Will night time bed wetting stop naturally for 5.5 yo? Pull ups for now?

[Esthermoo01]

My daughter has been dry in the day since 2.5 and no daytime accidents for about ,2 years. She is 5.5 now, happy and healthy and doing well at school. She has been wearing pull ups at night and just decided to try a week without. I've discovered that she only wees once a night and it's around 9:30-10pm so if I wake her up for a wee she'll go and be dry for the rest of the night, if not she'll flood the bed and not even wake up and has no idea it's happened. We're doing all the usual...no fluids after dinner, lots of drinks in the day, wee before bed etc. I'm just wondering whether it's best to keep waking her or to put her back in pull ups? Either way it seems to be a waiting game...will she just be able to do it one day or have I done something wrong which is causing her to not be able to stay dry at night? Should I have tried night time training earlier? I'm worried it's going to go on for a long time and she'll miss out on things like sleepovers. It's not upsetting her atm and I don't want it to but not sure how to move forward. She's never had a dry pull up in the morning but will take it off for a wee in the morning so I think it's just the first part of the night. If I left her in pull ups would they just eventually end up dry one day?? As you can tell she's my first so it's new to me. All advice welcome! Many thanks!

Look up the NHS guidance abs ERIC website. At 5 they suggest you do something about it.

@Sparky888 I have and am trying to, that's why I was asking for advice and experience. There is a lot of conflicting advice and although they may suggest you do something about it it seems that GPs aren't interested until they are at least 7. Was there any specific advice from ERIC or NHS that you've found helpful/worked for you?

[quote Esthermoo01]@Sparky888 I have and am trying to, that's why I was asking for advice and experience. There is a lot of conflicting advice and although they may suggest you do something about it it seems that GPs aren't interested until they are at least 7. Was there any specific advice from ERIC or NHS that you've found helpful/worked for you?[/quote]
For what I know from years of experiences and searches , doctors would not consider it a problem at least until 8yo. It's plenty of conflicting advice due the several different causes of bedwetting: hormonal unbalance (lack of vasopressin, common), constipation, diabetes, small or/and weak bladder, a delay in the bladder growth, deep sleep (very common), laziness (very rare), inability to recognize the urge,... there are more causes and it can happen also for a mix of them.
To make it short, if it's happening every night and she is so young, probably there's nothing you can do, except making it less stressful with pull-ups and telling her she is not the only one, it's a natural thing and there's nothing to be worried or shamed about.
The wet alarm and the dream wee work if her body is ready to connect the urge to pee with waking up, like to learn/teach what can be learnt, if her body is not ready these approaches will do nothing good.
If she has not accidents during the day and no constipation, just keep the pull-ups at night and wait for the natural end of it.

@Mary8076 thank you. I will put her back in pull ups for now then. She's definitely not constipated and hasn't had any accidents in the day for over 2 years. I suspect it's a combo of the hormone and deep sleep. She's actually totally happy to wear a pull up and we haven't made a fuss of it so hopefully she continues to be positive about the whole thing until her body is ready.

If she’s weeing at the same time every night why not consider setting an alarm clock to wake her 15 minutes beforehand? She can then get into the habit of waking up to wee at that time.

If she’s not at the stage where she can make it through the night without needing to wee (some people never reach that stage!) then she might as well do it in the toilet rather than in her absorbent pants.

If the idea of doing that stresses her out, though, I would stick with Pull-Ups.

I speak from experience as a childhood bedwetter up to secondary school age (I wore giant sized specialist nappies from the chemist as no Pull-Ups existed back then) and DD’s were also in DryNites late.

Our miracle cure for DDs’ bed wetting was to give up blackcurrent cordial and artificial sweeteners, by the way. Might be worth trying that if she’s a Ribena junkie?

@WoolieLiberal she doesn't drink Ribena, she sometimes has summer fruit squash earlier in the day (would this have an impact?) but water from dinner time onwards which we were limiting but it's just too hot to do that now.

I gave her the choice of being woken for a wee vs pull ups and she preferred pull ups but has agreed to try without again in the summer hols.

I doubt she would wake up for an alarm clock tbh she is a heavy heavy sleeper. Maybe I'll try tonight but I'm pretty sure as it's pretty hard for me to wake her up.

Thanks for the suggestions! X

@Esthermoo01

You’re welcome.

In my experience, keeping it as relaxed and stress free as possible is the key to a dry bed and a happy child.

If DD wants to carry on wearing Pull-Ups that is absolutely fine (they go up to age 15 for a reason!)

If her Summer Fruits cordial contains aspartame or other artificial sweeteners this could be a contributing factor as they are known to irritate the bladder.

No need to restrict water in the evenings. I know that seems counter intuitive but more water gently stretches the bladder and dilutes the wee, which is less irritating to the bladder (meaning accidents are less likely) and gradually increases the bladder capacity.

I would say only try things like alarms or going without Pull-Ups if she is on board with it. Stress or unhappiness is likely to make it happen longer.

When I was a child in the 1980s I was aware that some children were actually still punished for bed wetting or at best just left to the mercy of a rubber sheet and disrupted sleep.

My parents were unusual in that they gave me the choice of plus-sized nappies. It was a little embarrassing but I was never made fun of or to feel ashamed.

From time to time we tried without the nappies or tried an alarm (at my instigation) but eventually it stopped on its own.

Odd as it seems, the nappies meant I had an uninterrupted night’s sleep and my parents’ kindness meant I never suffered self esteem or confidence issues due to it.

I will say that I used to drink Ribena like it was water back then and I suspect my bedwetting might have stopped much earlier if my parents had known that it can be a contributing factor, as it did for my DD’s almost overnight when we tried stopping the cordials and replaced them with water and milk only.

Best of luck with whatever you try. A happy, confident and well rested child is more important than a dry Pull-Up, so if she wants to carry on wearing them as part of your efforts, I’d let her.

@WoolieLiberal thank you for sharing your experience and advice. It sounds like your parents handled it really well abd I hope I can do the same for DD. The Summer Fruits does contain artificial sweeteners so we'll try laying off that for a bit and see if that helps. You're knowledge and insight are much appreciated x

As long as it's 'primary bed wetting' (that they have never been dry at night, not that they were once dry and then suddenly re-start bed wetting, which can be an indicator of something more complex) it's just the luck of the draw, hormonally, as PP have said. Best thing is not to worry too much, and to reassure the child if it bothers them.

My eldest wasn't dry at night til 8 years old. I did the 10pm 'dream wee' thing with him til he was about 5 and too heavy for me to haul out of the top bunk when I was pregnant with DC3. In hindsight, it was a waste of time. I went over to having a clean sheet on under the plastic sheet and a thin duvet that could go in the washing machine and dry fast, or pull-ups if we were away from home.

DC2 was dry at night age 2, came out of day and night nappies at the same time. DC3 is 4 and a half and still in night nappies although he's been reliably dry during the day for more than 2 years. DC4 is 2, has been out of day nappies for 3 months and will probably be out of night nappies before DC3...

Hi, just wanted to add to not worry too much yet. My son was about 7 when the switch when on and was dry at night, it is known to take longer in boys. I used to pick him up at my bedtime to help stop him wetting the bed. But it is one of those debates if a good idea or not but when he was doing it regularly I did and then as he got older I would do the occasional night where I didn't and would see what happened. A tip is to double layer the bed. So a bed waterproof protector, a pad and a sheet, a pad and a sheet so if she does wet the bed especially when you go to normal pants then in the night can strip a layer and a fresh bed is ready in seconds rather than stripping and remaking.

@LaTomatina it's interesting how they are just ready at different ages!

It's defo primary bed wetting, she's had maybe 2 dry nights her whole life. With your eldest who was dry at 8, was it just a sudden thing where he stopped bedwetting completely or did he just gradually have more dry nights? Thanks x

It was gradual, Esthermoo01. Over the course of about a year, he slowly went from having mostly wet nights with maybe 1 dry per week, to mostly dry with 1 wet per week, then per fortnight, and then suddenly I realised I couldn't remember when he'd last done it. All I remember is, November 2019 was the last time we went anywhere, and he was nearly 8 and very much still in night nappies (and not happy about it)... but since spring 2020 he was mostly dry, and probably since the summer (almost a year ago) it was very rare for him to have a wet night, and since the autumn/winter 2020/21 it's suddenly a thing of the past.

Reading through all of this thread as I'm in a similar position. My son is 5.5 years and still in nighttime nappy pants. They are absolutely sodden in the morning and sometimes leak leaving a damp patch in the bed. He just seems to do so much wee at night, and never wakes up. I too have been worried about this, and fearing I have done something wrong somewhere along the line, but have been reassured by many people posting here about 5/6/7 year olds only just getting dry at night. I guess my son has definitely not developed the magic hormone to help him get through the night without weeing so much. But specifically re: 'lifting' I did try this for a couple of weeks but was then warned off it by a Health Visitor. My son was pretty much still asleep when I was taking him to sit on the toilet, and the HV said all I was doing was reinforcing the idea of weeing whilst asleep, which is actually what we are trying to move away from. Also this didn't seem to have any impact on the amount of wee in his nappy by morning, so I can only deduce he continues to do wees throughout the night anyway. It's very frustrating as I hate the expense and landfill waste of using nighttime nappies but I think I just need to wait until the nappies seem a bit dryer before attempting to stop using them. Good luck!

@CJF22655488 are you me?! We’re in exactly the same situation - 5.5 year old son, still in night-time pull ups which are always soaked in the morning and sometimes leak onto the bed. He was an absolute nightmare to toilet train in the day - we were considering seeking medical advice when he finally got it after several regressions, including one in reception. We’re busy potty training DC2 now (luckily going much better!) so have let the night-time training with DC1 go, but it’s reassuring to hear about older children who have become dry at night by themselves. I’ll stop worrying about it for now at least!

Hi! Yes we do seem to be in a similar position!
My son also took a really long time to get the hang of daytime dryness. He never had a problem with poos (as he seemed to hate the feel of these in his nappy very early on) but we had wee accidents for a long time including during reception year at school. Even now he occasionally has a wet patch if he's really absorbed in whatever he's doing. I'm torn between wanting him out of night time pants (simply due to his age) and wanting to leave it to happen naturally. I don't really like the idea of giving him medication to stop urine production overnight, I would consider that when he's older perhaps. Or the bed wetting alarms as this must be really unpleasant and disruptive for sleep which is so important for school. we're talking to him about it though and as a first step we've put his potty in his room to make it easier for a night time wee, as he doesn't seem keen on getting to the bathroom. If he wakes up for any reason I'm trying to get him to do a wee on the potty as well. Good luck!!!

Just wanted to come back here to update, in case it reassures others in a similar position: I posted on the thread about my 5.5 year old who was still weeing so much in the night that it leaked through his nappy pants and onto the bed. Said child has now just turned seven, and is finally dry at night!

It happened naturally - we noticed after Christmas that he was often waking up dry so decided to give it a go without night nappies and so far he is doing really well. We won’t take the absorbent mats off the bed just yet, but we’re definitely heading in the right direction. We didn’t do anything but wait, and make sure he does a final wee just before he gets into bed. I hope this gives hope to those who are worried about their 5/6 year olds!