Advice of getting dry at night

[pepsi]

My ds is 4 and a bit and most of his friends are or getting dry at night. His nappies are not dry in the morning, but I was thinking of putting him in pull ups and puting him on the loo before we go to bed and then seeing if he is dry in the morning. Has anyone done it this way. I notice when people start the night time training they always put on them on the loo, but thats something you would never had done on a normal night. I suspect he wont be ready for ages. Once "dry" at night when do children wake up automatically themselves, say in the middle of the night, and think oh I need the loo and actually get up and do it! My ds sleeps so soundly I cant imagine this happening for years and years and dont know if its meant to. Im not actually too bothered about when he does it, which makes me wonder why are people so keen for kids to be dry at night. What difference does it make? Just wondered because I feel pressured to get it done and dont know why.

My son will be 5 in November and is still in nappies at night. I too had a few weeks of worrying what to do about it as he also has a drink of milk at bedtime, which he refuses to give up.

In the end I decided that it would be easier all round to keep him in nappies until he was ready to give up milk and showed signs of having a dryer nappy at night rather than trying to force the issue and have an upset child at bedtime followed by wet sheets and pyjamas in the middle of the night.

He occassionally asks when he won't have to wear nappies at night and I explain that when he is ready to give up his bedtime milk and to go for a wee in the toilet at night we can try. He is satisfied by that answer and tells me he still prefers to have his milk for now, but soon we he is a "bigger boy" he will not have milk at bedtime.

I always ask him to try to have a wee before he gets into bed and put the nappy on at the very end of our bedtime routine. I did try pull ups at one stage, but found they leak much easier than normal nappies.

DS1 decided for himself (at 3 1/2) that he was going to stop wearing pullups at night. They were usually dry and he'd started waking to tell us he needed the toilet so we let him. There were a few accidents but not too many to warrent going back to nappies.

DS2 is now 3 1/2 and is not showing quite the same signs as his elder brother! his pullups are always wet in the morning and he's not been waking for the toilet. I'm happy to leave him in pullups until he decides he's ready to stop (and I agree that it's appropriate!!)

FWIW, both have always had free access to a beaker of water in the night and this certainly didn't hamper DS1 in his nighttime training.

The wet nappies thing can work the other way round, though, ie. because they know they're wearing a nappy, they wee in it.

Dd1 when aged nearly three, kept asking me at bedtime if she could wee in her nappy. Eventually I took the hint and put her to bed without one. We had a few accidents, but not many.

With ds I ran out of clean nappies one night and put him to bed without one, on a pile of old towels. Previously his nappies had always been wet in the morning, but he made it dry through that night, and subsequent ones-- occasionally he'd wake up crying that he'd wet the bed, but oddly he never actually had, it just meant he needed a wee. This was a good few months before his 3rd birthday.

My ds will be 5 in September, and still wears Dry Nites (much better than pullups IMO). We have tried to get him out of them 2 or 3 times, but if he wets his bed he gets very upset, and insists on wearing dry nites the next night.

He and I have agreed that we'll try when he starts school, but I've decided not to fuss about it. He'll stop wearing them when he's ready.

Incidentally, he has fantastic bladder control, and often goes 6 - 8 hours during the day without going for a wee.

My DS is five and is still half in nappies. I agree with Frogs about wearing nappies giving them permission to wet in them, so I don't put his nappy on until after he's asleep, over his pyjamas.

Not sure if it's making any difference at all, but it's easier than laundering sheets and I don't feel I'm encouraging him to stay in nappies.

I think if you're not bothered about it pepsi, leave it - you've probabaly got lots of other things to think about. Until they're seven, it's not considered a problem anyway.

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Twiglett, i wouldn't take him out of pull-ups until he has a good few nights where he is completely dry. My DD, who has just been potty trained, has had about a fortnight where she's been dry, so I know she's ready to be taken out of nappies. And at the time I took DS out of nappies, he was also usually dry at night - it's only in the last six months or so that he's been wetting more frequently. I don't know how efficient you are, but I know I'd go for convenience every time - I just find it exhausting to have to launder sheets every day - once or twice a week I can cope with!

By the age of five years 4 months, my dd2 had not had a single dry night (she was still in pull ups at night). Against all advice we decided to get her up to go to the loo, just as we went to bed. However we didn't "lift" her, we woke her up fully and she walked to the toilet, did a wee and walked back to bed. HOWEVER:
a) she was a very deep sleeper and I think it would have been many years before she woke automatically had we not "helped" her
b) she has a very small bladder and must go to the loo (and empty her bladder fully) at least a dozen times in a day - so just doesn't have the capacity to hold a whole night's wee!!
c)She went back to sleep immediately after going to the loo.
d) If she did ever wet the bed (once we had taken her out of pull-ups) it didn't upset her at all.

After about a month she was reliably dry - after the first week she was dry about 80% of the time. She now gets up and goes to the loo by herself (did so after about two months of us waking her up).

I was glad we had left it until she was over five as she just wasn't ready before ten, but I strongly believe that without us helping her to wake up it would have taken a lot longer for her to do it by herself. Incidentally, we started doing it partly because she asked if we could.

oops that last bit should say "ready before then"

pepsi, if he isn't bothered and you aren't either then by all means just leave him. I don't know either why it's such a big deal, unless it's a hangover from the old days when wet sheets were a real pain to wash and dry day after day.

You say "most of his friends", but I'd be surprised if they are all reliably dry yet, and if their parents are lifting them then they're not doing it themselves.

There are 2 main factors in becoming dry at night (ignoring the deep sleep aspect which is a 3rd factor) - one is that as children get older they start producing a hormone called vasopressin, which limits kidney function overnight so that much less urine is produced and the bladder should be able to hold it all, and the other is that the brain needs to recognise - while asleep - the bladder-full signal if it does come, and wake the child up enough to go to the loo. (If they do sleep v deeply this bit is less likely to happen.)

One day he will have a dry nappy in the morning and that'll be an indication that he's on the way! Good luck

ok. dd1 (4)wet the bed last night once, and I lifted her onto potty a few times, once with success. do you just keep doing that? do you take them to the loo just before you go to bed, or get up specially? (ie set the alarm). she's not that bothered when she wets, actually took her own pj bottoms off and dumped them on the floor. have a care mat thingy under her sheet, so it's not too messy. any advice appreciated.

I have twins nearly 5, both girls. One was dry at night before 3yrs and the other is still in pull ups at night. It just made me realise how children develop at different rates.

daisy, did the one who's 3 get it pretty quickly?

yes bundle, she potty trained by day in less than a week at about 2 1/2 yrs and then a few weeks later asked to be put to bed in pants. We only had a couple of accidents. Her sister took much longer to be dry by day and is still wet 3 nights out of 7. They both have their strengths in different areas and its just taught me not too be concerned about reaching milestones and not to compare progress.

totally agree. dd1 has had thrush recently and gp thinks the dampness of her nappy is helping to cause it, that's the driving force behind it. plus she compares herself with dry friends and would like to join them. won't force it though, just trying for a few days & seeing what happens.