Potty training at night

[Lilice]

Hi Everyone. My little boy has just turned 4. He's been potty trained for a while now. However at night he still has to wear a nappy as otherwise he'll wet the bed. He doesn't even wake up when he does. So my question is: do I have to wait for him to have a dry nappy every morning for a certain amount of time and then take the nappy away? Or should I encourage him to become dry at night? He has woken up before in the night to use the toilet but that happens very rarely. He's a very deep sleeper. Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you ! Xx

They need to start producing enough of the hormone ADH to reduce urine production at night. I think if he sleeps heavily and doesn't wake even if he is wet then you will just create work and upset at the moment by taking away his pullup. The charity ERIC suggest seeking help from 5 yrs old, but until recently the advice was 7 yrs old. My DD is 5.5 and still in a pullup overnight, she has had mild development delay and was later to toilet train daytime so I'm not intervening just yet.

Being dry at night is dependent on production of a hormone, and some children get this later than others. You can't rush it. One of my boys was completely dry at night at two & a half, the other two were very deep sleepers & were 8 or 9 before they were reliably dry. So it might be too early for your boy.

That said, with my youngest who was dry at night early, I did exactly what you suggest about whipping off the nappy in the morning. This was on the advice of a friend with older children, I didn't expect it to work but thought I'd give it a go. We had one wet bed then he was dry after that. I couldn't believe it after it taking so long with the other two. So it might be worth a go.

Thank you so much! I had no idea hormones were involved in the process. It makes sense now, I just have to wait for him to be ready. Im grateful for your advice xx