Recommendations for decent night nappies for older children

[WigWamBam]

I started a thread ages ago about this but can't find it - sorry for the repetition!

Dd is 5 this week and still in nappies at night - not ready for going without at all. We have had real problems finding night-time nappies that are big enough to fit her (she's in age 8 clothes, so they need to be pretty big), and absorbent enough to cope overnight. We've been using some Libero ones that the lovely MTPW sent me and they have been great, but can't buy these anywhere, and I'm running out - so could do with some recommendations of larger nappies to try.

We had her in Pampers Easy Up nappies before, and they just don't cut the mustard. Someone also recommended Pyjama Pants, but they didn't do the trick either - I think they're more like training pants, and they weren't up to holding all of her wee.

Someone, somewhere must make a nappy to fit a larger child that won't leak at the first sign of being wet!

i went to the head teacher and expressed my concerns.she was great actually and said she would make sure it never happened again.

My nephew is aged 10 & still wets the bed, they use Huggies dry nites, they are pull up pants & not nappies but seem very absorbant Just in case any others with older children who still wet at night are reading this, it really does seem to be as common as the statisitcs say. He regularly sleeps over at a friends who has the same problem & when he was invited to anothers and my sil had a word with the mum, she said no problem, hehas another friend the same! This makes us all feel a lot beter about the situation

Can I suggest (whispers) cloth? There's a few companies that make cloth pocket nappies that have a water proof outer, fleece inner (for dryness) which can be stuffed with absorbant material (anything from bespoke pads to hand towels or microfibre cleaning cloths), one (Minki) will actually do made to measure and you'd only need 3 nappies at most cos they dry very quickly.

Anyway, here's some links:
\link{http://www.minkinappies.co.uk/yoyos.htm\Minki Nappies}
\link{http://cumfybumfy.co.uk/cumfyshop/product_info.php/cPath/158/products_id/1016\Happy Heinys}
\link{http://www.twinkleontheweb.co.uk/acatalog/Toddler_and_Night_Time_Nappies.html\Fuzzi Bunz (about half way down)}

The first two are pullups so could help with any night training.

DS1 is nearly 5 and is wearing huggies Dry Nites. We still sometimes leaks at night, but they are much better than any other alternatives that I've tried.
He also has had some problems at school (he is on lactulose cos he gets constiptated very easily and then finds it difficult to know when he needs the loo) and his class teacher has been excellent. He just has a little sign which he uses and she lets him go to the toliet, no questions asked and there is no fuss. Couldn't something similar be done for your daughter, KateF? - although I'm sure you have thought of all this and more.

Am getting worried that DD2 will be dry at night before DS1, that could cause problems cos he thinks of her as his baby sister.

JoPG - I find dds class teacher is very good and just lets her go. The problem is anyone else, the information just doesn't seem to get passed on although it's in her file. Her class teacher takes other classes PE lessons so they have substitutes for those lessons and that's where the problem lies. She's so embarrassed by the whole thing that she just tries to wait til playtime and ends up spending half the day in damp knickers if she doesn't have a major accident.

Bless her - it is so hard for them.
I know that DS1 tries to hide it as well if he does have an accident. He was really sore on Friday by the time he got home, cos he was a bit damp and it was a really hot day. Overall though he has been a lot better at school than I thought he would be, I had visions of me being up there every day.
WWB - Sorry for the slight hijack, hope you don't mind too much

No, don't mind at all!

Well, the Dry Nights were a complete waste of time ... the bed was awash by this morning.

vkone, I would consider cloth but with her being that bit older I'm hoping (maybe vainly) that she won't be in night nappies for all that much longer and so maybe it won't be worth the inital outlay. Mind you I would probably have said that 12 months ago and we're still here! I guess they do have the benefit of a pull-up type option, which is better for when she realises she needs a wee and gets out of bed - although she's not even doing that at the moment.

I don't really know much about washables - I presume you buy booster pads that go inside the nappy to increase absorbency?

Gosh WWB, she must be a pretty heavy wetter. Have you tried limiting her intake of fluid after about 4 ish? I try to do this with DS1 and it does make a bit of difference, though he has never had a completely dry night. The only problem with this is making sure that they get enough to drink before 4ish, esp if they are at school and you are not sure how much they are drinking there.
I too often think DS1 will grow out of the problem soon, but in reality I think I'll still be buying Dry Nights this time next year!

She could wee for England, I think!

I'm not sure limiting her drinks will work - she has a drink with her tea at about 4.30, then another small drink with supper at 6.30 so she's not having huge amounts in the evening as it is.

I can see me still putting her in nappies this time next year too, she just hasn't got a clue that she's weeing.

Hi KateF my niese who is now nine has similar promblems as your daughter and was put on mediation by doctor, I think she was around 5 when she started it was defiately before she was 7. medication has helped alot and helped confidence, sill has some accidents but i think this is more due to another problem she has(labial adhesions) and gave up night nappies about 3 years ago.

Have you tried lifting her in the night? This is what we do for DS1 who is 5, he refuses to where a nappy but is no where near dry at night. If we lift we get about 90% dry nights and it doesn't seem to disturb his sleep. My HV also said 7 for a referal.

There's a few reasons I haven't done lifting with dd. She's heavy for one, so it would be hard to do without her waking fully. Plus I think she needs to learn to wake to wee, and I would be concerned that lifting is training her to keep weeing in her sleep. And as she is such a heavy wetter I doubt if it would crack the problem - when she's tried without a nappy we've ended up changing the bed three or four times a night, which lifting wouldn't help with.

Was just looking at sb's post about medication - I'm not sure that I'd be happy medicating my dd over this. I'm not overly concerned that she isn't dry at night, I just want a nappy that will contain it all! If she's still wetting at 7 then I will probably see the GP but I don't think for me that medication is the answer.

My friend's 6yr old daughter has a similar
bed wetting problem of your Dd. Larger size
disposable nappies for older children seem to be non existant in the shops and super markets. So my friend pops her daughter in double terry cloth nappies and water proof pants for sleeping in at nights. Washing the nappies and pants may be a bit of a chore, but it solves your older childs protection problems.

I think terry nappies and plastic pants are the best solution. You can buy larger child size nappies from places like Boots, or alternatively, buy the material and make your own. Also, there are a number of specialist chemist shops around that sell plastic pants in a range of larger sizes.

My 2 both wet the bed occasionally till about age 9.

The answer for me was to have 2 lots of sheets on the bed at the same time. ie starting from the mattress... plastic sheet/cotton sheet/plastic sheet/cotton sheet.

Then if there was a n 'accident' just whip off the top layer and there was a clean dry sheet underneath.

I think this also helped get them dry at night - after all, if you've got a nappy on you're going to feel quite comfortable weeing into it, aren't you? But if you get woken up by a wet bed it's a far less appealing prospect.

I could'nt be doing with stripping off wet sheets in the middle of the night, even with the suggested 2 sheet system. How do you stop the top sheet or duvet from getting wet? Obviously, WigWamBam has to cope with a heavy wetter and at the same time a heavy sleeper, who's not aware she's weeing at all, so better to have a wet nappy than sheets, in my opinion. Also, I think waking up to a wet (terry) nappy must be just as uncomfortable as wet sheets, from a training point of view. Washing nappies and plastic pants has to be a beter option than washing several sets of sheets. Anyway, I'm sure this is just a phase she is going through. There are lots of 5 year olds still in nappies at night.

As an afterthought, my 3 year old son has just woken me up to tell me he's "wetty betty", which means he has another soaking nappy! He's nowhere near trained at night. I use a terry nappy "kite" folded, boosted with another one pad folded inside, and plastic pants over the top. It's so easy just to put the nappy on at bedtime, and then take it off in the morning, rather than have to worry about wet sheets and bedding.