DS1 is almost 5 years old and is desperate to go to bed without pull ups. He woudl have a dry night once or twice a week. I have decided to let him try, thinking perhaps he will get used to waking up after a while. Happy to try for up to 2 weeks, if this idea has any merit, but I am not sure if it does.

Has anyone successfully taught a wetter to not wet, but allowing them to try hard and 'get used to it'?

So far we have had him wake at 4.30am wet, and then last night I took him to the toilet at 10pm and then he woke at 6.30am wet. I don't know if he wakes uop just after wetting or if he is sleeping whilst wet adn then waking cold.

Any thoughts or experiences?

We were waiting for DS1 to have a run of dry nights, but it never happened, and my mum suggested we just remove the nappy and see what happened (the week he turned 4). We had a few accidents for a couple of weeks, then only every now and then (maybe once or twice a week), and now almost never, I'd say not even once a month (4.5 now).

When we started we always took him for a 'sleepy wee' on the loo as we went to bed (around 10pm), and made the bed twice with two sets of sheets and two waterproof matress protectors. That way when there were accidents we'd just whip off the top set, change pj's and put him back to bed. It was less stressful for him and us that way. Oh yeah, and restricted drinks just before bed.

Now if he needs to go he just comes and gets me to help (he's a bit scared of the dark!). I say give it a go, if you don't make too much of a fuss when there are accidents and it's not stressing him out then what do you have to lose?

Good luck!

I think they all do it when they are ready. If he is keen to try then go with it. If he wets just keep going with it. It is a worry thinking they are laying all wet for however long and also annoying with all the wet sheets etc but I think once you start you just have to keep going so that he isnt confused by it all.

My DD was 3 when she asked to wear knickers overnight. Her nappy was always completely full in the morning and I didnt think she was ready but she only wet probably three times in total and never again.

My DS was 2.5 years old (he wanted to do it because his big sister did). He wet quite a bit in that first month and every now and then would wet for atleast the first 8 months but once we started we just went with it. He soon learned to wake up.

He actually sleeps right through and rarely gets up to wee whereas my DD who is older still gets up once a night to use the toilet. My DS doesnt even go when he first wakes up I do not know how he can do it. Even I pee during the night.

Good luck with it.

DD1 was off night nappy at 3yr old. We didn't train her. But we courage her off nappy all the time. Oneday, she told me she doesn't wear nappy over night anymore. No accident once. She is 3yr4m now. She doesn't get up during night for a loo.

I just make sure she goes toilet before bed. She sometimes asks for a sip of water before sleep. All good.

I think couraging an be patient are important. When she is ready, she will do it. If she is not ready, I am fine with it. Just spend some more money on Nappies though.

Good luck!

Hi, my twins were younger but DD2 especially used to wet right through her nappy at night dispite being day TT for ages. I ended up putting pullups on them over their undies at night and it worked really well for us.

DD3 stopped wetting completely and was dry right from the start so we stopped using the pullups soon after. While DD2 went from wetting badly every single night and right through 3 to 4 times a week to only wetting a little bit about 3 or 4 times the first week. She gradually wet less and less. I think it took about a month or mabe 6 weeks at the most before we could say she was definately dry at night.

I think you can at least give them an opportunity to see if they are ready. 2 weeks sounds like a fair time frame. I think it is unreasonablet to expect them to be dry on their first night.

DD at 2 decided she did not want to wear night nappies. After numerous attempts to try and keep them on her, I eventually told her she did not have to wear them if she did her wees in the toilet. THe first few nights she was wet, but after that she had some dry nights and we got more and more of them. In a month she was probably wetting once every few weeks. She was actually night trainined before she wa day trained. So if you can be bothered, I would give it a try.

Give it a go and see how it works - sometimes just switching to undies makes a difference! Definitely limit drink consumption for a bit (atleast its cooler now to do so) and take to toilet before you go to bed. We did the whole 2 layers of bedding when DD was night training to make it easier for accidents but took it off after a little bit as she was staying dry.

DS started to be adamanet about not wearing a night nappy shortly after he was day trained. For a long while I used to slip a nappy on him when he was asleep. However he would wake up wet through or with a really full nappy - very rarely dry. In the end, I bought some brolly sheets and decided to let him go to bed in undies and not slip a nappy on him. First few times he wet, so I'd go back to nappies, but I gave it a go without nappies every so often, or at times I forgot to put a nappy on him.

Shortly after he turned 3 it seemed to click. We would have perhaps one wet night on average every week or fortnight, and he was taking himself to the toilet during the night. On the nights that he did wet, it was happening in the early hours of the morning.

Unfortunately we seem to have just had a regression where he has been wetting every night, but also 2 times a night, so for the moment I'm back to slipping a nappy on him.

With the exception of the past few weeks, being child led seemed to work in our case. Just get yourself ready with brolly sheets. I find though that the doona often gets wet too, so I usually just turn it around if it's not too wet. I also have a spare doona on hand so I can do an easy swap during the night.

One of the things I tried with my son I think helped. We took note of his regular waking up wet times. We also loaded him up with drinks before bed.

Then took him to the toilet when we went to bed at the same time gap each night after he was loaded up with drinks before bed (ie Saturday night bedtime was later so toilet time was also later). We then set the alarm for 30 minutes earlier than his regular wake up wet time. Took him to the toilet at that time.

Within a little while he was getting up without us getting him up. Not long after he was only going at the bedtime for us time and refusing to do anything at the 3am alarm. So we stopped the 3am. So the reverse of what we expected happened when we loaded him with night time fluids. So all my kids get a lot of nightime fluids and freuqnet toileting at bedtime. Including my sleepwalker who urinates with sleepwalking. He is predictable with his so I just have to be sure of being awake an hour after bedtime to guide him to the toilet.

Hi!

My DS is going on 4 and has been out of night nappies now since just after he turned 3. He decided he was a big boy and didnt need them. He hasn't had any accidents for months. My stepson is 7 and will sometimes wet the bed when he comes to stay. There are other things going on with him though. When DS was first starting out with night nappies I used to take him to the toilet at about 10pm when I was going to bed and then I would make myself get up to take him at about 4/5am. both times he was still basically asleep. I forgot to get up one night after a few weeks of this and to my surprise he didnt wet the bed. He now calls out to me if he needs to go troughout the night, which is very rare. He even has a drink before he goes to bed and doesnt wet. His 7 year old brother isnt allowed drinks after 5pm. Im so proud of my big boy. He was so easy to toilet train.

We took away DS's night nappy at 3yrs and 4 months. Some nights he woke with a wet nappy and some nights he woke with it dry, it was pretty 50/50.

So i explained that he would need to get up in the night if he needed to wee - he and DD have a bathroom that they share that connects to their room, so it wasnt too far for him to go if he needed it.

I think if they have a nappy on at night then they don't feel when they are wet or weeing even, it has that protective bit that keeps them dry so i think if you take it away then they are more aware of what they are doing.

I never used pull ups... once we got rid of day nappies, i used to pop one of DD's nappies on at night time.

Thanks for all the replies. I am pleased to report after the intial 2 nights of wetting, he has now been dry for 2 nights. I expect there will be more accidents to follow, but I don't think he has ever gone 2 nights in a row when he has woken with a dry nappy. I will keep you posted, because I was waiting for the supoosed developmental leap that tells the brain to stop producing urine at night, and whilst that makes the most sense to me, the fact is, that it looks like habit has played a part in it. Tjhat or the need for him to feel wet to make the connection.

Ok we started off well. After an intial 2 wet nights, we had 4 dry nights in a row. Since then we have had 7 wet nights. Some of those nights he has woken me in the mid-morning hours wet and on the rest it has happened after 6am. I am not sure how he managed to stay dry for 4 nights and now not, we aren't doing anything differently and he is just as keen. Anyone got any ideas?

I have no experience with bed-wetting, so these are just guesses.

Could daylight savings having ended have any effect e.g. he's more tired because bedtime is an hour later and so he finds it harder to wake up when he needs to go?

Has he been watching more/different telly shows? Whilst we haven't had any bed-wetting issues I do notice a huge difference in other behaviour if there's been a couple of hours of Disney movies rather than our normal half an hour or less of something more pre-school suitable.

Could he have had less salty food during the day, so needs to wee more?