Could taking night nappies away encourage DS to become dry at night??

[LKirk]

My DS is almost 4 and has been potty trained since he was around 2 yrs 9 months. When we first started potty training we were starting to get quite a few nights where he was dry in the morning and I remember thinking he'd only need nappies at night for another few months at most. However, well over a year later and he's still wearing night nappies and I cannot remember the last time he was dry in the morning. I'm not seeing it as a big deal as he's not even 4 yet, but I'm just confused that he seemed so close to being dry at night a year ago and now he's nowhere near.

When potty training we got absolutely nowhere while he was still wearing pull-ups cos as long as he was wearing them he would just wee in them. It was only when we took them away completely that we realised it was laziness rather than his untrained bladder and as soon as he was in pants, we had no trouble training him at all. I'm just wondering whether he's treating his night nappy in the same way. Is it possible that he's wetting himself at night BECAUSE he knows he's wearing a night nappy? DH has suggested we just take the nappies away to see if it makes a difference but as the person who will be dealing with washing bedsheets on a daily basis, I'm a little hesitant! What do you think...stupid idea or could it be worth a try?

As I said before, I know he's still very young and it's not bothering me at all but I'm just curious to know whether the nappies could actually be holding him back?

If you try it, huggies do a good sized bed mat that can protect the mattress ( and they absorb a reasonable amount of wee).

But I thought that children need to have developed a certain hormone to be able to sense / wake up at night when they need to wee, and that can happen as late as 7yo - maybe google that or ask the health visiting team for advice.

No it won't encourage him. He will either be dry or not, depending on his hormones. Him wearing nappies will not impact this.

It might be worth trying if he's anything like my dd1. She used to wait until she had her pullup on at night to do a wee and them would always wee in it first thing in the morning so she would never have a dry pullup. As soon as we stopped putting them on her at night she started using the toilet instead so has been dry at night ever since.

Yes i should have said unless your dc is particularly switched on, in which case they will do as greensnails dd did! I have suspicions that my dd is doing something similar!

I tried with DS (5) recently and have concluded that he doesn't actually wake up when he wees. He doesn't even wake up once he's done a wee. So he's back in night nappies.

Thanks. That's interesting about the hormone thing...didn't realise that. But I am wondering if he is doing something similar to what your DD did Greensnail. We had to stop putting a nappy on him straight after his bath cos he used to wee in it before he actually went to bed, so we put it on just before bed now. But I am wondering if he just does a wee in the morning because he knows he can cos he's wearing a nappy. It's just a bit of a risk if I suddenly end up with bedsheets to wash every day or having to change sheets in the night! Especially as I have a newborn too! Maybe I'll hold off for a few months and then experiment! Thanks all for your responses.