5yo DS - still wet at night, how to help?

[BeenChangedForGood]

(just turned) 5yo DS has been toilet trained since around 2y9m. Took to it very very quickly with very few accidents.

He’s still been wet at night since which I had no concerns about as from what I’ve read it seems to be normal until certain hormones kick in.

The issue I’m having over the last few months is that he is wetting out of any pull-ups every single night. Meaning he needs a wash and the full bed needs stripped and washed every day. He’s actually completely dry until he starts waking in the morning and then he’s doing a big wee when he’s just waking up but not yet awake enough to realise if that makes sense? So it’s not actually during the night, it’s when he’s half awake in the morning. There’s so much at once that it’s just leaking out everywhere.

I’ve tried different pull ups. I’ve tried just taking the pull up away and explaining he was in pants so would need to remember and go to the toilet. I’ve tried limiting fluids after dinner. He already goes to the loo last thing before bed.

I don’t want to make a big deal over it because he gets quite annoyed with himself in the morning when he wets. Are there any other things I could do to help?

I would set an alarm to wake before him and lift him out of bed and to the toilet every morning. See what happens after a couple of weeks, sometimes the cycle just needs breaking.

The issue with doing this is it prevents them learning to wake when their bladder is full. Eventually they will need to experience that, they can’t have alarms to wake them for a pee indefinitely.

not a lot you can do tbh. It’s time and maturity. Hormones being one to reduce the amount of urine produced at night, the second being the biofeedback mechanism that a full bladder sends to the brain to wake them.

i kept mine in nappies as they’re more absorbent. Can you get bigger pull ups? Bed mats?

He's still young enough for night wetting to be considered normal but, if it persists, ask for a referal to a nurse specialist. One of my DSs was referred at age 8 and investigations showed he had a tiny bladder capacity as well as not wakening when he needed to go. We had to encourage a much higher water consumption to increase his bladder capacity and then he started staying dry at night simply because his bladder could hold more.

We self referred to the school nurse just before DS turned 8. They gave us advice first whilst we waited for the appt and what made the difference was front loading what he drank… having two glasses of water before he left the house first thing. He wasn’t drinking enough according to the guidance. He was then dry completely so we cancelled the appt!
however other friends have found it’s happened overnight, a hormonal shift, we know others in the same boat, it’s just people don’t talk about it when they get older.

I agree in principle, but in my experience sometimes it's worth changing things up for awhile just to see what happens. Especially since he is dry until the morning.

I think kids get stuck on a loop sometimes.

I wouldn't even tell your DS that's what you're doing. Just wake them up and take them to the loo like normal, you're just doing it on your terms and saving the laundry.

All 3 of my DC were late to be dry at night, it is said to run in families and I was late too. I found putting a large sized motherease wrap (waterproof layer of cloth nappy) over the top of a pullup worked well to contain things.

Drinking more earlier in the day can help as others have said, and also making sure they’ve fully emptied their bladder before bed. Another thing was a sort of ‘mental programming’ type of thing - iirc dc made up a little rhyme something like ‘if I need to do a wee, I’ll get up and go to the lav-a-tree’ to say at bedtime. That sort of thing.
Have you taken a look at the Eric website - that may have useful info/ resources.

I had the same, DS8 has only been dry at night now since the summer. Sometimes they’re just late to develop the hormone. Have you tried all pull-ups?

My very big 4 yo isn’t dry at night yet and wets through his pull up so I’ve been putting two pull ups on him at night which does the trick

Thank you all for you responses ☺️

DH had suggested setting an alarm to wake him in the morning but I was a bit concerned about that for the same reasons as @Usernamenotfound1 suggested. Plus, he wakes anytime between 5-5.30ish so I’d need to get in before that to try and prevent any wetting while waking and quite frankly, the thought of waking him earlier feels horrendous 😅🤣

The Pampers Ninjama ones are what we’ve always used. I’ve tried sizing up in them and have tried the Huggies ones which were even worse. We do use bed mats too but he hates covers and usually ends up somewhere on top of his duvet etc by the morning so it’s rare that they actually help to be honest.

The suggestion of upping liquids first thing is great. I hadn’t thought of that. I’ll definitely start giving that a try. He can hold plenty during the day so I really don’t think bladder capacity is an issue here but I’ll definitely keep it in mind if things don’t improve.

Its not something I’m too concerned about in terms of development - I know there’s still quite a while before it’s considered an actual problem ☺️ it’s just more the fact that it annoys him and he gets quite frustrated about having to get changed etc.

We had the same issue with DD (who was 5 when she became dry at night). We used nappies, not pullups, and changed her just before we went to bed, which at least helped with the overflow - not sure if you're doing that at the moment? She pretty much slept through us changing her.

Only thing I've not seen mentioned is double voiding - so go to the loo, then bath, teeth, story, and loo again - so twice wwthn about half an hour of bedtime.

@CalmIsGood he isn’t wet when we go to bed. It’s literally that he’s wetting while he’s in the sleepy “just waking up” stage and isn’t quite with it enough to stop himself going. He’s dry all night until then.

@IceIceSlippyIce we actually do this anyway but only because the little rotter always done a pee in the bath as soon as he got in 🙄🤣 and I’ve always drummed it in that we go and try last thing before bed, as soon as we wake up and before we leave the house to go anywhere

On a practical note, Huggies absorbent bed sheets will help save the bed sheets

These might be a little big but DS had these when he was 7 (he wanted plain ones as he felt patterned ones were for babies 🙄). His wees we’re massive, and these were really good for containing them.

Look at this product that I found on google.com
https://share.google/cM1sOfXACPii7F7tV

I was late to be dry at night. The thing that helped me in the end was pelvic floor exercises. Doctor recommended stopping mid wee to strengthen my pelvic floor, did this a few times a week for a while and never wet at night again. I was probably like 10 though, not sure how well this would work for a 5 year old.

@BeenChangedForGood Try a bed wetting alarm …we used the Dryeasy bed wetting alarm which is a very reasonable price via Amazon. Also invest in washable bed pads ( search for washable incontinence bed pads) , you just put them over the sheet and you can teach older children to remove / change them themselves in the night. Not unusual for kids not to be dry til 7 or 8 but actually it sounds like your son is nearly there as he is wetting so close to wake up time.

@ChocHotolate We use these already but as he’s wetting at wake up time he’s usually on top of his covers by then so is wetting through the covers instead 😬

@somanychristmaslights Thank you - I haven’t seen these but will try and get hold of some ☺️

We have just been through this with 5yo wetting mostly during waking. We used washable incontinence bed pads to protect the sheets, then double voided and pushed through 2-3 weeks of night wakes for wetting and morning wets needing full change… then it just supped and we’ve been dry with 1-2 accidents in a month.

Pp above with info on pelvic floor exercises mid pee is sadly outdated advice. The Eric website is great and new guidance is to recognise abnormal bewetting patterns from 5yo

It sounds like he’s very nearly there. If he’s getting through the night dry he is going to be producing the hormone, he just isn’t fully waking up in time in the morning. I’d up drinks in the day to increase bladder capacity but limit drinks before bed and wake him up even if it’s painful for to do so, just for a couple of weeks to break the sleepy wee habit- since he’s an early riser maybe shift bedtime 30 minutes later and then you can perhaps get away with 5:30 rather than 5!