5 year old wetting the bed/pull-ups ...help!

[boomba]

My eldest has been using the toilet during the day since before he was one but the night time he is still wetting himself :-(
my little dude Is out of nappies altogether and this makes DS1 upset. We tried him on a special waterproof sheet to see if he would wake up but he just wet the bed took his clothes off and went back to sleep naked :-(

will he eventually grow out of this? I don't want to force him to do something he is it ready for? Is it nor al to still be happening?

Thanks x

[LimeSlice]

DD1 is about to turn 5 in a couple of weeks, and still goes through spells of bedwetting.
Usually though, I can actually pin it down to some stress or unhappiness. We bought a $20 waterproof fitted sheet from KMart and a brolly sheet. She can take the brolly sheet of herself and change /take off her clothes if she needs to, most of the time she does this without even waking me.
Sometimes she will ask me for pull ups if she has had a bad week, if she does, we get them without a big fuss and she puts them on herself when she wants them at night.

No drinks after 6.30 (he bedtime is 7) and she goes to the toilet both before dinner and before bed. If she wakes for a bad dream or something I will take her to the toilet, as I have found over the years her fitful sleep and bad dreams are caused by her needing to go to the toilet.

I have no doubt she will grow out of it, and I make sure that I tell her that so she knows she will too and she isn't doing anything wrong...This too shall pass.

[krysalyss]

Both my DS and my niece are five and both still wear nappies to bed. DS we have spells of no wetting but then will have set backs (like last nights gastro explosion!). But it must be reasonably normal from talking to other prep mums with kids of similar age.

[boomba]

I wish I could say he does it because if something but he does it every night :-( we limit dri ks and he does 2 big wees before bed but still wets his nappy :-(

might just keep using the special sheet and see if he can teach himself :-(

[LimeSlice]

I wish I could say he does it because if something but he does it every night :-( we limit dri ks and he does 2 big wees before bed but still wets his nappy :-(

might just keep using the special sheet and see if he can teach himself :-(

It takes a lot of muscle control not to wee when you really need to, and it is something that is learned over time - it is really difficult for a small child to control, they simply physically cannot do it a lot of the time. He will grow out of it. xx

[fionas]

My dd is not genuinely night trained. By that I mean sometimes she will be dry but if she needs to pee during the night she won't wake up.

Still fairly normal at this age apparently.

My friend had great success with a monitor/alarm thing that you slip down their undies/pull ups. It beeps when it gets wet so the child hears it and goes to the loo. After a couple of weeks they can recognize the signs themselves and dont need it any more.

Might look into that soon as I don't want dd to have to knock back sleepovers with school buddies.

[Jellyfish]

It is very, very normal! I was in pull ups until I was about 7 and I wasn't the only one around because I never felt odd, I definitely had other friends who were similar and went on sleep overs etc with no problems. I was actually completely shocked when my daughter night trained the same time she day trained because it was such a foreign idea to me. I used to sleep very, very deeply (still do) so it was really difficult for me to 'wake up'. Dreams of being on the toilet were quite frequent and felt very real so I wouldn't realise I was still in bed.

I would just not make a big deal about it for now, stick with the pull ups and see what happens with more time personally. If you push him it will probably just be stressful for you both if it doesn't work.

[wysiwyg]

My friend had great success with a monitor/alarm thing that you slip down their undies/pull ups. It beeps when it gets wet so the child hears it and goes to the loo. After a couple of weeks they can recognize the signs themselves and dont need it any more.

I also know someone who used this with great success (think he was 6) - the way they explained it to me is - is quite common at that age and is just one of those things where some kids need a bit of extra help in recognizing the signs when they are asleep - and often once they get to a certain age the monitor is the only way to sort of retrain the brain to recognize the sign while asleep - it only works if they already have the control in the day. My friend said it was a pain in the neck for the couple of weeks while using it but overall a great result (and her little boy thought was cool having an alarm and wanted to do it). The program they followed the child had to help change bedding as well as get up and go to the loo, and also reset the alarm themselves.

[~Raven~]

I have an 11yo that has never been night dry.
A 9yo that wet every night till he was 7 and will still occasionally wet the bed.
A 6yo that was dry at 3. Once he was day trained he was dry over night also and has never wet the bed.
A 4yo that is still wet most nights but we have a dry pull-up twice a week on average. She has been day trained since 2.

My thoughts are that if they have no control over what's going on then all you can do is try not to let them be stressed out. It's different if they are too lazy (or scared) to get out of bed if they wake during the night (I believe this was part of DS2's issues).

You can get a medication to slow kidney function during the night but I think 5 is too young for that.

It is very common too it's just that its not spoken about much. Out of 30 kids that went on DS's school camp there were 8 using pull-ups.

[Nai]

DD1's friend was doing this until she was 7 and she used the alarm system. They don't generally recommend the alarm until 6 or 7 from memory as they need to have the ability to control the bladder which often doesn't kick in until then. It is quite normal and is usually something that runs in families. The other thing is that orange juice can irritate the bladder so if he is drinking juice at all maybe cut out any orange juice completely.

[Freya]

My 6yo is still wearing a pull-up to bed because he wets during the night. He has been toilet trained since 3 and half years old. My nearly 5yo day and night trained within a few months at 3-4 years old but he has the bladder of a camel. My 3.5yo is just day trained but still in pull ups at night.

DS2's developmental paed told me that children lack to necessary cognitive function to hold urine overnight until they are close to 8 years old and that he would never worry about a child still night wetting until they are 10 years old with no signs of it slowing. Then they would investigate urinary issues before they worried about it being a psychological issue. So I refuse to worry about it now. They'll night train when they night train.

[boomba]

Thanks everyone your response are invaluable.

Sme nights he will lbe dry all night and then be too lazy to get out of bed in the morning to do his wee :-(

its more DH that is pushing him to be out of nappies he is the harder parent.

Thanks you. I will look into the alarm when he gets older if he still lis on nappies x

[aussienic]

Dd is turning 5 in a couple weeks also. I tried going nappy free at night but no luck. 3 nights. 3 soaked beds and a unhappy little girl

We buy pull ups and let it be. Her nappies are still soaked in the morning.

[~Kim~]

Only recently (like the last fortnight) has DD1 been dry overnight. She's 6.5.
There is a hormone that the kidneys release that tells their body not to make wee overnight. The release of that hormone is developmental. Not something they can control. Withholding drinks or taking them to the loo overnight has no effect on the hormone.
We had some success with an alarm mat (so nothing tied to her), but essentially I think it was something she just grew into.

Give your local community health centre a call if you're worried. Most of them have a continence nurse that you can chat to.

[Kmn]

My DS is still in Dry-nites at 4 and a half, with no sign of getting rid of them. We have a 50cents per dry pullup bribe, which has only been paid out a couple of times.
I would offer rewards for any of:
*doing a big wee in the loo in the middle of the night
*doing a big wee in the loo first thing in the morning
*having a dry pullup

It may mean that your little kid gets bonuses too, but so be it.

[Butterfly Dawn]

Ds2 is 4.5 and does the same.
When I go to bed I take him to the look to pee. After winter I will stop- march/ April next year.
Our boy has a small time between feeling the need to pee and over flowing

[RoyaUK]

I don't expect my girls to be able to go the whole night (11 hrs) without needing to empty their bladder. After all, my husband often gets up in the night too to go to the loo ....

I lift them (6.5 yrs and nearly 5 yrs) out of bed and put them on the toilet at around 9.30pm and they always do a big wee. They are asleep and have no recollection of it the next day. We also have brolly sheets on the bed at all times just in case (love, love, love them!).