a month but I thought that was pretty good going!

Also, does it matter if they aren't dry at night?

My dad recommended getting my DD up and putting her on the loo for a 'dream wee' but it didn't work for us - she woke ip screaming and it took us 2 hrs to calm get down! My dad swears it worked with me and my 2 siblings.

Just wait - it will come!

Dd2 dry by day at age two. But STILL not dry at night at approaching six and a half. Nappies are sopping wet on a morning. On a few occasions we have tried the double voiding as has been suggested on here and it did work - as did reducing fluids around bedtime. But dd2 then moans she is really thirsty all night! It is not something that worries me, but sadly it is starting to worry her and she asked us to take all the nighttime nappies out of her drawer when she had a party at home in case her friends laughed. I would not worry at 3 op. you can get disposable waterproof mats for the bed and they are good at catching leaks and reducing having to wash the mattress in the middle of the night. Incidentally dd1 was dry at night at 2 years old, so I totally agree with other posters who say it is not something that can be trained.

I've seen a very commonsense solution recommended on MN - make up the bed with a waterproof mat (like maternity mats) and a sheet, then another mat and another sheet. If there's an accident/leak you can just whip off the top pair and DC goes straight back to bed with the minimum of faff.

I took both of my children out of nighttime pants. Their beds have 2 absorbent mats (from mojo maman bebe). I found that helped my kids. DD has been dry since 2.0, DS dry since 3.3. We have the odd accident but only really DD now (3.1 now). But a friend's little girl is still wet at night and she is 7. The dr said it's quite natural..

All 3 of mine woke up dry one morning, and then were fine. They were all about 2.5 but I think the age is slightly immaterial it is when the body starts making a particular hormone.
DS3 was dry at night before he was potty trained in the day .

DD took a good year, ie dry by day 2.5 yrs and by night 3.5 yrs, with the occasional mishap for the next few months. She is almost 4 and seems to have cracked it now. Will get up to go to the loo.

We use a normal nappy with a maxi nighttime sanitary towel inside for extra absorbency, plus an absorbent cloth wrap over the top. Unfortunately that's usually not enough to contain my 2.8 y.o.'s night wee.