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Behaviour/development

Talk to others about child development and behaviour stages here. You can find more information on our development calendar.

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Original poster

Still in nappies at night, age 4

8 replies

mushroom · 15/05/2004 10:33

Help and reassurance needed please!
My son aged, 4 and a half has been out of nappies during the day since he was 2 and a half and has always been very reliable, hardly any accidents, etc. But! at night, he is still in nappies - about a year ago, I mentioned it to the HV - she said to wait a while and just lately, I noticed his nappies weren't particulary wet in the morning and I started feeling optimistic that perhaps he was able to more or less get through the night, but the last couple of nights his nappies have been soaked. I've looked it up on the net and it does seem that boys particulary take longer to be dry at night, and that bedwetting is common until much older, but the problem is, its not like he's out of nappies and having occasional accidents.

Advice needed please!

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mummysurfer · 15/05/2004 10:37

my ds was 5 in march and is still in nappies at night.
i think there another thread about this somewhere and loads of people said there dss were still not night trained at 5/6
i'll look for it

Hectic · 15/05/2004 11:13

When ds1 was 4 and 2 months, he was about to start school and still in nappies at night (and they weren't always particularly dry either). We had just come back from holiday and I decided to "go for it", mainly because I assumed (wrongly as it turned out) that all the other children would be totally out of nappies at night, and he might get teased if they found out. I simply told my son that he had grown so much while we had been away on holiday that not even the biggest nappies would fit him anymore. I kept it very low key and matter of fact, and added that I was sure he could manage without them now anyway. He was fine and I don't think we had even one wet bed. But if this doesn't work, don't worry. I know lots of little boys who still wore night nappies at 4,5 and 6.

expatkat · 15/05/2004 11:22

Not abnormal at all. In a past thread on this, Mears quoted the statistics on night-time dryness: what percentage of children reached this milestone at what ages. I think she said up until the age of 6 is normal. My ds is also 4.5, sometimes wet sometimes dry. I went through a phase, after many mornings of dry nappies, of trying to "night train" him by waking him up at 11 pm to use the toilet. But he'd never wake up and/or cooperate, so we had many annoying accidents. . .and I decided to put the nappy back & try again at some later date. I have no problem at all with the fact that he's in nappies at night. It doesn't worry or bother me in the slightest.

gold123 · 15/05/2004 11:24

My friends son is still in nappies and he is 7 ! he is having to go to the clinic about this and my friend has been told that he needs to drink more throughout the day to make his bladder larger. He has his final drink of the night about 7pm and goes to the toilet before bed. Apparently he needs to enlarge his bladder so he has a larger capacity to hold his wee till the morning.

I also used the big boy tactic on my ds, and he hasn't had many accidents. HTH

Easy · 15/05/2004 12:30

My ds 4 1/2 wears drynights everynight, tho has been totally reliable during the day since just after 3rd birthday.

We have tried the odd night with success, but if he has an accident he gets sooooo upset, and then insists on drynights the following night.

He never wakes having had an accident in the night, I think he just tends to wee as he is waking in the morning. It can happen if he falls asleep on the settee in the daytime, if I think he's likely to nap I make sure he goes for a wee before sitting down to watch telly, to stop the accident.

Dh says it is quite common for males to need a wee AS SOON as they wake, ds isn't just old enough to hold on till he's awake enough to go.

ds and I have agreed we'll try again when he's 5. I think it's important not to make an issue of it.

charliecat · 15/05/2004 12:34

My dd is 3 and a half and I am just starting to get her out of nappys, I degraded to a very cheap nappy that gave her a bit of nappy rash, that wasnt the idea, it was just so she wasnt as comfortable, but she didnt like the nappy rash and I said well if you dont like it your going to have to get up for a wee. Told her to wake up if she needed a wee and shes been dry for about a week now, very proud she is too. Maybe give that a try?

bloss · 15/05/2004 13:42

Message withdrawn

Original poster

mushroom · 15/05/2004 14:07

Hi everyone

Thanks so much for your replies. To be honest, it doesn't actually bother me that he's still in nappies and I've never said to him that he should be out of them by now. Its just that time goes so quickly, and it hit me the other day that he's getting closer to 5 than 4 and perhaps I should be doing something about it! I'll think I'll leave it a bit longer before I speak to HV about it. Also, ds does drink alot, and always has done and seems to be a very heavy sleeper; he never wakes at night unless he's ill, once he's asleep thats it! So perhaps that has something to do with it.

Thanks again for your help - it's reassured me a lot.

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