3.5 year old is still not dry at night, HELP?!

[BarnyardMama]

I'm wondering whether I need to go back to letting my little one wear nappies. I don't have many friends to ask but his two cousins were both dry at night before their 3rd birthday. For the past three nights we've been trying to go without because he said he wanted to 'be a big boy without pampers' but every night so far I've been up twice stripping the bed while he cries shivering and wet. Tonight I tried to preempt it thinking he's just not being fast enough and I went in before I went to bed and it had only been 3 hours and he was wet through and still asleep ... Is he just not ready? I'm worried that he's 4 in September and still wearing nappies at night. He's dry in the day. And we've been limiting drinks 1.5 hours before bed (he's also crying those 1.5 hours saying he's thirsty) but I haven't given in even though I feel awful. So should we persevere or go back to nappies for now?

But overnight dryness is hormonal and can't be taught?

Being dry overnight is very uncommon at 3.5 and definitely beyond your child's control. Keep them in bedtime nappies until they're completely dry for a couple of weeks at least.

I agree, he's still quite young to be dry at night. It sounds like his body just isn't ready, even if his mind is. I do sympathise, both of mine have wanted to be dry at night before they were actually capable of it, and it's a hard stage.

My approach has been to sympathise with the desire, praise them for trying, and then explain that this just isn't something their body is quite ready to do – but it will be. We do keep up with the wee right before bed and as soon as they wake, plus always taking them to the loo in the night/getting them a fresh nappy in the night if they ask to try to start forming the habits.

3.5 years is still very young. There needs to be a certain level of hormone in the body before a child is capable of being dry at night so it’s not necessarily something you can ‘train’ just yet. Pop the night time nappies back on for now and he will do it in his own time. Some children won’t be dry at night until 6 or 7. Please don’t worry and don’t compare to others. It’s really not anything to be concerned about just yet.

Thank you for the replies, the nappies are back on and he seems happier, he was very tired and cranky from waking up in the night but he seems much more resfreshed today!