Still wetting the bed at 7... nappies or pull ups?

[K8tiewith1]

My daughter is 7 and still wets the bed and my question to al of you is, do you use nappies or pull ups on your older one at night. Reason I ask is that pull ups/drynites just dont work and they would leak just about every night. I have considered many times going back to nappies at night but due to her age, I wasnt sure if that was something other moms have done when running out of all other options. Its stressful as it is having to wash first thing in the morning and neither of us are morning people as it is so you can imagine what mornings are like here now without her wearing anything to bed. Has anyone here resorted to nappies on a child my daughters age or is that something I shouldnt even consider. I have tried ALL the tricks (limiting drinks, waking her, dr visits etc) and nothing has helped. I was told to just to let her outgrow it. Thank you

Katherine

Ds1 is in pull ups.(he's 10)

As she is 7, you can also go back to the gp for some desmopressin which mimics the 'dry' hormone, or ask for referral to enuresis clinic where you can usually borrow an enuresis alarm (or just buy one online). (if she is a v deep sleeper, try the alarm, it worked for dd1 at 8 in two weeks and she has been dry since)

Pull-ups don't actually work to keep stuff dry with ds tbh, but they do damage limitation, and so some days I only have to wash sheets and duvet covers rather than the duvet and pillow as well...

Pull-ups are just socially more acceptable for big kids for sleepovers etc. I haven't had any better results with nappies, and tbh when we had run out of pull ups and I suggested using one of dd2's nappies as an emergency measure, it was like the end of world....

dd is 6 in a couple of weeks, she is in drynights. I tried going back to nappies but she got nappy rash which was awful and I felt so guilty.

She had NO problems wearing the pull ups so I was thinking she wouldnt have a serious concern about having to wear a nappy. Not to make it a punishment or anything but I also thought it would motivate her to try harder. Does that make sense? She also in the past has had a rash or 2 because of the pull ups but its rare. As for the sleepovers, I have yet to allow her to go on one for obvious reasons. I dont want to put the burden on someone else and have to worry about her wetting someone elses bed/furniture.

Katherine

hi from other thread.

dd hasn't been able to fit into any proper nappies for 3 yrs or so. she isn't large at all, quite tall and very slim. not sure what nappies would fit a 7 yr old.

i bought incontinence mats from ebay. they are washable and limit the damage done to sheets. I did put them on top, but she found them uncomfy to lie on, so i put them under the sheet now.

I am lucky in that her drynites (8-15) don't leak.

they're called washable bed pads btw.

My daughter is average height just SUPER skinny. She can still wear 4-5T shorts! Its somewhat difficult to find pants in her size because if I get the right lenght, the waist is WAY too big and if I get the waist in her size, they are too short! I was assuming that nappies would still fit her given her size which is why I was considering having her wear one to bed. I was just curious to know if there were others that have done the same.

Katherine

Gp will just try desmo, or you can try an alarm. It's no biggie, but tbh there's no point hanging around and keeping your fingers crossed. Might as well be proactive and see if it helps. Dd1 hadn't had a dry night at all and the alarm worked really well for her. . Far better for both of you if you can find a solution.

I didn't find nappies any better anyway tbh.

'trying' is irrelevant. Either her body is ready or it isn't. Even if she was the most motivated child in the world, she would just get disheartened. It's nothing to do with how hard you try (although obv cooperation helps lol)

Get thee to the gp for some desmo. If it works, then no more laundry, no more forking out hard cash for pull-ups or nappies, and less morning stress. Win all round.

If it doesn't, try an alarm. (or do it the other way round. But if she's fractious about the whole thing, ime it would be better to do it the other way round, being woken in the middle of the night several times and hoyed out of bed is guaranteed not to improve her mood. )

The drynite pads are ok under sheets, but they get expensive too. You can double make the bed with them to save energy in the mornings. If she's a wriggler, they might not help... Ds1 quite often drenches over the sides .

You can also (if it goes on) get waterproof duvets and pillows, or waterproof covers for them, to save you having to wash the duvet and pillow every day. You still have the sheets, but tbh it's the duvet and pillow that bugs me. I'm resigned to sheets after 8 years lol.

Mine grew out of nappies around 5 or 6 tbh, I couldn't get any to fit either kid past that.

You will not be able to motivate her to try harder, she is asleep and lacking enough of the hormone that slows the production of urine.
What you can do is limit drink an hour before bedtime. No blackcurrant squash or apple juice, double make the bed so you just have to strip the top layer, pop her in dry nights or pull ups whichever she prefers and don't make a big deal of it.
Do go back to the doctor and ask for a refferal to the continence clinic and have a look on the eric.org.uk website

As another tip I bought 3 extra duvets 4.5 tog as they are quick to wash and quicker to dry, keep spares in the airing cupbord and just double up if the weathers cold

Thanks, I will look into the desmo although, I am not comfortable with putting her on meds for this but the option is still there. In regards to the nappies, back when she did wear them a long time ago, I never had any issues with leaking (once in a great while I had a leak) but nothing compared to the pull ups or drynites. Your right, she is NOT in a great mood when attempting to wake her at night to go and neither am I and again in the morning, she is not that pleasant to be around because of her being over cranky. I have tried the alarm and all she did was get up, turn it off and go back to sleep. She didnt even attempt to get out of bed. Its not that she was still "asleep" she has told me straight to my face that she didnt feel like getting out of bed to go! I was shocked that she was totally upfront with me stating that she just didnt feel like getting out of bed to go.

Katherine

you can get wireless alarms too - so they actually have to get out of bed to turn it off. preferably on the other side of the room... and so that you can hear it as well. your job is to hear the alarm go off, then crash unceremoniously into the room, flicking the light switch in, clapping and banging, and generally making it really really unpleasant. and of course whip the sheets off and hoik her upright - she has to be completely awake (and a bit pissed off that her sleep has been monumentally disrupted). ds1 is a subconscious alarm unplugger. he has also severed two alarm wires.

you have to give her no choice about getting out of bed. that way the mind subconsciously stops the night time weeing (or it means they bumble to the loo half asleep for a pee and then climb back into bed without disturbing the whole house).

i appreciate the crankiness (!) but you have to make it really unpleasant for her to wet... it took dd1 14 days with the alarm. after about the first 5, she didn't wet any more, but we kept the alarm on for the 14 so that she didn't relapse.

Thank you everyone for all your help. I am glad to know that I am not the only one going through this. Its even harder to deal with when you have limited options on what will help.

Katherine

We have used bed mats here in the past but they usually just end up on the floor by the morning. We also have a protector that covers (zips) the entire mattress. After having to buy 3 for her so far over the years, they are SOO expensive.

She is just now over the last few months have expressed interest over going to sleepovers and has been asked a couple times. I have told her that she will not be able to go until she can stay dry for 2 weeks but she still wants to go even though I have explained to her that someone might say something to her about it and some kids can make somewhat mean comments about it, not meaning to come across that way. Plus, I dont want to put the burden on someone else and risk her ruining someone elses bed/furniture.

Katherine

smalltown, ds was on oxy as well, but for daytime stuff. i didn't realise they used it for nights too...

fleece is a great idea too.

Thanks again everyone!

Katherine

DD2 is 6yrs old, and we use the 8-15yrs drynights as the 3-7yrs ones were too small and leaked.

She has a full pull up every morning, and have tried all the tricks in the book also.

The docs wont touch her until she is 7 (Oct) but I am considering an alarm in the next few months. She is a very deep sleeper and think that is the majority of the problem.

I also have DS (4yrs old) in pull ups at night, but can still get away with size 6 from lidl and no leaks.

I'm surprised that pull ups aren't working for so many people - my DC were very late to be dry and pull ups/pyjama pants worked fine about 19 nights out of 20 (Hippychick bed sheets on top of the mattress to manage the last 5%).
Limiting drinks before bed and enforcing a wee at lights out time might reduce the volume to an amount that pull ups could contain?

I cant be sure when it happens but I know I have caught my daughter still awake and already in a wet pull up, which would account for leaks on those nights. Of course she tries to deny doing it but those things are SOO expensive to waste. At times, she would go through 2 a night because of it. Like I said, I know that would definatly cause some of the leaking but I do know that the drynites (even the smallest size) are still too big for her so when I do buy them, I get the reg ones for the younger kids.

Katherine

Ds1 double voids at lights out, dilys, and has only half a cup of milk or water after 6pm. The boy can pee for Britain. he uses the 8-14 drynites and they are spectacularly useless, but at least stop him drowning... We did use the mats for a while but he soaks over them and onto the sheets/ mattress (through the pull up) so we've had to use the heavy duty waterproof mattress protectors that completely encase the mattress (zips inside). Even the 'soft shell' waterproof mattress protectors weren't up to the job.

I think we're going to back to meds in a month or two though, and see if anything has changed.

We keep the pull-ups for Cub camping and so on ... we wake DS2 ( 10 ) about an hour or so after he's gone to sleep and leak him, then do it again just before we go to bed. It mostly works!

You can get pyjama pants up to teenage size in Sainsbury's, DS2 would only agree to wear them when we showed him the age range on the packet!