Keep trying or give up? Nappies at night

[Twowillbefine]

Hello - infrequent poster here hoping for some thoughts from you all.

DS1 is 5.3 and ASD. Only been talking a year and it's not exactly conversational. Has been dry during the day for about a year and probably less than a handful of accidents. But still in nappies for night (and for poo but that's a whole other thread!).

On Friday night in a roundabout way he ended up going to bed without his night time nappy - quite happily. But he was damp when he woke up ... and not happy - "clean pants!". Tried again last night and checked at 11:00 (dry), 2:30 (dry) and 6:00 (damp).

Question is, is he waking and not getting up to use the loo (which he is quite capable of doing alone) or is he still not waking? In which case there seems little point pursuing this. Grateful for any views - give up or carry on?

I was always told that you don't do drinks after 5pm so that they don't wet themselves. Hard though to put that in an ASD context. It sounds like he is trying, and maybe you will need to get him on the loo at 6am. My DS3 also 5 ASD won't leave his bedroom at night, so I don't know how we will tackle this once he's in pants.

Let me know please, if you and he have an epiphany! I would welcome any tips too.

From memory, HVs don't consider night time dryness as a problem, particularly in boys, unless they are older than 8.
I wouldn't worry and let them sleep in nappy/pullups until you notice that they are regularly dry. You might find - like DS1, that by the age of 7/8 he knew he needed the toilet and started to get up in the night and go.
Strangely enough, he still says that he needs to wear pants under his pjs as he says he recognises the need to go when he wears them, but doesn't recognise it as well when he 'hangs free'

My ds is 9 now and we still get accidents. He's asd. His bedtime routine is no drinks past 6pm, if he does have a drink past then we lift him for a wee when we go to bed. Also when he goes to bed he does a 'double wee', where he wees then counts to 30 and wees again, this is to make sure his bladder is definatly empty. We've been doing this for over a year now on the advice of his paediatrician, and it has cut down on the wet beds we were having.