Wait for 5 yr old DS to show signs of being dry at night before taking off pull ups or not??

[RooTwo]

I know there are tons of threads about this kind of thing so apologies for another but none seem to quite get to the bottom of what I'm wondering ... basically whether to wait for 5.5 year old DS to show any signs of being dry at night before taking off his night-time pull ups. I can't think of the last time he has been at all dry in the morn. I think he's probably been dry (ish) in the morning only a handful of times, ever, in his whole life. But am worried that surely they just get into habits and that if I never try to take his pull up off, how is he ever going to even begin to start to make progress? Or, is it really a case of waiting for a particular hormone to kick in that will enable them to begin to be dry at night?

DD was out of pull ups at night just after her 4th birthday and I can't for the life of me remember how we got her out of them, but I am pretty sure she'd been dry for a bit on and off and we just bit the bullet then and took them off. But it's a different matter with DS. He is also an incredibly deep sleeper and the few times we've taken his pull up off recently (mostly because he's been keen to) he ends up wetting his bed two or three times during the night. He just doesn't wake up to pee ...

Advice much appreciated as I do worry about when on earth we can get these pull ups off him. I don't think any of his peers are in them at night ... (not that these things really get talked about, though, so who knows ...)

[memememum]

I am aiming to wait till my 4yo dd is dry at night and have started some 'preparation'. I realised that I wasn't really sure if any of the wee in the pull ups was done whilst awake, so first asked dd to put it on at very last minute before bed )instead of before story) and when she got the hang of that asked her to use potty in her room as soon as she wakes up in the morning and take pull up off (rather than when getting dressed maybe half hour later). Dd has taken really well to this as I told her it's part of her getting ready to be a big girl and not wear pull ups at night. It is really useful to me as now I know what she is doing in her sleep, which seems to be at least 1 wee but not the pounds drenching of the stuff we were getting before.

[MERLYPUSS]

I wouldn't fuss too much about it. If you are concerned and want to move things on perhaps leave a potty in his room so he can wee in the night in case the effort of going to the bathroom is too much. He may see peeing in pull ups as easier. I've also heard that they subconciously feel the sensation of elastic around their waist which switches their 'i must get up to wee' reflex off. Perhaps sleeping on a mat in boxers would create a different sensation?