Dry it might/ how much is hormone

[StealthMama]

My dd 4 (in reception) still in night nappies, came home from school last week said she didn't want to wear them anymore. I've otherwise been 'waiting' for said hormone to kick in."

She wet the bed first night, second night woke up needing the loo at 2am (we made it - great), third night wet the bed, fourth night slept through and dry all night, 5th night wet the bed twice.

She is adamant she doesn't want to go back to nappies.

Granted only 5 nights in, anyone got any tips?

Sorry for weird formatting cant seems to fix it.

What about reusable nappy pants? Feel like pants, but won't cause leaks. I'm personally of the perspective that if you are having to get up with them to take them to the toilet during the night, it's probably too soon. Also in my experience, 4 is several years too young to expect them to be dependably dry at night, though that's not to say it's impossible either. But didn't match my experience of those of people I know.

I think it can be hormone related until they're 7?

Watching with interest.

My DS just 7 last week, not dry at night. We had a couple of appointments with continence nurse but not much help.

I've made sure he drinks enough, early enough. Double voiding at night. No help. I'm pretty sure he has sleep apnoea but nurse just said yes that can be a,reason.

No difficulty at all with day time potty training. But he seems now to find holding it impossible. Would welcome any tips. Thanks

There are two reasons why children wet at night:

1. They don't have a hormone which helps to concentrate their wee over night. This means that they produce more wee than their bladder can hold and so they wet. This usually has no day time symptoms because it's just an issue at night, when you would usually have the hormone.

1. Their bladders are acting a little bit small. This means even if they concentrate their urine, they still can't fit it all in. Their bladder acts small all the time. So these are the kids that were often, don't have much warning when they need a wee in the day and may have accidents in the day.

At four, it may be a combination of the two. It isn't because a child sleeps deeply because our bodies are designed to not need a wee in the night. Light sleeps are less likely to wet because they will get up and wee at night, but they shouldn't need to do this, so the underlying problem is still there (which will be one of the above or a combination of the two).

Anyhow, it's all super normal at 4 and she will most likely grow out of it in time. Things you can do to help (probably all stuff you know) are:

1. Make sure she drinks lots in the day. The bladder can be trained and if she drinks more in the day, her bladder will stretch more and not act small.

1. Stop drinking 2 hours before bed so there isn't as much fluid hanging around in her system.

1. Wee before she gets her PJ's on and then have another go after (double void) so she starts with an entirely empty bladder

Lifting for a wee in the night does nothing to solve the underlying issue and so isn't really recommended, but for my money If it keeps you from having to wash urine sodden sheets every morning, it seems like a practical thing to do.

Brolly sheets on the bed for ease of change in the middle of the night also helps.

You can get support from your local school nurses also worth looking at the Eric website (www.eric.org.uk)

Thanks all. So we have stopped food or drink intake after 6pm, though I was conscious of withholding because she's petite and can afford the calories but she's fairly stable in her weight etc.

If we trust in hormone then 'it will just happen' and lots of other threads and books recommend this is the case, but there's also a lot emerging out there about ' training' and training clocks to help.

We're too early for that but, I think I'll give it till the end of next week ( so two weeks in total) and if she's not more consistent with dryness/toileting then I'll try and convince her back to nappies for a while longer.

She is just so adamant she doesn't want them, it must have been talked about out at school as she sees it as being a baby and a negative thing.

Yes I have noticed, she wees at about 2am. So she is holding it from 7pm but 2pm bladder is on obviously full and she doesn't wake up.

It has happened earlier , 10pm, but that's when I've been away and I know dh isn't as strict on end of day snacks and drinks.

So, she just doesn't wake up, which I'm assuming is lack of hormone. She's been dry in the day since 2.5yrs. I just never pushed night time as didn't need to I guess and agree it will just happen.

It's purely because she is adamant no more nappies.

So maybe we just ride through it her way!! 🙈

I currently have a 2 year old who is dry through the night and a 6 year old who isn’t- although desperately wants to be (and does try to get up and go to the toilet, but sleeps fairly deeply). I’ve been where you are…and ended up buying some Elsa/ Ana and other princess night time pants which seemed to do the trick for now. The two year old was waking up with a dry nappy for several weeks before I just stopped putting it on, and has had very few accidents at night…so I’m convinced it’s hormones.

Well we've had 2 dry nights in a row now. And last night I suggested not wearing her underwear to bed to see if she would feel it more if she started to wee but, no accidents.

I had talked to her that it's ok to wear her pull ups (she has the princess once's too) but she said nappies are for babies and she's not a baby. I've explained most children wear nappies at night till 6 or 7 yrs old, but she's not having it at all!

So we'll see where we go from here. We're going away in the campervan for half term and really would rather not be dealing with night accidents there.

Maybe this is it and we'll just start to get more dry nights than wet ones over the next few weeks.