A question about older dcs and nappies at night...

[notnowbernard]

DD (4.8) still has a nappy at night. This does not bother me, the nights she has tried without she has wet by 10pm and not been woken by it. I agree with the hormonal theory.

BUT...

I am certain that she wees in the nappy on waking because it is so warm and heavy! She is not peturbed at all at wearing a nappy at night. Her weeing in it when awake would not suprise me in the slightest

Don't know what to do about it... she doesn't see it as an issue, IYSWIM, despite my explanations to the contrary!

What can I do to sort this?

TIA!

Bumping for pm people!

Not sure there is much that you can do.
Our dd is 5.6 and is much the same. We talk to her about it and we ask her to take her nappy off as soon as she wakes. Hasn't made any difference so far, so we're just carrying on as we are.

Sorry not to be of much help.

But isn't the nappy kept warm by the body heat, so no matter what time she did a pee, it would be warm in the morning?

But if she has already weed what does another wee in the morning matter?

Thanks for responses!

I think I can tell when she's just done a wee on waking because it's mega-heavy and warm... it kind of goes a bit cold and lumpy when 'older', IYKWIM

I would just rather her get into a routine of getting up in the morning and going to the toilet so at least I can be sure it's genuine night time wetting, rather than laziness forgetfulness

Her nappy is wetter than dd2's half the time, and she was 2 this month!

It isn't an issue, really. It truly isn't, and you won't help her to be dry at night by telling her that it is an issue.

She can't control it; what do you expect her to be able to do about it? The fact that she has been wet by 10pm on the nights she has tried to go without a nappy seems to indicate that her wetness is not only caused by weeing when she wakes.

It is not considered a problem medically until the child is 7. It is not unusual for a child of this age not to be dry at night; one in four 4-year-olds and one in five 5-year-olds will still not be.

She will get it eventually. There is little, IMo and IME, you can do about it anyway.

DD is 6y and only in last few months been consistently dry at night. She was dry in the day at 24 months, entirely led by herself - so def not linked to daytime dryness. DD hated wetting at night and was so keen to be dry - so not linked to laziness either. We tried allsorts, because she wanted to be dry rather than us pushing for it, - liftin, restrictuing drinks, etc and little worked.

DD stopped wearing night pants at 4y at her request. We got 2 of the reusable bed mats from mothercare and used these instead - was great as if she had an accident you only had to replace this, not all the bedding.

What did make a difference to a reasonable extent though - giving only water to drink after about 3:30pm. If DD had anything else at all to drink, even in small quantities, she would almost always wt. Water, even if she drank loads, was fine.

It will happen.

WWB, I am not at all bothered that she wets at night, in her sleep. At all

However, I do believe a 4.8 yr old should be able to get up in the morning and go to the toilet, not wee in their nappy... this is my issue, not the actual wearing of a nappy at night

Fair enough. I obviously misunderstood your OP, I'm sorry.

I remember reading on the ERIC website, though (and it was certainly true of my daughter) that weeing on waking is almost always due to something other than laziness. The most usual reason is simply that it is an unconscious reflex action - particularly in a child who may be going for longer between wees at night and perhaps hasn't urinated for a few hours. It happens on waking, when the child is barely even aware that they are awake, let alone that they are weeing.

It seemed to me initially that my daughter was deliberately weeing in her nappy too, but eventually she was desperate to be dry and so unhappy when she wasn't that it was clear that she wasn't just being lazy. She was getting on for 7 before she became dry at night.

I presume you've asked her whether she's weeing deliberately? What does she say?

notnowbernard - chances are she is doing it as she wakes up, rather than once fully awake. Her body just isn't sending her bladder the right signals to hold on that bit longer yet. It will come with time, when her body is ready to do it - all to do with some hormone.

Well, there have been loads of threads on this subject over the months, so it seems to be a very common problem. Frankly, I don't think you have anything to worry about for the time being, because I know lots of people with DC still in night nappies at that age, and one in particular who has a DD aged 6 still in nappies at night. I get the impression that some GP's and HV's are'nt overly concerned until the DC is well over 6 or 7, when some hormone is supposed to kick in. My only slight worry at the moment is DS1 who is just over 3 and still in day nappies, well most of the time. He's so unreliable and I feel the need to put a nappy on him to go out or visit. I'm just hoping he'll become day trained fairly soon, but I think it will be some time before he's out of night nappies.

Thankyou for replies

I actually hadn't thought about the fact that maybe she's weeing as she's waking up, and is still too drowsy to have any control over it

WWB, she has said that she does sometimes wee in it in the morning. So I've just been talking to her about trying to get into the 'routine' of getting up and going straight to the loo. Which she has done the last couple of mornings. But she isn't bothered at all about a) wearing a nappy at night or b) wetting in the nappy. She's never been bothered about wetting herself (and I have a few threads to prove it) so for that reason I am trying to not make a big deal of it. And I guess my life is made easier all the while she doesn't care about wearing one...

Thanks all, I think you've helped me on my way to not bothering about this one atm!

She also starts reception in 2 weeks, so more reason to back off, I suppose

Maybe she is waking soon after weeing which shows she is almost there.

My daughter is 5 and still not there and my son was 6-7 before he was and we had an accident on Monday night.

Baby is 3 and not even trying yet!

All were dry in the day at different ages and took different lengths of time to crack it.