5 year old bedwetting

[Lilo08]

Ds has been dry during the day since 2 years old but still needing nappy at night. Recently he's been soaking through his nappy every night. At first we started to taking him to the toilet at around 10.30 but he is still soaked by morning. We then took him 2 times in the night and he's still wet by morning.

I spoke to the gp and they suggested no nappies for 2 weeks and if no improvement to use the bedwetting alarms. If still no improvement we will be referred to the clinic. In the meantime we have been told to drop off urine sample to rule out any other issues.

We're on day 4 of no nappy and find as expected he's wetting the bed and he sleeps through the wetness. We have mats in place and limit drinks an hour before bed.
Is there anything else we can do?

I wanted to add, I don't mind Ds wearing nappies but if he's soaked by morning after going to the toilet twice in the night there's no point him wearing one

Dryness overnight is linked to hormone production and 5 is too young to have concerns about that.

He probably needs to increase daytime fluid intake to help kickstart hormones.

Is it possibly he is doing a huge wee in the morning?

Nappy with washable nighttime nappy over the top.

I have read this too this is why I wasn't in a rush to get him out of the nighttime nappies but struggling with the daily bed wetting.
Most times I wake him up and find him wet in the morning. Other times he wakes up and calls me to tell me he's wet.
will look into the washable nappies

Stay away from blackcurrant juice as it's a bladder urritant, lots of drinks throughout the day and two wees before bed. Quite a high percentage of boys this age have this issue however.

Welcome to the Mastermind subject I never wanted to have 😂

1. Not being dry at 5 is not particularly unusual

2. I would seriously avoid the bedwetting alarms until your child is old enough to understand what they are and agree to try it - that might be 5 but it might be 15, depends on the child. For a lot of children they just cause anxiety.

3. Things you can do: cut out all chocolate other than white chocolate, anything with caffeine (is he ever allowed cola?), anything with blackcurrant so no ribena, blackcurrant fruit shoots etc. Darker chocolate, caffeine and blackcurrant all irritate the bladder and make wetting more likely in a sensitive bladder.

4. Nighttime dryness isn't about 'training' like day time dryness, but about the activation of the hormone vasopressin. This hormone suppresses urine production overnight and kicks in typically about 2-5 years old in NT children and typically about 7-15 years old in ND children (although obviously outliers occur in both groups so don't assume that being over 5 years old and not dry at night means ND)

5. If the night nappies aren't working get different night nappies. My child is slightly built and was still out of the age 4-7 DryNites before she was 6. We found the DryNites and Ninjamas were only really set up for a bit of a leak rather than a full wee. Tescos Junior nappies are very cost effective and work well if your child is of average weight or above (if on the slender side, the tabs seem to rub). Abri-Form Junior (on Amazon) were good for daytime for age 5-7, and ID Junior for night. Since then we've had a Confidence Club subscription and I will now swear by Confidence Club - not a single leak since we have been using them and it's been about 3 years now. Once your child isn't a toddler any more you have to find the right pull up size and shape in the same way that you have to find clothes that fit them - you can't "just" buy a nappy in the same way that you can't "just" buy a babygro and expect it to work.

6. Try not to worry about it too much. Almost all children do eventually get dry at night once the hormone kicks in and if your DS was dry in the day at 2 then that is a really good indicator that he will be dry overnight once he's ready.

Thank you so much for the info. I think I will try different nappies until we find one that doesn't leak.
Ds does not have juices just water so will try get him to increase his intake during the day but will be difficult to monitor when he is in school.

i am reluctant on trying the alarm as he finds alarms scary even if just vibrating so will only do this later and when he is onboard.

Excellent advice by @RavenLaw

I wasn't dry through the night until 11 years old and neither was DS. Neither of us is neurodiverse. Just the hormones taking a bit longer. We would still take DS for a night dream wee when we went to bed. He would wake up with a full nappy/pull-up. Try different brands and I would also recommend a dry nites sheet under him. The one thing I would also add is not to make it a big deal. My parents did and it made me feel awful. It was the 80's and I didn't have pull ups so it was a different time.

I did take DS to the night training nurse when he was about 10 and I think it helped for him to understand it from her as a healthcare professional. Also drinking a lot more fluids during the day helped reduce how wet is pull up was in the morning. Also no fluids after 730pm and no chocolate or squash.

GPs and the bedwetting clinics can prescribe desmopressin from age 5. We waited until DS was 7 to go to the GP, but I wish we'd gone 2 years earlier. The hormone completely fixed the problem. He took the pills for 9 months and has had no problem since. He's now at uni.

We had to do a drinks and bedwetting chart for a couple of weeks so the clinic could decide between the alarms and desmopressin. We never had alarms.

Get it sorted. There's no need to wait.

Thank you everyone. For now Ds is back in nighttime nappies doubled up. Will go with the flow