DD - 4.5 Years Old - Still in Nappy Pants

[cooper82]

My DD is 4.5 and fully toilet trained when awake. But she’s still in nappy pants for night time. There no sign that she’s coming out of the nighttime wetness.

I know this is probably fine but I guess I’m posting this for reassurance that I’m not the only one in this situation.

Ds1 stopped night time nappy pants at 5 some point after starting school, and having spoken to some parents at school there are currently a couple children in them at night and he is now in year 2. Ds2 never used them and was dry as soon as potty trained, we did nothing different in terms of potty training and both did it at the same age, just over 3. Like someone else said I've heard it's a hormonal change.

One of mine was dry as soon as they were dry in the day (3ish) the other not till they were 7 and a half/8. We saw the bedwetting nurse and while it's definitely true that a hormone is part of it, she explained there are other factors involved. For my DS he needed to train his bladder to hold more wee at night - so he had to drink more in the day time. Then he had to do a wee before his shower/bath and then another one literally just before lights out. For him this seemed to sort it fairly quickly (although I can't be sure it could have been coincidence).

But in your case your DD is still very little and it's normal not to be dry at her age. Don't worry - give it another year or two at least.

I’m so glad someone else has asked this as I am stressing over my girls twins aged 4 yrs 4 months who are still in nappies overnight. We have tried a few times but they have wet the bed every night so two lots of duvets and bedding plus lots of waking up. We have just put them back in nappies for now. My son was dry over night before 4 - he was starting school so I pushed it a bit but don’t remember it taking too long. If anyone finds a magic solution please let me know.

It's very tough @Bambi1980 - as a fellow parent of DTs I do feel it's extra tricky trying to do it at the same time for both!! DTS1 is fairly ok now at night as long as we get him up for a midnight wee, DTS2 still hasn't nailed it or even tried, really. They are just over 6 and I try not to stress myself/ them about it - I know there's a little boy in their school class who's still in nappies all the time, for example, and I'd rather they understood that children get there in their own time with toilet training. That said, it's very frustrating when other people say that their DC have been dry for ages!

It's totally within the normal range. As pp have said, you cannot train night time dryness. It's physiological, they need to start producing certain hormones. Ds took about 3 days to potty train (dry all day) before he was 3yo, he's 6 now and still not reliably dry at night - he just doesn't wake up when he needs to wee, and hasn't produced the hormone to stop him needing to wee. It's not a worry. I put a pull up on him and forget about it. No Dr or health visitor would be worried about it either.

It is far more common than you think it is just no one talks about it.

A really great place for information is www.eric.org.uk/pages/category/bedwetting

My son didn't produce the hormone vasopressin until he was 10. After going through all the things recommended by the eric site he was put on desmopressin which is the synthetic version of the hormone and he was dry. We weren't prepared to medicate him constantly so he just wore pyjama pants until he was reliably dry. We used the meds when we went on holiday or stayed anywhere as a belt and braces approach.

Thanks for all the feedback!

DD does wake sometimes at night and we try to encourage her to go for a pee and get out of the wet nappies but in the night, she just refuses to get out of bed!

Seems very hormonal and it’s probably just me that wants that hormone to kick in before she starts school!

DD is nearly 8 and still needs pull-ups at night.

We have tried various things without success including the following:

1. Going cold turkey (she just wet the bed and got upset).
2. Restricting drinks in the evening (just made her wee more concentrated and her pull-ups were really smelly.
3. Having her drink more throughout the day to stretch her bladder (probably good from a hydration point of view and we thought it was working as she woke up in the middle of having an accident several times, but in the end it just meant that she was wetting more, her pull-ups were heavier and started to leak).

The GP was consulted and recommended trying #1 and #3 (which is why we did them). #2 was not recommended.

GP’s view was that it’s probably the hormone thing and we may just have to wait.

The GP said that keeping her in pull-ups will not prolong the bed wetting as no child wets themselves on purpose and it’s a myth that they will just be lazy.

Last night DD woke up in a right state, crying because her bladder was sore (probably from being over full due to drinking lots due to the heat) and she was already in the middle of weeing but couldn’t stop because it was hurting. I tried to comfort her and told her it was OK not to hold it and just to finish weeing in her pull-up if she needed to whilst I helped her stagger to the toilet.

In some ways I’d rather she just wet in her sleep until she’s ready to stop rather than wake up in such distress.

Hopefully it will just “click” some time soon. I’ve heard from someone whose DD stopped with puberty so it may be that that is the “long stop” for those who are at it later.

Bottom line - 4 is very young so don’t stress out yourself and her if it doesn’t stop within the next few years.