4 yr old not dry at night

[Theroadnottravelled]

My 4 yo DD is advanced in every way and about to start school (she’s so ready for it) but we cannot seem to go through the night in pants without her wetting the bed. We always revert back to night nappies. I really wanted her to be dry by school as recommended to us but unsure how to help her (we already stop her drinking, wee before bed etc) Any advice?

It's hormonal, there will be other children in her class who aren't dry at night. I'm not sure why school are recommending she's dry at night, nothing to do with them. My eldest wasn't dry at night until 9, youngest was under 3. Just depends on when the hormone that controls urine production overnight kicks in. Leave her in night pull ups, she will be dry in her own time.

Yes - we had a regression with this when my DS turned 4, to the point we went to the GP in Jan as he’d been dry at night for almost 6m by then and it was such a change.

GP advised to ensure lots of fluids during the day and regular wees - dehydration by day can cause overactive bladder at night, who knew.

We also get DS up for a wee around 10.30-11pm, and try to limit juice or flavoured drinks at dinner time as he drinks more of those and it can lead to a wet bed. Since instigating these changes he’s again largely dry, maybe a small accident once a month.

Some children don't produce the hormone that wakes them up for the toilet at night until they're a bit older. Doctors don't consider bed wetting to be a problem until after age 7 because of this... maybe just wait until you've noticed the pull ups are dry in the morning, rather than put pressure on now. Why does she need to be dry at night for school? Surely as long as she's toilet trained in the daytime, that's all that matters?

No advice but my 6 yo is still in nappies at night. He’s far from the only one in his class.

Dedicated website to children's continence:
https://eric.org.uk/

My DD was the same, in her case it was cos she was a very very deep sleeper.

But it's all normal until 7yo after which it is unusual enough to warrant medical attention.

I'm sure i was 8 or 9 before I reliably had dry nights every night. I have a vivid memory of wearing dry nights pants to a sleepover when i was about that age. I asked my mum for them because i was anxious i'd wet the bed but it backfired and I was caught out by a friend who noticed i was wearing them.

She's just not ready yet, 4 is still young, medically they won't consider it a problem until she's much older.
Don't stress her out with it or you'll make it worse, just leave her in pull ups at night and eventually they'll be dry most mornings.
Also being "advanced in every way" has absolutely nothing to do with being dry at night, it's hormonal some kids just take longer that's all, it's not something you can teach them

My 4yo isn't close to being dry over night. She starts school in September and the school haven't asked one way or the other.

Is it boarding school?

It’s hormonal - you cannot train them to be dry at night - if you don’t produce the hormone your urine isn’t concentrated enough!

just wait and carry on with night nappies. It will happen!

Another one saying don’t worry. You can’t train her to be dry at night - there’s no point in waking them or lifting them really. It doesn’t teach them to not wee in their sleep. In fact it probably does the opposite as they’re only weeing because someone has told them to.

Mine was 4.5 just overnight it happened. I’ve never heard anyone recommend them to be dry any school - are you sure they didn’t mean during the day!?

You can always try a bed alarm. Also do a double wee before bed. Wee, then brush teeth and have story then wee again. Make sure bowels are fully empty too and to do this ensure a good diet of fruit and veg. I've been through this with mine.

As long as their dry in the day it's fine, just no to sleepovers to save the embarrassment on children's behalves.

Honestly, ds is 8 and has only just recently started to be dry at night, he was in night time nappies until age 6 then he was too big. We would wake up twice in the night to take him toilet then just the once at midnight and now he can hold it but wakes up at 6 to go to the toilet, often he will then go back to sleep. FYI my ds hasn't got any additional needs he just took longer, we've moved around a lot which probably hasn't helped either

It’s perfectly normal at this age,about 1 in 4 of those aged 4 still wet the bed.

It's perfectly normal. My DD5 sees a urologist for bladder issues and he had said very matter of factly he's not interested in the nighttime wetting and won't consider treating it for another year as it's a normal issue.

If you are getting him up in the night, he's not dry!

Oh, well, yes that’s probably fair. But we don’t have wet bedding to deal with and his sleep isn’t disrupted for school/nursery so I thought it would still be helpful for the OP.

They do it when they do it. My DC1 was 7, DC2 was 4 (I think) and DC 3 was 2. DH and I were both later than average, so DC3 was a real surprise. It's absolutely not worth worrying about.

My friend's son wasn't dry at night until 6. Apparently it's not that unusual. My friend's daughter is almost 5 and still wears pull ups at night but was dry during the day from 2.5. My son became dry overnight (barring one or two accidents per month) at almost exactly the same time as he was dry during the day - a few months before his third birthday. But I think that was just coincidence as you can't train for night dryness. There's a huge range in what's normal.

I wouldn't worry about this. As lots of posters said, it's a hormonal thing and as long as she's toilet trained for the day, she'll have no issues at school. School won't even care what the set up is at night in fact. With both of mine, they were in night nappy pull ups until they went 6 months without a night wee accident and then they just switched to pants. My first was 5.5 and my second was 4.5 so they varied by a whole year. Both had been fully day time potty trained from before 3 though, so nighttime potty trained and daytime potty trained are two separate beasts.