What's this night hormone we are waiting for? Dry at night sometimes but mostly wet?

[icypompoms]

D is almost 5 and I know her age is well within the normal limits of the potty training journey.

But now and again she is completely dry without any effort by ourselves.

I've tried the old school method of getting her up in her sleep. We did that consistently for three weeks but it didn't make any difference.

The most there's been is three dry nights in a row.

So my question is if she having the odd dry night is the hormone being produced now? Also is it like a switch? Hormone = dry.

Why isn't she dry every night if the hormone is being produced?

Many children still wet the bed well into their teens. It’s not unusual, but parents just do t talk about it. My DD wasn’t fully dry until she was about 10.

I feel like everyone we know was dry long ago. There are a few exceptions of course.

Plus I've had one who was dry at 2.

No one talks about it....particularly boys sometimes continue well into teens.

@icypompoms Why do you think the supermarkets give over precious shelf space for night time pull ups that go up to teens if everyone is dry at night? There is a huge stigma attached to wetting the bed so no one talks about it. We can't control it. The hormone is vasopressin which slows down the production of urine when we sleep so we don't have a full bladder. Ask me how I know this? Because my eldest son wasn't consistently dry at night until he was 10. My youngest son was dry by 3.

ERIC are a great resource eric.org.uk/childrens-bladders/bedwetting/

Plus, we did it all, lifting, alarms, waterproof bedding (look on incontinence websites) monitoring input and output of liquid, giving lots to drink to make the bladder larger and for holidays and hotels stays we were prescribed Desmopressin which is the hormone and he was dry but I was not prepared to drug my child every day. What I wish we had done was just accept the fact that he wasn't going to be dry and it would be fine, he was seen by a GP at 7, hence the Desmopressin so we knew it was hormonal.

In your case I would use reusable pull ups so on the nights she is wet it doesn't matter. Might be cheaper than disposable pull ups. Lots out there with pretty patterns and funky prints.

I wish I knew the answer.

My 4 year old is dry at night but my 7 year old is nowhere near it. His pullup is full every single morning (and often leaks) We've tried restricting fluid before bed, always encouraging him to wee last thing etc and it makes zero difference. I am reluctant to wake him at night to go to the toilet as he has issues with falling asleep at the best of times.

Nighttime wetting is common and in fact considered well within what is considered normal until at least 8. It can be caused by genetics, small bladder, irritated bladder, deep sleep.

What can help...,

At least 7 big drinks a day
Cut out blackcurrant and caffeine drinks
Double wee at bed time (before and after teeth brushing)
Getting them to help with washing (but not as punishment)
No drinks at least 1 hour before bed

Ds1 - we went to specialist continence nurse - tried everything (including meds) - alarm worked at 10 years old

Ds2 - dry day and night in 1 week at 3yrs. Has had 1 wet bed when he drank blackcurrant on holiday just before bed.

Ds3 - we bought an alarm at 8 years and it worked. However a few wet beds when he drinks too close to bedtime and is very tired

Using night time nappies DOES NOT cause night time wetting. My mum, me and my cousin all wet the bed until at least 10 years old and even disposable nappies were not around then!

Oh yes and waking them to wee in the night is not recommended.

I think really what I'm wondering is if there are the odd dry nights does that mean the hormone is being produced? I can't understand the process really.

Does the hormone mean dryness begins gradually?

My DD was still wetting at 5 but was dry by 7. Not ideal but not unusual. We didn't find a magic wand, but time for us there in the end. GP wasn't offering any interventions unless she was still doing it at 7+.

My understanding is that the hormone gradually increases as they develop so they gradually improve. If hormone is the root cause. I don't know if it was for my DD as we didn't get to the point of being tested. She was a very very deep sleeper though.

My just-turned-9 year old DS still has the odd night time accident, especially when he's had a late bedtime or any drink after 6.30pm. It's the hormone ADH that stops you producing so much wee at night, and unfortunately you can't hurry it!
When my DS was 7 I went through my GP to see a urologist. I had to measure the amount of wee DS produced, and she said he wasn't producing enough, and to make sure he drank at least a full water bottle each day, and stop at 6.30 each evening. No fizzy drinks or fruit juice.
He didn't stop wetting the bed, but did produce less wee at night. So she started him on some medication, which worked straight away! We had regular checkups, with the odd period of stopping the medication to see what happened. We had a few unsuccessful attempts, and then one day it just happened - he stopped wetting the bed. That was 3 months ago (aged 8 years 10 months) and he has the odd accident once every fortnight or so. The urologist said that was because DS' bladder is still quite sensitive and it's true - fruit juice does make him wet the bed. That will lessen as he gets older.
He's the youngest of 5 - none of my other children had any problem with bedwetting whatsoever. We still give him pull-ups to wear on sleepovers or camping, just to make sure he doesn't have any accidents.

My dd became dry quite suddenly the week after she turned 8. But she had had the odd run of a few days a few years earlier. I would take it as a sign that your ds will produce it consistently at some point.

My dh was 11 before he was dry after all the interventions and embarrassments so we took it to be inherited and made as little fuss as possible with dd (Brownie leader, you handled it badly, thanks) and did not see the GP about it. If it had gone on much longer we would have sought the use of the suppressant for use on school trips etc.

Why?

We've been waking DD4a couple of times a night for a wee in order to prevent humiliation at bed wetting, so it doesn't turn into an issue for her.

We were advised not to 'lift' by the specialist continence nurse and the charity ERIC eric.org.uk/advice-for-children-with-night-time-wetting/

It promotes the “wee whilst you’re asleep” message for the brain.

Unless you fully wake your child and make them walk to the loo, which parents don’t do - they tend to lift them so the child wees whilst sleeping.

Also you’re not giving the brain a chance to recognise the stretch receptors from the bladder creating a stimulus to wake themselves.

Lifting can achieve a dry bed (which I appreciate is important) but doesn’t promote night time continence.

@LampsWantLove out of curiosity what brand of reusable pull ups did you use? Our DS (4 nearly 5) is very inconsistent with nighttime dryness so we're still using disposable pull ups but feel it's a waste when he then has a dry night.

@APurpleSquirrel sadly I can't recommend any. My bed wetting child is now 20 and we just used disposable ones and swallowed the cost. There are loads of pull ups on Amazon that seem to go up to aged 6 or 7. Good luck with it all.

Thank you @Sidge and @lorisparkle

I didn't know this but it makes sense.