4.5 DS never been dry at night advice please

[krisskross]

Hello
our DS is 5 next september. He potty trained pretty easily three months before he was 3 and once he decided to go for it he seemed to have the strongest bladder in the world and never had any accidents.

But now, 18 months later, he has still only had approx 3 dry nigths in that time. We have left him in dry nites nappies at night and never pushed it really though he knows he will soon be out of night time nappies as he is a big boy.

Please can you give us tips on what to do next to encourage him to be dry at night? everyone i have spoken to said it just happened- but its not happening here!.

Thanks

My middle child was not dry overnight until he was over 5 - he's a really deep sleeper, and just did not wake up. I think the fact that there are drynights on supermarket shelves shows how common this issue is, and really nothing to fret about.

We bought the dry mats to go under his sheets (and protect the mattress) and waited til the summer to just put him to bed in just PJs. We would lift him at about 10pm for a wee (most of the time he didnt even wake up) and eventually he cracked it.

At every scout (age 10-14) camp, we have at least one wet sleeping bag...thats why we have spares.

A couple of my friends have admitted that they were not dry at night until 7-8. My cousin's boy is 7 and has accidents now and again. As hatti says I think you will find that it is not that unusual.

Ds is 6 in 3 weeks and is wet every night. The doctor really isn't interested at this age, it's still reasonably common and generally caused by a lack of a hormone that will kick in as they get older. I really wouldn't worry just yet.

you cant encourage him to be dry as he is asleep and cant help it. Things you can do are to ensure he drinks lots during the day especially water and then nothing in last couple of hours before sleep. Otherwise you need to wait for his hormone to develop. Enuresis clinic wont help until age 7 for night wetting as it is so common.

thanks everyone, feel a bit better knowing its common- and its a good idea to wait til summer to take the nappies away as it will be so much easier to dry them then!

our son is such a deep sleeper its a bit of a family joke, but maybe like your son hattie thats what he doesnt wake to wee??

also- think i need to be bit more vigilant about the drinks before bed. thanks again.

Just wanted to add that it is definitely worth just giving a night without a nappy a try. My DD (5.4) is a very heavy sleeper and has always filled (or over-filled) dry nites. She was becoming very conscious of still being in nappies (her 3 year old sister has been dry at night for 6 months). She wanted to try without a nappy, and even though I couldn't imagine it working we decided to give it a go - 2 completely dry nights so far.