How do I get my 5 year old out of nappies at night?

Hi, just wondering if anyone has any advice for me. my daughter is 5 and will be 6 in december and i just cant get her out of nappies for bed. she was dry all day from about 2 but night times no way!! my little boy is 3 and he has been out of nappies day and night for about a year. i just dont no what to do with my little girl. ive spoke to her doctor and was told its not classed as a problem untill shes 7 and untill then they wont give me any help. any advise woud be gratefully recieved thankyou x katherine x

Hi Katherine,

Its a tricky one as each child is different as you know. It could be that your daughter sees them as a security and has simply got used to wearing them.  You could try switching from nappies to big girl bedtime pants (by Pampers I think) for a couple of weeks or till the end of the pack and then switch to nothing. Talk with your daughter and explain that she's a big girl now and that big girls don't wear nappies to bed. Explain to her what your going to do with the nappy swap over so that she doesn't panic and then gradually wean her off them. Make sure she doesn't have anything to drink at least half hour to an hour before bed time to reduce the risk of wetting herself.  It might be worth talking with her make sure there's nothing worrying her which may be causing her to wet the bed it could be something simple as she's no longer sitting next to a friend in her class.   I'm very surprised that your doctors have not been helpful. It might be worth trying your local Health  Visitor I did when my daugther was wetting herself during the daytime aged 6. 

 If you ever want to chat cos its getting too much, I'm here.

 Sam

Hi Sam and Katherine,

I have a similar issue with my daughte who will be 6 in November. My son was also dry day and night from 2 years old, and she has been dry during the day since she was 2. However, she has become reliant on nappies, therefore a year and a half ago we removed the nappies altogether by setting a date and making a star chart together for every time she didn't wet herself  etc. However, she continued to wet herself during the night and we put her on the toilet 3 to 4 times a nigh, each time there was a wet bed. We have recently bought a pack of nappies as she is getting sore between her thighs from wetting herself during the  night. I also went to the GP and they said there was nothing to worry about yet as she was still faily young and would most pobably grow out of it. 

However she goes to stay at her nanny and grandads twice a year and shares a room with her female cousin of the same age. Therefore this has become an issue for her as her cousin has had dry nights since she was 3.

I eally want to help my daughter and am wondering if you have any further suggestions on what to do. She doesn't have a drink at least 2 hours befoe she goes to bed.

Leah x

I found the only way was to go 'cold turkey'

I stopped the pull ups and said no- more, invested in more sheets and a waterproof matress cover.

Wee before bed, and every hr until you go to bed,then 2hrly - means waking like when she was a baby....

the next night make it every 1 1/2hrs, then evrey 2hrs, etc etc

within a week or 2 she should get up once a night when you go to bed.

stop all drinks after teatime meal too - no bedtime drink unless its a small sip.

Tell her when shes dry she can have a friend for a sleep over - maybe that will be some help.

Hi all

 I'm new to this site and was just about to ask exactly the same thing! My son is 5 in a couple of weeks and is showing no signs of being anywhere near ready to go through the night without wetting. We tried pants again last night, i got him up when I went to bed, no drink close to bedtime but he still wet at 4am. I then put a pull up on him and when he got up at 8.30 he had peed in the nappy aswell!

I'm trying not to let it bother me too much as it is not bothering him in the slightest but it's still good to know I am not the only one having problems with this!

How long would you reckon to keep wearing the pants at night before giving up and resorting to pull ups again? I was thinking a week or so before stopping for a while and trying again? Just from last nights adventures me and my son are cream crackered, seems to take 10 times longer changing a bed at 4am (we did put one of those throw away bed mats down but he managed to wet everywhere but this, aarrrghh!)!

My son is 5 1/2 and still in nappies. He just hasn't seemed bothered to try. I have a star chart on the wall dated about this time last year to see if it would encourage him but gave up after a week as he wasn't at all interested in trying.

Now, I have tried a different tack. I have offered him a treat if he manages (just one) night dry. He really likes wooden trains for his track and I told him he could have one if he managed to have a dry nappy in the morning. Didn't expect much and a few weeks, possibly months went by but one night (maybe he didn't drink much all day lol) he told me very excitedly that his nappy was dry, and could he have the train. So he got the treat and was offered another. He actually asked if the next time he could have a big bag of sweets. Well, for dry nights I was prepared to offer a lot more than that. And this morning, about three weeks after the last one, he did another dry nappy.

 We will see where this goes, but it is another idea to try  

 Good luck

Just yesterday I met a friend who said that her boy is the same ie still wets at night, but she was told by a consultant at the hospital that it is all down to the maturation of a gland in the head that then tells the body to concentrate the urine at night.

If that is true then we all just need to wait until the gland matures. But why is it no oone else seems to have heard or even be told about this?

 Puzzled now

Hi all

 You hear it's down to so many different things it's hard to know what the actual reason is! I've read somewhere that is down to a muscle in the bladder which would make you think they will just start being dry when they are ready and not before.  As my son doesn't even wake up when he has wet the bed and is completely not bothered by it when he wakes up eventually I am trying to to get too bothered about it myself. I've tried the whole reward thing (he has learned about money and so have tried bribing him with the promise of a whole pound coin in the morning if he is dry) but again this has not worked. I think I am going to leave it a couple of weeks and then try again for another week!

I love the idea about layering the sheets with waterproof ones and normal sheets. One reason I have never even tried letting him wet the bed to see if that jolted him into some awareness was the dread of changing bedding in the night time. Excellent idea. (Still going to just wait it out though - at least for a good while).

Also very interested to hear about the chiro. My son is never keen to go to any 'experts' but I might try to find myself a good one for the family. I used to see one where my mum lives and they sorted my pains out. It would be nice to know of a good one locally should we need it.

I would just like to say be very careful about using reward/sticker charts for this problem. Being able to go all night without wetting depends on the maturation of a hormone secreting gland in the brain. this is a physical process the child has no control over. I myself wet the bed until i was about 11, and i can still remember how demoralising it was to look at an empty sticker chart and know that no matter how hard i tried i could not get any stickers on it.

I recently tried taking my 4 year old out of nappies overnight, but when i went to lift her when i went to bed (about midnight) she was already wet. i have decieded that she obviously isn't ready yet and i will leave her in nappies for a while.

for anyone dealing with this problem it feels like your child is the only one and you do feel pressure to get them out of nappies. but they are perfectly normal and it WILL happen in it's own time, take it from one who knows, I always worried what if i still wet the bed when i'm grown up. My problem just stopped when i was about 11 without anything the doctors or my mother had tried making ANY difference. So please have patience with your little ones and dont forget to explain to them that it isnt something wrong with them, it will happen when they grow up a bit more.

hi i have the same problem my 3 yr old daughter has been out of nappies day and night for about a yr.but my 5 yr old son is still wetting the bed about 2 weeks ago i told him we are stopping nappies at night time as when he was in nappies at night he was still waken up wet so i brought some sheet protectors and we make him go to the toilet before bed at 7 then i wake him at 9 and put him on the toilet then my husband wakes him at about 11 ish and every time he has a wee but i stop all drinks after tea which is 5.00 5.30 but he is still waken up wet.i just don't know what to do or where we are going wrong.

Can anyone help please?

a comfort to hear from others whose children are still in nappies at night. My daughter is 4 and a half and wears a pull up nappy every night which is always wet in the morning, When we try with no nappy she generally wets the bed.