5yr old night time training

[AlwaysAuntie]

We're concerned about my nephew (who lives with us), he's 5yrs old and is still in nappies/pull ups over night. Throughout the day he's absolutely fine, goes to the loo whenever he needs to, at night though he just doesn't wake up when he wees (he never poos overnight though).

Can anyone sign post us to who we need to contact to get some help?

Following as my 5yo is the exact same 🙈

Except he does poo when sleeping

It's perfectly normal not to be dry at night by 5

Don’t know if this will work but my sister used to lift her child from bed at 11pm (3 hours after sleeping) literally onto the toilet half asleep and let her go and she never went then during the night - think it was only around a week she had to do. She also had her in normal pants so that if she did have the urge she soon woke up.

Sorry if these methods have already been tried. And if so I would just recommend gp to see if any other advice. Restricting liquids of a 5 year old seems extreme.

Oh and get a plastic sheet. My brother had “puppy training mat” under his daughters sheets for a while too to save the mattress

You should contact your GP, but I'm not sure they'll do anything yet as he's only 5, but won't hurt to get advice/get put on waiting list for a referral. Most children will just grow out of it.

Are you making sure he's drinking enough during the day, giving him a last drink about an hour before bed, taking him to the toilet before bed etc?

It's a hormone thing, there's nothing you can do to train them at night

Agree that it's hormonal. I'd love my 4yr old to be out of nappies at night before he starts school but I don't think it will happen anytime soon. His nappy is v.heavy in the morning. We tried putting him on the toilet when we went to bed but it didn't make any difference. I don't think Health Visitors class it as an 'issue' until they're about 6?
A friend of mine told me to look at the ERIC website for hints and tips. www.eric.org.uk

'It's a hormone thing, there's nothing you can do to train them at night'

You can't train them, but if it goes on into later childhood you can get alarms to help them and they can be prescribed medication also.

You can intervene to assist them in nighttime dryness, but they won't do this at age 5.

You won’t be referred at age 5 if he’s fine in the day. My 9 year old was referred for daytime issues at age 7 and the Consultant made it very clear that we were only being seen because of that, and that the night wetting was not considered a problem at that age. Luckily the daytime treatment now means he’s almost always dry at night too now anyway.

My DD is only just dry in the day, just turned 6.
She was seen by the continence nurse for quite some time.
The nurse said to be dry at night you need to have a large bladder capacity, and not sleep TOO heavily for your bladder to wake you up.

Thank you everyone, put my mind at ease a little bit.

He definitely drinks plenty through the day and the last thing he does is go to the toilet, even when he insists he doesn't need a wee, we always tell him to just try.

We've tried him without a nappy, but he still slept through .

Hopefully it'll happen soon!

My dd was almost 7 by the time she was dry at night.

Don’t rush him, if he’s not ready then just pop a pull up o.

Same boat here OP. Is he in school? The school nurse questionnaire last year asked if there were any bedwetting issues. They've just called to discuss... might be a good start even if you don't want to do anything yet as they can refer to a bedwetting clinic if it's only night-time (although as pp have said, maybe when he's older).

We are debating whether to use an alarm for our 5yo. I think we will wait until the school holidays and give it a go.

The advice the school nurse gave was to drink lots in the day but cut off early evening (we say no drinks after 6pm if we can), try for a wee when cleaning teeth etc and as well after his story, so trying twice before bed.

It's the absolute bane of my life trying to get him to drink throughout the day though. He also doesn't wake up when he's wet at night although I suspect it disturbs his sleep a bit.

It's pretty normal and I'm not too fussed about it. Nurse said that in a Reception class of 30 about 5 would be wet at night still.

Thank you everyone. I will admit that I was a bit worried that I would have some negative replies, so thank you all for being supportive.

We will continue to do what we're doing and hopefully it'll happen naturally.

I think 7/8 is not uncommon, as everyone said it's hormonal try and encourage him to drink more throughout the day although if he already drinks plenty it may make no difference.

I think the GP won't refer until they are over 8 tbh.

Totally normal at that age. I read 25% of 5 year olds still regularly wet the bed (boys more than girls).

Lots of threads on here for advice if you advance search but I wouldn't bother at 5 to be honest. We started trying things when my son was 7.

You can't train night wetting.
It's a hormone thing.
And he's only 5.
Doctors won't even look at him until at least 8.

The continence nurse says you can train some aspects of it.

@AlwaysAuntie

Thank you everyone, put my mind at ease a little bit.

He definitely drinks plenty through the day and the last thing he does is go to the toilet, even when he insists he doesn't need a wee, we always tell him to just try.

We've tried him without a nappy, but he still slept through .

Hopefully it'll happen soon!

I think it’s pretty normal for boys to still be in night nappy, they seem to go into a very deep sleep!!

I decided when Mine was nearly seven that that was enough I just told him if he wanted to sleep in his own pee then that was up to him but I was not buying anymore pull ones, and I was not putting on clean sheets and pjs every day. So two day later I finally got a dry boy.

But at five he is still quite little so just keep buying the night big boy’s nappies

Have a look at How To successfully Potty Train I think it will identify why your child is soiling while asleep and how to handle that.