Nearly 5 year old not dry at night.

[Greentomatoes21]

We have been trying to get our 4 (5 in October) year old son out of pull ups at night. I know it can be harder with boys, deep sleepers (definitely) and that it is been linked to the development of a hormone that he may or may not have developed yet. However, any tips outside of this would be gratefully received! We have been trying for about two weeks, so not that long, but no progress at all in that time and I'm not sure if persistence is the key here or if we should just put him back in pull ups and try again in a month or so. We obviously don't get cross with him, reassure and just move on. The reason for trying to move him out of pull ups is mainly because he is starting school end of Aug and I would hate for him to begin to feel self conscious if he becomes more aware 🥲 Other than that I wouldn't really care how long it takes him! (He has been day trained since around 2.5 and in that situation I was of the "consistency is key" opinion so we kept at it for a week or so and he cracked it quickly. Night time - I've no idea if consistency will make the slightest difference!!)

What worked for you?

I know this is probably considered an extreme example but I was still wet at night until I was at least 9 when I was reliably dry ! I still had the odd wet night aged 10/11. My parents tried using an alarm etc ! I was obviously a very deep sleeper.
One of my sons was about 8 when he was finally dry at night whereas grandchild was dry aged 3. I personally think that you should relax,use pull ups and not worry about it.

Sounds like some good tips to gently encourage and give him the best chance. Will def give the big drinks during the day a try and limit after dinner/pre bed. But I will not sweat it and will go back to pull ups in the meantime. I get that kids don't necessarily talk about it or care about it when they're this young but it's not impossible and I guess they can be quite black and white along the lines of "babies wear nappies" type thing. That's my worry for him developing a self conscious thing about it, rather than sleep overs or residentials, which are obviously a long way off.

My older child (now 9) wasn't dry until she was 4 but we worked out she was wetting when she woke early in the morning around 6am - so we made sure to tell her she could get up and go if she needed to and that green light was the ticket she needed to be fully dry after a couple of days. My son - nope. But as I have discovered this evening, they are all just totally different when it comes to night dryness!!

Thanks again!

To add to the deep sleeping comments - he fell out of bed on holiday recently in our hotel room and I found him completely asleep on the floor at 2am, no duvet, no pillow, hard floor and not a sound out of him. No idea how long he'd been there! Quite happily sound asleep.

I worked in preschools and then a reception class, not at all uncommon for children to start school in pull ups, and it just doesnt come up for it to be something they get embarrassed about.

My DS turned 8 very recently and has just started being dry at night, my daughter was just 3 when she was dry.

when he got to age 7, I spoke with our GP who referred him to the children’s bladder service and it took 8 months to get to the top of the waiting list for a consultation which we had in March this year, them we had to complete some forms listing his drink consumption and measure his urine output for 2 days to make sure his bladder was of normal capacity.

Turns out he was fine and it was just taking a while for night dryness to happen. We also had to record the nights on an app called dream dry so the nurse could see exactly how many nights were dry or wet.

on our last consultation in July not much had changed from the previous 3 months but suddenly as soon as that call happened, coincidently he started being dry and we’ve not had a wet night since.

my DS never seemed concerned that he had pull ups at night and no one at school was any the wiser so try not to worry about that side of things, your DS will not be the only one in his class you will just never know that.

Just looking at the ERIC website some have recommended. Lots of good advice on there but they seem to suggest 5 as the age for further assessment, not 7 as some have said here. (I thought it was 7 too).

I think five is hopeful on their part tbh. You can always go and see your GP, but in almost all areas you will be sent away and asked to come back when they're 7 at which point they will refer you on.

You just have to wait until they're ready.....my 8yo DD only became dry afew months ago.....had tried multiple times biting the bullet and just didn't work, but then suddenly she seemed to crack it (although it's been abit up and down and as she tends to drink best early evening and we don't want to withhold drink from her, we do wake her to go on the toilet about 11pm)

My son was 5.5 when he suddenly became dry overnight. His best friend's brother was almost 8. It's super common and nothing to worry about. I couldn't be bothered with the faff of changing sheets, just use pull ups until he no longer needs them, and go to the GP at 7.

My daughter tells me it is not recommended now, but we used to get our son up to use the loo at our bedtime when he was small. He was pretty zombie-like; we had to steer him there and back and aim for him. He was asleep again immediately.
It avoided most of the wet beds, though he didn't wake spontaneously until he was about 9.

I used the bed wetting alarm from Amazon. My 6 year old really wanted to try it to stop wetting the bed. It worked within 2 weeks.

i think they can be producing the hormone, but their response to it just isn’t strong enough to wake them until the alarm helps them connect the feelings & rouse from sleep when they do feel it.

Try not to worry for now but do go to the gp if it’s still an issue at 7 as they can refer you, and the waiting list can be long. My ds is only now reliably dry at 10yo. He was a dreadful sleeper as a young child and never slept through until he was 6, and I have to admit when he finally did sleep through I was so wrecked I couldn’t bear to tackle the bedwetting for another couple of years. I got a lot of judgment from my mum and sister about it so I understand the stress (my niece was dry in the day by 2 and at night soon after that, and they definitely thought I was failing miserably at the whole business).