How exactly does one go about night training a child?

[YunoYurbubson]

I have just noticed that my dd (4 1/2 yrs olf) is the last of her friends to still wear a nappy at night. By quite some time, now I think about it.

Every once in a while she asks to have a go without nappies at night time and we have a few nights of her either waking up very upset because she is soaking wet, or sleeping through despite doing an enormous wee.

She is SUCH a heavy sleeper.

Neither she nor I are particularly anxious about it.

I just wondered if perhaps I should or could be doing anything.

At the moment I have no idea what in earth I could do to help her learn to go through the night.

I am reluctant to lift her to wee when I go to bed because she wouldn't wake up so she wouldn't really be learning anything different iyswim, she'd just be weeing into the loo in her sleep rather than weeing into a nappy in her sleep.

You can't train for night dryness, it is governed by a hormone in the brain which starts to be produced anywhere from 2-18 yrs of age. This has the effect of regulating urine production by the kidneys so that less is produced and is more concentrated. The child eventually will be able to wake when the bladder is full.

Comparing her to her friends is of no value, it is entirely down to the individual child when they are ready. Lifting is pointless. Keep padding her up until you notice a few dry nappies in a row. If you or dd's dad were still wet at night at her age or older, there is some evidence that it is hereditary. Drs don't treat it until the age of 7.

girlywhirly, your post has answered my question about night time dryness. I was wondering about my almost 4yo &whether she should be dry through the night by now but you've set my mind at ease. Thanks

Thanks girlywhirly.

Answered, but just wanted to add that my niece is also in nighttime nappies and she is 5. My brother and SIL tried to 'night train' her by giving her a rather large incentive (day trip to a petting zoo iirc) if she was dry at night for a week.

Poor girl woke herself every 30 minutes through the nights just to make the goal and was spectacularly grumpy during the days. They've just given up and decided to go with the [snort] flow.

My DD will be 5 next month and is still in a nappy at night. She sleeps so deeply I could let of a fire cracker in her room and she would not stir. I have been advised by the HV just to let things take their course which seems to match with the comments on here- I feel much better - thanks everyone!

what nappies do you use on your older kids? my DS (4yrs 2 months) has been in the night-time pull-up ones (pyjama pants for boys aged 4 - 7) but is regularly wee-ing through these. are there any that are more absorbent? i have resorted to lifting him before i go to bed JUST so he doesn't wee through his nappy.

Both my DDs were late-ish - DD1 was 4 1/4, DD2 was 4 before they were dry at night. Girlywhirly has it right, it can't be trained for, it will just happen.

MakingAMess, I just use normal pull up nappies rather than ones specifically for night time

My DD is 5.4 and still in nappies at night. I have read so many times on here just to wait and for now that is fine as she is not concerned about it either. I noticed last night though that she weed in it as soon as she got into bed, before she went to sleep so I had a chat with her about making sure she uses the toilet while she is still awake.

Thank goodness for this thread! DD is 4 in 2 weeks and wants to stop wearing nappies - we keep telling her she has to go without milk at bedtime first (which she says she'll do when she's 4!). But when she doesn't have milk, she tends to only pee once during the night - should we wait until she's completely dry or try getting her up and putting her on the toilet to see if that does it?

We had this with our dd (exactly the same age)
We took the decision to take the nappy off as I began to realise she was using it to do a wee in even when awake (like another post). However, I couldn't be sure as she was also a very heavy sleeper so I knew the stuff about developmental stages was important.

It did get better quickly but we had about 4 to 6 months of occassional bed wetting (esp. when she was ill) and it gradually tailed off with time.

We took the nappy off because I felt that it was important that when she did start to wake, she would recognise the signs and learn to act on them

Lifting made no difference with her! So I gave that up and chose to 'go with the flow' :)

DS was 5 in July and is just about dry at night but we still have the occasional wet bed. I was wondering if he would ever be dry but it did just happen - a few dry nappies and we thought we'd give it a go. He was onside too, was a big boy so didn't need nappies.

A friend of mine has just told me she used those 'feel wet' pull-ups to get her 3 1/2 yr old out of night time nappies and it worked after a few days. Has anyone got any experience of this? DD1 (also 3 1/2) has such full nappies in the morning, she must wee all night!