When to stop wearing nappies at night?

[Writerwannabe83]

When did you make this decision and what triggered it?

DS is 3yrs 3months and has been in pants for about 6 months now during the day - but only for wees as he will not poo unless he's wearing a nappy. This is part of the reason we want to try and get rid of the nappies altogether to get him out of the habit of only pooing in them.

If DS falls asleep in his car seat he will sometimes wet himself which makes me think he's not ready to be nappy free during sleep periods? It's a bit confusing for him thought going from nappies to pants as if we are taking a car journey that will be 30 minutes or more we put a nappy on him just in case he falls asleep.

I don't know though if we are supposed to just bite the bullet and just let him have accidents in his pants to 'train' his brain not to urinate whilst he sleeps, although I know how ridiculous that sounds.

DH and I are clueless as to what to do so I would really appreciate some advice and to hear other people's experiences.

Also, what time of night do you allow them to have their last drink in relation to their bedtime?

Thank you

Being dry at night is all about hormones I think. They can't be dry at night until they have the certain hormone that regulates their urine production etc. They develop that generally between 3 and 7 (this is my basic understanding on it!) My ds is 3y9m and been daytime dry since just after 2 and night time dry about 6 months. He was in pull ups at night but after a while I found they were always dry in the morning. Now he can drink a huge amount right before bed and still not need a wee until the morning. I read recently that if they are wetting at night at about 10/11pm it's a sign they are not ready to be night time trained yet. I have no idea if that's true but that is the time ds always wet (and still has an accident about once every 6 weeks) I would say wait until his night time nappies are naturally dry!

In our case DD asked not to wear a nappy a month after she was dry during the day. She only wet the bed a couple of times after that, and that was because she was ill.

My daughter told me when she was ready to not wear nappies at night time. if he wets his pants during a 30 min nap I would say he's not ready yet. it can take a lot longer to be dry at night.

DD has milk immediately before bed and takes a cup of water to bed with her. she is now 5 and very occasionally she will wet the bed but that's if we have forgotten to get her to go for a wee before bedtime or if she is really tired

My eldest DD is 5 and a half and still has to wear pull ups at night (night time knickers we call them). I feel a lot better about it since I read that it was hormonal and not anything we were doing wrong. The fact is that she is a massively heavy sleeper and just does not wake up to go to the toilet. Over the last 6 months she has been having more 'dry nights' but probably still isn't completely ready. I am hoping it will be by the time she is 6. She has been 'day time dry' since she was two BTW.

the simple answer is when he is dry at night.
If he still wakes up with a wet nappy, then he isn't ready.

Having said that, ds used to drink huge amounts and was a sound sleeper. I realised he always weed at around 5/6 am as his bladder was so full.
So I lifted him at 10 pm for a wee, and he was then immediately dry at night. (he had been dry it the day for a whole year)

In fact dd2 is now 9, and if she has a last minute drink and forgets to do an extra wee, she will wet the bed, as she doesn't wake up easily in the night.

With my two oldest daughters, I noticed that they were waking up with a dry nappy more and more often, once they turned five. So that was when I stopped using nappies at night. I didn't restrict drinks particularly and they always have a drink of water before bed but I did also make sure they did a wee just before bed and if they couldn't I'd lift them when I went to bed. We had very few accidents.

My youngest daughter is similar to your son - using the toilet to wee all day but will only poo in a nappy at bed time! She's occasionally dry at night so I'm hoping that we will be able to ditch her nappies soon and that the poo thing will resolve itself.

When they suggest it. Let them decide so they have control. Mine was dry at night from 2 and a 1/2 for a full year but didn't want a big girl bed so I didn't want to leave her trapped in a cot with no nappy. She then discovered she liked a drink of water at bedtime as a delaying tactic so went through a period of a wet nappy. She then decided herself after a while that she wanted to stop wearing nappies.

When the nappy is dry in the morning I think. Try and encourage going to the potty/loo on first wake up so that they make that association and try to hold it when they wake up rather than waking up and thinking oh, I have a nappy on so I can relax.

DS was dry at night over a year before he was dry in the day so no idea how you encourage it when it happens in the normal order

I read that the timing of drinks makes no difference because the kidneys will be constantly processing waste product anyway and the hormones produced at night should prevent the bladder from releasing once they have developed them.