Five-and-a-half year old still soaking night nappy, when to see GP?

[Thrushcrossgrange]

DD is 5 and 1/2. She has been potty trained during the day since she was three. She has never once had a dry night. Her nappy in the morning is absolutely soaking. Even if I go into her at nine or 10 pm, she has a wet nappy. She is able to hold her urine during the day for hours at a time. We try and limit liquids in the evenings and always have a wee before bed, but nothing seems to be changing. I'm starting to get worried. There's still just so much wee overnight.

at what point do you think I need to speak to a doctor? Has this happened to anyone else and the child has grown out of it? Do I start lifting her at night to try and get her on the toilet?

In contrast my youngest daughter is three and has just potty train during the day and seems to be having dry nights most nights since.

I really want to help my eldest, but don't want to give her a complex.

I don’t think it’s an issue until around 7. It’s all to do with the hormones, it takes different times for different children, especially if they are deep sleepers. It’s a bit like walking/crawling/first teeth - it will come eventually!

If she’s already wet by 9/10pm and has never had a dry night then that suggests she’s not producing the hormone yet. Medically I don’t think they consider it late until age 7 but might be worth talking to the GP if she’s still wetting at 6 to see if they’ll suggest anything. Right now though I wouldn’t worry. She won’t be the only one in her class, I think it’s actually more common than you think but people don’t talk about it. When DD was in Y1 so age 5-6 I had 2 different families we were friendly with give me half opened packs of pull ups when their DC night trained because I was the only one with a younger kid who was the right age/size for them. And I know younger than yours but my eldest wet until age 4 and the youngest was dry at night at 18 months (before we even cracked daytime)- they’re all different so don’t worry based on their sibling.

DD was like this until she was 10 and a half. She was out of nappies on her 2nd birthday in the day. Never had accidents in the day. Everytime she slept she had a wee. We tried lots of things but in the end just had her in pull ups at night until she grew out of it. Once she had a couple of dry nights she never wet the bed again.
She went on scout camps and for sleepovers andshe would wrap them up in a plastic bag and hide them from her friends. Hwr two best friends knew as did their Mums. Shes 16 now and I had forgotren about this until now!
We never made her feel bad. And explained ir was just a chemical thing that would change when she was ready.

I had this with my youngest, she laughs about it now, because she is in the wars, 5 month old and 3 year old (trying to train)I took the night nappy off (I always used towelling washable ones) she never ever weed the bed or at night again.

Just as a different angle, and i don"t want to come across as one of 'those' parents as you're clearly worried but have you put her to bed without a pull up?

My dd was always waking with a soaking wet nappy at the same age, one night I didn't have any left so she had to go to bed without them. She didn't wet the bed, instead she got up and went to the toilet.

They produce a hormone that limits or stops urine production at night at that can happen anytime up to the age of 7, I don’t think a GP will be too concerned until that age.
My DD was quite late with this and still has accidents now (she’s 8). Not often, but sometimes there’s a midnight accident.
It isn’t something that can be trained unfortunately, it’s just a waiting game.

The GP won’t be concerned till age 7/8

my eldest was 6.5 before reliably dry at night.

as a beaver leader I can share that on sleepovers and camps usually about 1/4 to 1/3’of the beavers are in pull ups overnight

dont worry about it. It’s quite normal and you need to wait till he’s producing the hormone that wakes him up when he needs a wee

My son was 7 before he was dry at night reliably

It's still really young and not a problem at this age.

My daughter was still not dry at night at this age. Unfortunately pull ups were not up to the job, we had to use mats too and do an awful lot of washing. We saw the nurse about it and tried getting DD to drink more in the day and then have no water 2 hours before bedtime—it made no difference. Once she was over 7 and still doing it we got a device that goes in their pull up or pants and sets off an alarm if they wee whilst asleep. After two nights wearing it, she was then dry at night and has been ever since. I wished I known about it sooner.

Glittergargoyle,that worked for me as well.

Hi all

thanks for the helpful comments on my thread.

so last night we tried no pull up...she wet the bed at 11pm, 4am and 7am.

this indicates she's not ready doesn't it? Like she must be in such a deep sleep and to still be producing urine at 7am after two wees in the night??

I might think about the alarm as some posters suggested .

My children were 7 and 8 before they were reliably dry at night. It’s hormonal and requires patience. Thank god for pull ups.

She is 5.5 years old this is perfectly normal still. It's not a reflection on your parenting and not something you need to 'fix' just yet.

The people using the alarms have used them for older children.

She’s not ready. Mine was dry at 2.5 in the day, but it was only 6.5 when they suddenly went dry overnight - literally. We didn’t do anything different, pull ups every night. Bought one of those hygge or whatever they’re called bed mats as a back up to make changing beds easier if they did. After that it was maybe an accident once every few weeks.

It was really getting to DH as he was adamant we should be trying to ‘talk her round’ and do the various exercises of getting her up at 10pm, 2am etc… he did that reliably for 2 nights and lost interest and we went back to my way which was ‘it’ll come when she’s ready’. And it did.
If you have a tumble dryer I recommend getting another duvet and cover that goes in the wash - you can wash the duvet in the cover (yes it works), and dry it in there - much less faff at whatever time in the morning. At 5.5 you may still have another 18 months of pull ups / sheet changing.

She's 5.
Put a pull up on her, and forget about it for a year.

My daughter had a wet, soaking nappy every single night until she turned 10.

She woke up one day really happy as her pull up was dry and she never weed again.

Two other children who were dry at night aged 2.

Some children just take ages. I never made it into an issue.

There was no way I was ever going to try an alarm. My daughter is now 14 and she still sleeps like a log. Compared to the other two she sleeps the longest/deepest.

As others have said, it's very common and probably more than people realise as not everyone will share that info with others.
DS1 trained at 2&1/2 no problem and at 7 was still in night time pull ups.
We saw an enuresis Dr who explained it was known as nocturnal enuresis.
There is medication that can be tried but he wasn't a fan so we didn't explore that.
His advice was to try and increase liquids during the day and to not limit them in the evening - the bladder needs to be regularly full to send the message to the brain (there is a chemical that does this, can't remember the name) and if it's not present/low, then that message isn't going from the bladder to the brain.
To reduce foods/drinks containing aspartame and caffeine as these are bladder irritants.
To make sure he had plenty of fibre to reduce constipation - he did occasionally from it.
To keep an eye on anxiety/stress as it can also be a factor - he was/is a bit of an nervy nelly as we would say.
At 9 he said we could use the alarm pants if we wanted but again we decided not to as he shares a room with 1, sometimes 2 of his brothers (depending on the bed hopping that goes on🙄)
He started being dry at about 9 and after a week of being dry we ditched them and no issues since.
Don't stress and don't comment, she will get there.

Apart from the advice here, there is info on the ERIC website https://eric.org.uk/childrens-bladders/bedwetting/

Just chill. Mine was 8 when he stopped, no big deal.

My dd was fully day trained at 18 months. Still needed nappies at night until she was 5.

I would have thought you would have seen a GP already by now.

Definitely wouldn't be waiting until they are 7 or 8. They may well tell you to keep an eye on things and come back in a few years if things havnt changed but i would still get my child seen long before 5 if it was me.

Is this a joke? She means at night not through the day.

You don’t train night time dryness - they’re asleep! You can’t train unconscious people

Honestly you can relax. There’s nothing that you or she can do about the wees - so concentrate on making the solution as easy as possible and just plan on using the pull ups for another couple of years yet.