4 yr old in pull ups at night - should I worry ??

greengirl31

Hi all …
Just wondering if anyone can offer some advice or reassurance ..
My little girl has been toilet trained since she was about 2 and a half and she was easy enough to train - a few accidents at the start but nothing major. Now 18 months later she's about to turn 4 and she's still in the pull up's at night. They're usually wet in the morning too so I'm not sure if she still doesn't have the bladder control or if she's just lazy ??
Is this something I should try to tackle or will she give them up in her own time ??

Big Bag of Chips

Hard to know! I have a 6 year old still in pull ups at night. I'm waiting for him to do it in his own time, for the last 4 years!

I have a 4 year old who did do it in her own time, and she's out of them over a year..

?!

January

Does she still get drinks just before bedtime?

BostonB

One of ours was dry in the morning at 2 another a 5. Another somewhere in the middle. Seems to me that theres a wide range of "normal" when it comes to training.

Please Kill Me

My little lad was sleeping through the night, in pants no pull-ups or nappies, when he was 3! What we did was make him go to the toilet when he was going to bed. Then put him in. Then when WE were going to bed (11pm/midnight) we would get him out of bed and make him go again. Don't worry about them waking or not going back to sleep - they will! Then when they've gone, put them back to bed. Then - dry bed in the morning. It might take a few goes, but it sinks in. He started going himself in the middle of the night and there were no more wet beds.

Hope this helps somewhat.

greengirl31

Hmm - I never really paid attention to the drinks in the evenings - I collect her from Crèche at 6 so it's about half when we have dinner - I'll give her a drink with that but she usually doesn't drink it all but it's probably something I need to pay more attention to it. She's normally head to bed between 7.30 and 8 and I'll always make sure she goes to the toilet but it's not that long after she's eaten/drank. I'll check with the crèche what she drinks in the afternoon too. It's not something that I'm overly concerned about, I just always presumed that she'd be out of nappies by 4.
I can see the logic behind getting her up to use the loo when I go too but I'm not sure if I'd have the discipline to carry that out but it's certainly something I'll bare in mind - it makes sense really !!!
I know all children are individual so It's not an issue I want to force but as with everything else, there's a fine line between positive encouragement and forcing the issue!!
Anyway, I'll pay attention to the drinks in the afternoon for a while and see what I can pick up from that …

cynder

It differs, my eldest was dry at 2 my middle guy was dry at night before he was dry during the day he just tuned 3 whe he was dry during the day, and my youngest is 5 at xmas as still wears nappies/ pull ups at night, sometimes they are dry and sometimes they are wet.

Nighttime wetting is considered normal until the child is 7 after that they can be helped with medication or night time devices that wake them when they start to wet. i think that 90% of children grow out of it by the time they are 14 ( i wet the bed till i was 11 as did my dad and my half brother).

There is no point in worrying unless the child has been dry for a long period and then started wetting at night, when they start school they will be checked by the PHN if they are still wetting.

They also say if your child is thirsty dont with hold a drink. It will happen when it happens, encouragement and not discipline. If my son wets i dont make a big deal out of it, but he does get praised if he stays dry. He doesn't seem embarrassed by it at all.

If you are concerned speak to your gp.

foxinsocks

My daughter was still in pullups at night at 4, but like some of the above, we had no trouble at all with training her during the day.

The major problem that we had with her was that she's a very heavy sleeper, so if she did wet the bed, it wouldn't wake her, so by the time we got her up in the morning she'd been stewing in pee for hours. It soaked into the duvet, and covered her pjs, everything, really unpleasant for her AND us! We did use the pampers bed mats, so they mostly protected the mattress. We eventually did what the above poster did, we picked her up when WE we going to bed, and plonked her on the loo. She wouldn't even wake up honestly, she just peed, and then we carried her back to bed. She wet a couple of times after that, but then that was it, no more wet beds.

Ms. Captain M

I wouln't worry too much about it yet. My lad was still wetting at night when he was 7 so he was referred to a specialist nurse. She did say not to withhold drinks, but not to give blackcurrant.
We had to try and retrain his bladder, so during the day he had to try and hold onto his wee for as long as he could before going to the toilet. We had to keep a record of fluids in a fluids out (yes we had to measure it!), also used the alarm at night after a few months.
We were visiting her once every two months for nearly a year I think, but got there in the end. She said that it's normal enough for that age of child, but she rarely sees children older than 9 or 10 so not to worry too much.

nesf

As others have said, there've a very wide range of normality here and different kids will grow out of it at different times. It's a bit like walking, our first kid walked at 8 months, our second 14 months, both perfectly normal.

EDit

Please Kill Me wrote: »

My little lad was sleeping through the night, in pants no pull-ups or nappies, when he was 3! What we did was make him go to the toilet when he was going to bed. Then put him in. Then when WE were going to bed (11pm/midnight) we would get him out of bed and make him go again. Don't worry about them waking or not going back to sleep - they will! Then when they've gone, put them back to bed. Then - dry bed in the morning. It might take a few goes, but it sinks in. He started going himself in the middle of the night and there were no more wet beds.

Hope this helps somewhat.

This. For one of my boys it was a little later on (he was about 4.5), but essentially the concept of getting them out of bed for a wee when u are going to bed works. Did it earlier with the second child and worked a treat as well. As others have said, all children are different and i wouldn't worry about the current situation, but this is worth a try at least

stovelid

Try making the last drink an hour before bed and make sure she has a wee last thing.

dudmis

I've heard that wetting at night is more of a physiological thing rather than something they learn to do. Apparently, their kidneys need to be able to recycle waste repeatedly throughout the night and that little one's kidneys can't manage that until they are older. I'm open to correction on that though ;-)

lynski

i have a 5yr old and a 3 yr old and until 2 weeks ago they were both in nighttime pullups. the 5 yr old filled the pullups each night, sometimes 2.
So i ran out of pullups 2 weeks ago today and said ah to hell with it lets give it a go. And the 5 yr old is now dry all night and the 3 yr old just needs a lift once.
A few wet nights, but we prepared for it and even tho the 5yr old had chicken pox through this we are doing great now.
All the advice said wait until they are dry themselves, but i didn't. Also as a bonus the 5 yr old has never slept all night and, tada, is now sleeping through too.

cynder

Thats great Lynski.

sometimes i leave the pull ups off my fella sometimes he is dry other times his wet, i get a lot of dry pull ups too and he wares them the next night, he was wet 3 times in the last 10 days.

killwill

Please Kill Me wrote: »

My little lad was sleeping through the night, in pants no pull-ups or nappies, when he was 3! What we did was make him go to the toilet when he was going to bed. Then put him in. Then when WE were going to bed (11pm/midnight) we would get him out of bed and make him go again. Don't worry about them waking or not going back to sleep - they will! Then when they've gone, put them back to bed. Then - dry bed in the morning. It might take a few goes, but it sinks in. He started going himself in the middle of the night and there were no more wet beds.

Hope this helps somewhat.

I second this. Worked a treat with our daughter too.

greengirl31

Thanks for all the replies folks ... I ran out of Pull Ups last week so we bit the bullet. I've made a big deal out of the big girl pants and told the creche to give her lots to drink in the afternoon so she's not thirsty in the evening. If she asks for a drink though I give it to her. I'm lifting her out of bed to go to the toilet before I head to bed too so that seems to help cause the one night i didn't do it, she had an accident. But so far so good ...
Thanks again

cynder

Great news.


My fellas wet once in the last 10 days in pull ups every night, the night i forgot to put them on he wet, he came into my room, i stripped him of and he snugggled in bed with me... That was 4 nights ago. Fingers crossed.