DS nearly 4 and wetting through pull ups nearly every night

[Nutgirl]

DS is 3.11 and after a long 2 and a half years he is finally dry in the day, bar the occasional accident when he is too lazy busy to go. Although most of his friends are now dry at night I am not at all worried about him not being yet as I know they all develop at different rates and lots of children aren't night dry until they are older. However what I am worried about is the fact that there does not seem to be any nappy or pull up that can hold his wee and he is waking up at 5am most mornings to come and tell us that his bed is wet. We kept him in 6+ Pampers Baby Dry nappies for as long as possible but they are just too small for him now so we switched to Huggies Dry Nites age 4-7. This seemed to do the trick for a few weeks but now we are back to wet through most mornings. Just don't know what to do? He doesn't drink much after 5pm and has a wee before bath and then again after stories. I just do not know how he can pee this much at night time, surely he should be weeing less at night now he is older? I cannot ever imagine a time when he will be able to go 10 / 11 hours without weeing!!

Anyone got any advice? Thanks.

do you lift him to go fir a wee before you go to bed?

might be that you just have to change him then aswell.

If he really is too big for 6+ nappies (my dd1 was still squeezing into them at 5 or so - different brands differ in size so try a few out. Buggies were the biggest, but think they've stopped selling now, haven't they?) then you may need to look at cloth. We went back to cloth (dd1 was in cloth as a baby/toddler, then we moved to disposables when she was about 4 (she has SN, and trained really late) then back to cloth for night times.

It's not as bad as you think, dealing with it all, and if he is just wet over night then you can chuck the nappy in with general washing.

For the practical side of things could you use a pampers care mat on the bed in addition to the nappy? You can get washable ones too.
Getting to the bottom of why it happens is trickier.
My children have autism and getting them dry proved difficult, something that worked for us, I realised that when they wet the nappy got nice and warm, them because the nappies were good they drained the wee away from them so that they didn't feel wet, I put a pair of pants under their nappy so that they could tell that they were wet, that worked well in getting them to recognise when they were wet and then we were better placed in getting them to recognise the feelings of needing a wee before it happened.

Completely normal and a nightmare when they are exploding out of nappies, we have been there.

Firstly, do not limit drinks, he needs to make his bladder capable of holding a big wee. Secondly, at night most people produce a hormone that suppresses urine production meaning the bladder doesn't get full and therefore doesn't need emptying.

Children develop this at different stages. Ds1 was wetting the bed until he was 10. Every night. We did medicate him with the fake hormone for holidays, stays in hotels and residential school trips but we were not prepared to medicate him daily.

Have a look at ERIC website for lots of info including mattress protectors, brolly sheets (washable pampers care mat equivalent) and please know that you are not alone. It just isn't talked about like there is some shame attached to not producing a hormone you have no control over.

Do you think it is the hormone or could it be laziness? Not suggesting that all bedwetters are lazy but that was my experience with our DD. she would happily wee in disposables as they were comfy. Once I swapped her back into cloth she was dry within 2 nights.

Thank you for all your replies. Firstly no I don't think it's laziness as when he's awake early in the morning he will go to the loo rather than wee into a full nappy or pull up. I know it's hormonal and I am not worried about it, I know he has no control over it when he is asleep and he sleeps really deeply which is great. I would just like to find a nappy or pull up that fits him properly and is designed for kids who are still weeing at night and not just occasional leaks or accidents. Thank you for the tip PandasRock, I will definitely look into a washable pull up for night, will save us a fortune no doubt if we can get one that works. And yes I do have a waterproof sheet for the bed so mattress is protected, but not the duvet unfortunately.

I will rack my brains and try to rememebr which ones we used. Fuzzibunz, I think, for large. Have a look on eBay - they go really quite big. I know we had some that fitted dd when she was 8 or 9. And of course, with cloth you can boost as much as you need.

There are waterproof duvets available, but I don't think they are very comfortable. If you are crafty, I suppose you could fashion a waterproof cover using eg a double hippychick mattress protector? We found the hippy chick was the most comfortable under sheet - didn't feel plasticy at all.