stil in nappies at night

[mummygogo]

My 6 yr old dd is still in nappies at night. I was hoping by now she could be encouraged to go without nappies and we did try for a week but had a wet bed 6 out of 7 nights. Problem is twofold.

• DD doesn't care. Even though others much younger than her dont need nappies she just is not bothered

• she sleeps quite deeply. She always takes about 30 minutes to get going in the morning and have a conversation really so I think she just sleeps through and doesn't realise she needs to go

How many children are dry at this age? Should I be doing anything to get her out of nappies but without putting her (and me) through misery of changing bed clothes at 2.00 am

BIL wet the bed until he was 13. He washed his own sheets. DH (5 years older) teased him incessantly and thinks in the end he washed his sheets every morning regardless so nobody would know if he'd wet or not. Personally, I would try stopping before-bed drinks, toilet before brushing teeth and again after and lifting her before going to bed myself. (Set her an alarm to wake her up and make her get up and go to toilet.) If she still wets after that, she clearly doesn't have the hormone yet.

My DS wasn't dry at night till he was nearly 7 just like his father. He was out of nappies in the day from 2 1/2. We tried not giving him too much to drink at night to lifting him before we went to bed but to no avail in the end he just started to be dry. DS is now 33 so many years ago and was in terry nappies not that it every bothered me having to wash them. In those days clinic doctors etc. didn't worry about it till the child was well over 7.

Hey mummygogo: your DD sounds just like my DS. doesn't care, AND sleeps very deeply. even in the morning I KNOW he's awake,he piddles in his nappy because he can't be bothered to get up. He's five and a half.

I have recently got bigger nappies from the NHS. they are ugly, BUT they work. I was changing the sheets every night, and pyjamas were always wet in the middle of the night because all the shop bought nappies are too small.

so... save your self a lot of back breaking work in the middle of the night, and find out where your local eneurissis clinic is. any child over 4 who still needs nappies is entitled. They should also give you advice, and check that there is no medical cause. My life has dramatically improved since. Thanks, NHS.

I'm not worrying about when he will get dry over night. Everyone figures it out in the end!

Wow lauree!!

I didn't know that about the nappies - I was starting to fret as size 6 pampers are getting really uncomfortable on my dd1 [4.9].

Will go to GP, is that how you got yours?

It's a hormone thing so lifting in the night doesn't help solve the problem long term.

One of the most important things is to increase their fluid intake during the day as that helps the body create more of the chemical it needs to concetrate the urine at night.

DD has come out of nappies at nearly 7, she would only wet occasionally but she's probably had one very small accident (rather than the usual wet duvet and everything else saturated) in about 3 months. She too is a very deep sleeper.

My DS is the same, and I did'nt know you could get larger size nappies from the NHS. Thanks for that. I assume they are disp.? I've always used terry squares, and the problem I'm finding is getting plastic pants/wraps large enough to go over them. Any ideas?

was just going to start a similar thread.my ds is 5 and a half and even though he's been off nappies for almost a year now, he still hasn't been dry at night, we have to carry him to the toilet about 3 times, otherwise everything is soaking wet. He's a really deep sleeper as well. we don't want him to go back to the nappies but it's really a huge strain having to change beddings at 2am! Not really sure what the way forward is. We thought about the enuresis alarm but as he's a deep sleeper, not sure if that'll be any use.

I have never tried them but somebody told me about a company called Drylife which makes plastic pants for older children. I've never used them because we have some very large pants made by a company now out of business. I also believe that Elliepants come in big sizes too. HTH

4ever21 I've heard said you should make him walk on his own or else you're teaching him to wee in his sleep. Not sure if that logic holds or if it's an old wives' tale though.

ches, it actually sounds logical, he actually walks but just won't wake up! once i had to splash some water on his face to wake him up! he's just a very deep sleeper. Really hoping this phase ends soon cause more than the inconvenience of waking him up in the middle of the night, I feel for him as he can't have sleep overs yet, I've had to make excuses when invited. Maybe I'll try the alarm thing and see if it helps.

DS1 came out of nappies earlier this year - just before his 7th birthday. He was in night time pants from Huggies (aged 4-7, they also do 8-15). He was the same - deep sleeper but also a bit lazy and wouldn't get out of bed to go to the loo if he was wearing a nappy.

He decided he wanted to stop them - we had a week where we had wet beds most nights, then we put the nappy back on for a coupl emore weeks. The next time he came out of them, he was absolutely fine. He had only had one accident in 6 months.

I think what I'm trying to say is that's it's not unusual to still be in nappies at this age and your D will be dry eventualy!