5 1/2 year old - night time training. Any tips?

[sarah347]

My 5 1/2 year old girl is still in pull ups at night. They are still wet in the mornings and we never get dry pullups. I've read that keeping in nappies can stop them learning they are wet as they don't learn they are doing the pee at night. She is a very deep sleeper. We've tried the lifting at 10pm but it doesn't make much difference.

I'm planning on trying without pull ups again and just using a bed protecter as it is coming up to school holidays. Anyone have any tips that might help us be sucessful? She wants to be out of nappies, as friends have suggested sleepovers and she is aware that most of her friends no longer have pull ups at night.

thanks

From what you have said, I don't think your DD is ready to be dry at night physically. You may have heard that there is a hormone produced in the childs' brain which governs bladder and kidney function during sleep and keeps them dry. This can be released from as young as 2 even before the child is dry during the day, and is purely a developmental thing, nothing to do with training. Your DD clearly hasn't started making this hormone yet; if she had you would be getting dry pull-ups in the morning and she would get up to do a large pee on waking. The hormone regulates the kidneys so that less and more concentrated urine is produced, and so the bladder is able to hold it all night. The other thing that happens is that the nerves from the bladder send signals to the brain that it is full and so wakes the child to go and empty it.

You can't hurry the process and HCP's won't do any investigations or give treatment to under 7's, which shows how little they are concerned. I think you just need to reassure DD that it isn't her fault, that her body will sort it out in time.

How does she know for certain that her friends are all dry at night? I bet there are some who are still wet, pull-ups or not. If sleepovers are likely, I would have a quiet word with the hosting mum and send a pull-up along in DD's bag. It would be far less of a problem to me if a child wore pull-ups, than having a supposedly dry child soak a bed and bedding because no one said anything. Much less embarrassing for the child as well. The other thing you can do is decide that 5 1/2 is too young for sleepovers and wait until DD is dry.

There are some things you can do which may help, but aren't magic cures. Make sure DD drinks well during the day to help stretch her bladder to hold a good volume. Also to keep her well hydrated, if she doesn't drink much during the day and then has drinks all evening because of thirst you haven't a hope of her staying dry. Cut back on drinks after tea, and no drinks by the bed in case she's thirsty. Cut down on milk after tea. No fizzy or caffeinated drinks (cola, hot choc) and blackcurrant cordial has also been implicated in over stimulating the production of urine. Make sure she does a wee on getting into bed, and also before settling down to sleep as there can be as much as an hour with stories and on between the two.

Hope some of this will help you.