Can you help a child become dry at night?

[Curlybrunette]

Hi everyone,

Ds2 is 4 in November and dry during the day but still v wet at night. The problem we're having is that he's waking us up usually once, sometimes twice a night needing a wee but his nappies are usually wet by the time he wakes us up. He does have a wee, but even still I'm wondering whether he's actually waking us up for attention and knows he won't get told to go back to bed if he appeases us by having a real reason to wake us up like needing a wee!?! We take him, very little conversation, then he's straight back to bed, he doesn't get fun times by waking us up.

I'm wondering whether to bite the bullet, stock up on bedding and take him out of nappies and hope the feeling of wetness might make him more likely to wake up and have wee's or whether this is the first stage of him becoming dry at night, he's been waking us up almost everynight for the last month or so. (we do get a dry nappy about once per month, so I think that's a fluke!)

One last thing, when he went into pants at 2.5 he had a couple of weeks were his night time nappy was dry but we only had a few nappies left so decided to keep him in them until they ran out. Low and behold he started to have really wet nappies again and has done ever since - wasn't sure if this was relevant!

Any advice would be great
x

There is lots of advice on the ERIC website.

My DD isn't dry at 4.4
Sodden nappy in morning as lazy moo does a wee in it 1st thing. But it's already wet from in the night.
So I think short answer is if you know he does early morning wee then bite bullet.
Doesn't sound like it though.
We tried to go without nappies and I put her back in them after 2 weeks of wet sheets.
It's a physical chemistry hormone thing.
Just chillax - easy said than done I know!

Thanks swampster I'll have a look, not heard of ERIC till I came on this board tonight.

Mayday, I wondered that, that if they are weeing in their sleep there is nothing you can do about it. He always has a wee (sometimes 2) before bed, and doesn't drink a great deal before bedtime, water in his bedroom if he is thirsty though.

It's a year away but I (irrationally) feel I don't want him starting school wearing a nappy at night. I do need to chillax!

I have tried all the more fluid less fluid and lifting at 10. I now do precisely nothing.
I know she wees little and often during the day, and I will ask about that at her (non related) peadetrician appt but it's a chemical thing. I forced myself to relax, I read ERIC website!!

Curly - they need to be able to do one of two things before they are able to be dry at night and that's either know when their bladder is full or develop a certain hormone that reduces urine production at dusk. If you google you will find a lot of info on it - but basically it's 'normal' to develop this anytime between 2 & 6.

In your situation it's hard to know whether he's able to be dry or not. I think you can see/test it from the early morning urine, but I can't really remember how. Once again - google should be able to tell you.

If there isn't a quick/easy test I would talk to him about being dry at night and setting up a reward chart maybe, put a protector or two on the bed and give it a go.

Oh & they say not to stop them drinking in the evenings as it messes up their natural system & doesn't help them stay dry at night.

Lifting is bad for the same reason - it does empty what is in the bladder at the time, but it messes up the signals to the brain (apparently).

Good luck.

PS: Lots of kids still wear night nappies when they start school. Don't stress too much.