Help with 6 year old still in night nappy!

[anney]

Hi ladies,
My DD is 6 and 3 months and still wears a night nappy. I am not too fussed about it as I have read it is perfectly normal and there is no real need to do anything about it until about 6. I was a bed wetter myself so I guess she is just like me. It seems to be that she is in a very very deep sleep. she has always been the same, even when little ie. difficult to get to sleep, but once she is asleep sleeps deeply and never wakes at night. she never remembers if we have to change her bed or anything overnight.
she is telling me she wants to try without a nappy but as we are in Melbourne and it is difficult to get clothes dry, I have been too lazy but we are going to Qld on hols for a few weeks and I thought I might start while we are up there and continue when we get back and the weather will be better. I was just wondering if anyone had any experience about whether I should try to wake her to go to the toilet in the middle of the night or do i just leave her with the nappy off and see what happens. I am sure we will have some accidents but I just wondered if there is anything special I should do?

[mum3girls]

I'd personally encourage her to give it a try without a nappy. One thing I bought for my oldest DD was a mattress protector that goes across the bed on top of the bottom sheet and has flaps that tucks under the mattress. It's made from mainly material, so is less noisy than the regular plastic underlays that cover the whole mattress.

I think it will probably be a trial and error thing for you. Having been a long-term bedwetter myself, and having one DD who has been, I know all the tricks of the trade, and as I'm sure you know, it's more likely that she'll just grow out of it. I think showing confidence in her by letting her try to sleep without a nappy might help, if not, maybe getting her up to go to the toilet before you go to bed would be helpful.

Good luck.

[Sammiejane]

Hi Anney,
How is the bed wetting going?

DSS was in drynights until just recently, he is almost 11 and he would wet pretty much every night, usually it wuld be 1 or 2 dry nights a MONTH
We tried EVERYTHING
waking, wetting alarms, no water before bed, set an alarm for the time he was most likely to wet, medication, counseling , star charts, medical consults, there are other things, but cant rememeber them all.

His situation was complicated, but he was an exceptionally heavy sleeper and sometimes wouldnt even know he was wet until the morning and he would be freeing if he had no nappy on, so it may have been hours.

We decided that we would not have him in a night nappy as there was no way for him to tell that he was wet and it also 'allowed' him to wet as it would only be the nappy.
We had a similar thing as mum3girls mentioned, I use them in hospitals all the time for incontinent pts and basically you can just whip the 'pinky/kylie' off the bed and pop a new one on if it was wet and there wasnt a whole bed to be changed.

Wearing a nappy gave him less confidence and he was more likely to wet. If your DD is vocalising that she wants to try without a nappy, let her, she is more ready than if you were forcing the issue.

Also get her to take responisbility for the wet bed clothes, she may no be able to make a bed or set a washing machine, but she would be old enough to get rid of the wet clothes and help you remake the bed.

Try not to be negative about it either, dont mention it in the morning, let her tell you whether she had a wet or dry night... loads of encouragement and positive reinforcement if she is dry, and try not to really say much if she is wet, maybe something along the lines of 'oh well, im sure you tried, maybe tonight will be better'.
If she is visibly upset about wetting the bed, however, make sure that she is reassured that its not a hassle and its something that everyone has to learn, some poeple learn really quick, others take a while.

With DSS there is nothing that we can really pin point that made him stop... other than his Mum and we stopped asking how he went at each others place, but i dont think that was the only factor.
Sometimes they just have to be ready.

It can be a long hard slog.
We were told that we were not meant to wake DSS in the night, but this did help for a while.

the other thing we did was talk to him about the toilet dreams, you know, like when you cant find a toliet or they are all broken or something, and thats your body trying to wake you to go to the toilet, he found that once we talked about them, he started to realise he was having these dreams.

Hope this helps

[Roryrory]

Anney my parents put me on the loo every night at 10pm, just before they went to bed, until was 6 or 7. Apparently without it I would have wet the bed.

Worth a try?

[anney]

Thanks for resurrecting this RoryRory. DD is very difficult to get to sleep and is usually still awake at 10 so goes to the toilet then. she is such a heavy sleeper, I can't wake her to go to the toilet once she is asleep.
SammieJane, I missed your post as we were away but thanks very much for that advice. DD is also a very heavy sleeper and only wakes about 5am in the morning when she gets cold. that is why I wanted to wait until the summer to take away the nappy. at this stage she has no idea it is unusual to be wearing a nappy still so I don't want to be making a big deal about it as I don't want her to feel stressed or embarassed about it. But I agree that having a nappy on, just makes them feel they can wee in it so i think I will use the kylie sheets - that is a great idea.
Mum3girls, I do have one of those mattress protectors but usually the blankets get wet as well. I think I am just lazy as I dread all that washing what age did your children grow out of it?
thanks ladies for your advice