Is it possible to **train** children to be dry at night? I'd always thought not but...

[bossykate]

...neither ds(7) nor dd (4) is dry at night yet. up to now i've taken the view that they will be dry when they are ready.

however, for various reasons, i'm quite keen to get them to stop using night time nappies so is it worth trying to train them and if so, how?

TIA for your help

I lift DD at about 10 and take her to the toilet, she has a wee whilst still asleep. I am not sure if this is a big "no no" though in night training as I never pay much attention to that sort of stuff

We're trying to train DD4 at the moment - not because I think she needs to but because she wants to. If it doesn't work then we won't bother.

We're not using any technique - except having a pile of clean sheets and nightclothes in the event of an accident.

Night 1 was last night and she only did 1 wee. I'm not lifting her because a) she won't let me and b) I'm not sure it helps her to recognise that she needs a wee.

If we're not done in a week or 10 days then we'll go back to nappies and try again in a month or two.

bk, although they apparently won't be dry until a hormone kicks in, a HV did say to me once that it can be worth giving it a go without night time nappies for a few nights and see what happens (and obv be prepared for wet sheets!). I have similarly aged ds's and ds1 has only been dry at night for a few months (and can still have the odd accident if he is very tired and is sleeping deeply). I am tempted to go cold turkey with ds2 but haven't got around to it yet!

We never actually 'potty trained' my now 4.5yr DS. The potty was there and if he wanted to use it, he did. Eventually he decided it made him a bigger boy to use the toilet and started doing so at about 2.10yrs. Within 2/3 weeks we had no accidents at all during the day.

After he was dry during the day at night he used to have pullups. Again, at about 3.2 he decided he didn't want to wear a 'babies nappy' (very nervous mummy for a few nights) - he's had one accident at night since then - and he was out of bed at the time but didn't get to the toilet in time - said it was too dark to find his door !

I have a friend whose 12 year old still wets the bed most nights !! I don't think you can train kids - it's more biological than that !

hello. thanks for these messages. am reluctant to lift - though obv fine if it works for others . so the consensus seems to be either (1) go cold turkey and see how we get on or (2) just carry on waiting until they are ready. are there any other options?

thanks again

I do a 10pm trip to the loo too. I was told by HV to put her back into pull ups at night because at 4 or above the urine is too strong and if they do wee themselves and lie in it they can get burns!! so i now put her in pull ups so (if) she rememebrs to go the toilet she can, dd is 4 almost 5

bump!

I always assumed you couldn't train them at night so I just kept using night time pullups until they were dry at night. DS2 was dry at night almost as soon as he was potty trained, DS1 had pullups at night until he was about 4.5. DS1 had had a few problems just recently (he's in year 2), which I put down to starting a new class - he seems fine now after a couple of weeks of wetting. Do they wet their pullups every night or just once in a while? If it only happens now and then, I think I'd try going cold turkey, and just watch their fluid intake in the last hour or so before bed time.

hi

thanks for your message.

they are only occasionally dry at night, so regular wetters....

also, i'm reluctant to take the risk they will wet because not only the bottom sheet but the duvets are likely to get wet, and washing and drying them daily isn't an option i don't think.

I had heard that it was more biological, but I am not sure how you know when the hormone has kicked in. I always worry that they get used to wearing the nappy and therefore don't need to think about it.

Washing loads of sheets at this time of the year is a nightmare. Is it worth waiting at least until next summer to give it a go?