DS still in night nappies age 7

[Riddlediddle]

So my ds is 7 and still wears a pull up every night and every single morning these are full of wee. We have tried all of the usual recommendations (no drinks after 5pm, waking up to take him to the toilet, etc) but nothing changes. In regards to daytime toilet training he was very early doing this and went straight from nappies to pants literally the first day we tried this with him and has never had an accident at all. After reading up on it for so long I believe he must be missing the hormone that's needed to control his bladder at night. Does anyone have any experience of this and what do I need to do to move forward from here?
Thanks

A bit cheaper on Amazon. The difficulty is that I can't say whether it was the alarm or the medication or a combination of the two that solved it.

WE got an alarm off Amazon. Worked within a week or two bar the odd accident. This was for an 11 year old who had scarcely had a dry night in his life. You'll save the money in pull-ups/nappies/laundry pretty quickly.

We had tried absolutely everything, including double dose of medication. Threw the alarm at it as we were staring down the barrel of school camp. Wish I'd done it years ago.

My DS wasn't dry at night until he was maybe 7.5. In the end, we put normal pants on underneath the pull ups so that he would feel the dampness. He would then wake up but I dont think he woke immediately. After a few days/a week, he was dry. He had a few accidents after that - maybe once every few weeks but that didn't take long to stop.
It is definitely more common than you think and like a PP said, just not spoken about much.

Very common. One of mine was 6 and another was 9 before they were reliably dry at night.

I wish we'd had pull ups in those days!

My DS was possibly still in pull-ups at night at 7 - I can't remember. He was day dry reliably after a week of training but the night dryness took a while. I was prepared to keep him in pyjama pants for as long as he needed - that's why I can't remember how long it took. I don't think there's a lot you can do about it, but it's better not to make them feel self conscious about it. I used to wet the bed sometimes, possibly up to age 10. My parents said nowt about it - guess what, I don't do it now

My twins were referred to the continence team aged 7. They both had never been dry at night and dtd urinated frequently and urgently. After completing fluid intake/output diaries and bladder scans, they were both diagnosed with irritable bladders. This meant that their bladders would empty frequently, never allowing them to be stretched in order to hold more. They were put on oxybutinin and once the daytime urgency was under control, they were started on desmopressin too for the nights. Dtd was dry very quickly. Dts took longer but is mostly dry now.

Don’t count on an alarm working. It woke dtd up which allowed her to finish on the loo but dts slept through it. In fact, it woke his sister up and she had to wake him up to tell him (they share a room) 🤦🏽‍♀️.

My ds1 was dry at 10, ds2 at 3 and ds3 at 8.

With ds1 we were referred to a specialist continence nurse when he was 8 and went through all the recommendations, medication and finally we were prescribed the alarm. It took a couple of months for the alarm to work,

Ds2 was dry day and night within a week of toilet training

Ds3 we did nothing until he was 8 then bought the alarm and he was dry in a month or so.

What I learnt....

Make sure they have 7 big drinks during the day to help the bladder
Avoid black currant and caffeine drinks
Avoid any drink 2 hours before bed
Encourage a double wee at bed time (before and after brushing teeth for example)
Bed wetting is normal and fairly common until at least 8. I knew of at least 3 other children in ds1's class who wet the bed at that age
It is often genetic (I was 9, my mum was 10, my cousin was 15)
It usually has nothing to do with the availability of night time nappies (they certainly did not exist was I was 9!)
It often is linked to heavy sleepers
Encourage them to help change the bed and wash the sheets - but not as a punishment
Only tackle it when you and they have the energy and motivation. Ds1 was desperate to be dry in time for PGL - he made it with only one week to spare!
The Eric website is great!

www.eric.org.uk