6 year old still in Pull ups at night

[BaggyAndWrinkled]

DD is nearly 6 and still wearing night nappy's. She's not even close to becoming dry at night. Every nappy in the morning is sodden.

I stop her drinks after just after supper and I very rarely allow her fizzy drinks as they seem to irritate her bladder anyway. During the day, she has real urgency when she realises that she has to go and since she's been a toddler out of day-nappies, when she says she needs the loo, I know that I only have a matter of minutes before her bladder gives up on her.

Her younger sister is 3 and is now officially dry at night. By contrast younger DD has a bladder of steel with fantastic control. Elder DD is very, very aware of this and becoming more and more bothered.

What do I do?

Watching with interest as we have the same situation here with our ds's (6.1 and 3.7)

DS2 is 5 and a half, and still in pull ups. Have tried everything under the sun to get him dry at night, but he is so not bothered! I've decided not to worry too much - it'll happen at some point.

....and my twins who will be 8 in a couple of weeks. Having said that, one does have dry pull ups quite often now but I couldn't rely on it.

Older siblings were late too but not this late (dry by 6th birthday).

Should I be worried?

Nothing you can do. Becoming dry at night is not the same as in the day. It is to do with hormone levels. My 6 year old is still in pull ups too. His brother was 7 1/2 before he was fully dry and dd was between 6 and seven. It will happen when their bodies are ready.

Might be worth seeing doctor, but DSD had this and apparently there are some kids that it just doesn't happen to until their older - it's a physiological thing, so nothing you can do, and I think nine or ten is the age that whatever it is is supposed to kick in by. Sorry, this is all a bit vague - you can Google it for more accurate information - but it isn't out of the ordinary.

It can be worth practising "holding on". DS used to try & count to 10 before he actually went when at the loo, and then we moved to waiting a few mins before actually going into the loo. He had learned to go as soon as he felt the need and his bladder needed training to feel full and hold on. EVentually he would say "I need to go", I'd ask him to wait 5 mins and then he'd forget for ages!

Drink LOADS in the day to expand the bladder, stopping after tea, and NO blackcurrant juice or fizzy.

We also found the sticker chart helped - but obviously you need to be having a few dry nights to make this work.

Ask your GP for a referral to an eneurisis clinic - we had to wait till DS was 7 but I believe they see you earlier now.

Good luck.

Interesting... My DD will be 6 in January and I can count the number of dry nights on one hand, like yours her pull up is always totally soaked. She can hold on to it for a while if we're out in the day and nowhere near a loo, but she often has a 'dribble' in her knickers as seems to wait until she's bursting before she will go.

I was talking to DH about it the other night as she is presumably going to become embarassed about it some day, but since she isn't bothered at the moment we're not taking any action. Fortunately her younger sister is only nine weeks old, so I'm hoping she'll be sorted by the time DD2 is going through potty training!

A friend of a friend told me that it was a physiological/neuro think so no amount of night 'training' would help, so I've not done the walking at 11 and early hours to the toilet with her.

I have another problem that stems from this - we're going on a skiing trip next year, on a coach for 28 hours (I know, I know, off my rocker ) and another child from DD's class is going. She's noticed before the stack of pull ups in DD's basket underneath her bed, and kept asking us about it whenever she was over (daughter of a family friend) but we always managed to say that they were younger DD's - this was very much to the visible relief of older DD. The problems is how I protect her from embarassment on this long coach trip with this other child attending. They are prone to the ocassional fall out and I don't want this used as ammo against my little girl. . The very thought of it makes my heart crack a little.

neuro thing not think.

They really do have to "want" to be dry. First thing we were told at clinic was to stop the late night "lifting" and to take the pull-ups off as subconsciously they know they are wearing them and are safe. They are also so absorbent they don't feel wet and wake up. It was a nightmare but they are more likely to wake if they feel wet, and so start getting up themselves. They clinic can also provide alarms (no good for DS but great for some).

DS's big treat when he was finally dry was a sleepover! (Earlier treats were a comic, extra story at bedtime, new PJ's etc).

This isn't considered a problem until a child reaches the age of 7 (or so we were told - it may have changed now).

We used the alarms and dd was dry almost overnight (although she was almost 9) and we haven't looked back. BUT this was only after several years of fretting, medication (useless) and hospital appointments.

What I'm saying is, don't worry - it's a far more common issue than you'd think, people just don't talk about it.

Baggy when you say you stop her drinks at supper -what time and when does she go to bed?

We had excellent advice from the eneurisis clinic:

DCs bedtime 8.30pm so last drink 7.00pm
get a big plastic jug to measure their capacity (children like peeing in a jug for some reason ) It helps them track/measure as the amount increases - measure once a week

I cut out fizzy drinks and ribena- some experts disagree but I found they were a trigger.
Also drinking chocolate.They have this when they come in from school or breakfast.

DD finds ice-cream makes her pee.If she's out and has it she pees about 3 times in the next hour. Ice lollies have no effect.

Nappies don't let the child feel wet, they are abosorbant and warm.
I had to bite the bullet and buy a load of thin duvets, sheets and waterproof sheets. I got mine from QVC Protect-a-Beds. The 'fitted sheet' style is best I found. They wash and dry well.
Or Boots do HippyChick which are a felty style waterproof, not sweaty or noisy.
Eneuresis clinic adviced cheap sleeping bags-again easy to wash and hang to dry.

For the journey, try the ERIC website.They do discreet pants (for all ages boys and girls) I understand you wanting to protect your DD.

Everyone says how common it is but then everyone elses DC seem to get the hang of it.
BTW I was a nocturnal wee-er till very late (IIRC about 14 yo. I was in the second year at secondary).Which is why I never took umbrage at my DCs (unless they deliberately didn't go to the loo before bed)
My mum said to my mate's dad -with myself and my mate standing there
"Oh Flies still wets the bed". I was 13 yo.
Something in me just died a little bit. Probably my self esteem.

Hi Baggy, I had a thread recently on this and got some great advice. I'll have a look and see if I can link it later.

Basically, my dd was getting upset at the wetting. She so so wanted to be dry at night, and she asked me to help, although I was quite prepared to wait. I sussed out the doctor at our health centre most likely to be sympathetic, and made an appointment. I was pretty much expecting to be told that there was nothing they could do until she was 7.

I was wrong. dd explained to the doctor, and the doctor took her concerns seriously. She has referred us to an enuresis clinic (although 6 weeks later I am still waiting for the appointment) and in the meantime she asked us if we would like to try medication. dd was keen to try, and she is now on desmomelts. She takes responsibility for taking her taking her tablets, and rarely forgets (she is 6, like your dd). We have ditched the pyjama pants, as she hated them, and are using bed mats instead. We are still having some accidents, but better than before, and I'm hopeful we will get even more help when we go to the enuresis clinic. Now when dd has an accident, she often wakes and helps me strip the bed. she knows it is not her fault, but she still finds it frustrating. I reward her for noticing that her bed is wet, and acting on it. I also praise her for remembering her tablets, and one night she got up to the toilet in the night, for which she got extra praise.

If you think you might have a sympathetic GP in your practice, and your dd is keen to address the issue I would say make an appointment. Just knowing that we are trying to address it has helped dd's confidence hugely, and I am so proud of the way she is handling it. Good luck!

this was my thread

I agree that it's worth seeing your GP even if they're under seven. Ds is just 5 and we were at the GP for another problem (accidents at school) but also mentioned that ds had never had a dry night.

He gave most of the advice above about drinking lots, avoiding blackcurrant etc but also offered to refer us to the enuresis clinic. I wonder if they're more amenable to seeing children a bit earlier now?

Like everyone above, been there got the t shirt.

I was a bed wetter until I was about 5, they put me on medication for it.

My eldest DS who is 8.6 has never been dry at night for any length of time. I stopped the nappies at night when he was 4 because he peed so much that the nappies would explode and all the gel would come out

The turning point came when he would be staying overnight on a school trip, aged 7. So 9 months before he went we took him to GP. He was put on Desmopressin which mimics the body's own Vasopressin.

The tablets work so we know that DS does not produce the hormone Vasopressin which suppresses the amount of urine your bladder produces at night meaning you don't need to empty your bladder.

We have the tablets now for sleepovers/staying in hotels. The ERIC site is very good. We always have a spare duvet ready to go, and have a sort of plastic mattress protector meaninh we can literally whip off the wet sheet and duvet if needed, chuck them in the bath and put clean bedding on.

Good luck. Our GP said they don't do anything unless they are 10!

I echo what others have said, my DD has a disability and didn't get dry at night until 11

Bladder training - you need to train the bladder to hold more and also to empty completely. Large mugs of water every hour/2hours and plenty of toilet trips through the day. Only sips of water after last meal of the day to quench any thirst (though shouldn't be thirsty as fully hydrated through the day.

No red or fizzy drinks ever, even sparkling water

Take off the pull ups and leave them off, many children pee first thing in the morning

It doesn't happen over night, so have two sets of sheets on the bed with protectors in between and a spare duvet handy

I didn't believe my DD would ever be dry at night but following the above cracked it in about 3 weeks

Wow - lots of responses. Clearly it IS more common than I thought. Dashing now to do school run, but didn't want to run off without checking in. I'll read everything carefully later, but thanks loads to you all for now.

Thank you everyone - this has been a great help. Jooly, thanks for the link and the poster Sidge who posted on yours (School Nurse) really gave me a huge insight.

I'm not sure what it is with DD - she is quite a heavy sleeper yet will wake if she's had an accident, so there's a chance it could be that she's not producing enough of that hormone. She also produces lots of low odour wee so this seconds that theory.

But, in the meantime, I think there's lots we can do. We drink lots of blackcurrant cordial so we can start changing that. She also likes to have a glass of lemonade when with her Gran or out having a meal, so I'll have to explain that this needs to change.

Does anyone find that orange juice (freshly squeezed) irritates? Maybe on the wrong track here...

Huge thanks again. This thread has been very reassuring.