dry in day for 3 years..but still wet at night

[ernest]

hi, i'm asking this on behalf of a friend. her son is almost 5. he has been dry during the day since he was 2, but has always worn a nappy at night. Now he no longer wants to wear the nappy but he can't seem to go throught the night without wetting the bed. When he 1st asked he managed to go a few dry nights, but now it's every night. I suggested putting a couple of towels on the bed, so if he wet, he could just take them off himself in the night, but she says the duvet,and the pillow, as well as the sheets normall get wet. So she's up every night changing beds & as you can imagine is getting very tried & fed up. She thinks the act of weeing itself doesn't wake him, but rather it's the wet bed. Any ideas?

no ideas from anyone?

having kind of the same problem with our 3.5 yr old.

I wish I had the answer...........gonna ask the wise Mnettters I think.

Your friend has my sympathy. My dd was 5yo and my ds was almost 8yo before they stopped wetting at nightime. I put a waterproof cover on the bed to protect the mattress and used thinner quilts that would fit into the washing machine. She might like to try the star chart reward system and see if that works. Make sure he goes to the toilet before bed. But sometimes as in my case its a matter of time and waiting for their systems to mature enough to be dry at night. So in the meantime do whatever it takes to make life easier for everyone. Its so frustrating I know and I wish I had something more encouraging and helpful to tell you.
Julie

does she 'lift' him before she goes to bed?

I have said this elsewhere but it's worth offering again...
Has she tried eliminating certain drinks from his diet, maybe after 4pm, maybe altogether.
We foudn with DS1 that Ribena was worst, but removed all squash, juice and similar, he just had milk or water, plenty of that but other drinks seem to act as a direutic (sp?).
Don't limit drinks in general, as he needs to feel a full bladder.
i found liftingno use at all but others do find it helps.
Also you can do things like put a sheet, thena mattress proetctor, then another sheet so when he's wet just whip off the top sheet. Or there are mattress pad that are quite soft and can just go on top of the bottom sheet (see GLTC catalogeu) to save some of the washing.
hth

thanks guys. I won't mention to her it could go on for another 3 years....