3.5 YEAR OLD STILL WEARING A PULL UP TO BED

[IrishDancer]

My DD is still wearing a pullup to bed and waking up with it wet. I have tried everything from treats to stopping her last drink at 5pm to making her go for a pee at midnight,I donk know if she should be out of them by now or what! She says that she's a big girl and doesn't want to wear a pullup to bed, so when ive put her down without one the beds soaked in the morning. Will it happen when she's ready or do I need to do something to encourage the dumping of the pull up!!

thanks

[Pickle]

I think it's normal, and kids vary greatly.

My son (4.5) still wears a pullup to bed and is quite wet in the morning. He's been dry in the daytime since he was under 2.5. While he will get up to use a potty it's generally either just after he's gone to bed in the evening, or when he wakes in the morning - he simply doesn't wake up once he's in a deep sleep.

On the other hand, my daughter (nearly 3) has been dry in the night for the last 6 months or so.

[EmilyE]

think it's very normal.

Certainly my daughter didn't stop wearing pull ups till she was 5 and my nearly 4 yr old is still in them.

Apparently there's some hormone which makes people dry at night (mmm, not very technical, sorry), or at least helps them to be, and that that's acquired at differing stages in different children.

Remember reading somewhere (again, not very helpful, sorry) that a significant minority still wet at night going in to school, though that decreases significantly through the year.

Hope that's reassuring.

[Fuschia]

Agree with the others

[cuppa tea]

Yes I think it's really normal too. I think perhaps once kids go to school and they are still wet at night that parents don't talk about it out of fear...and so the 'normal' is actually not as early as we all think it is.

My friends little boy was still wet at night until he was 8, due to the hormone thing, being a very deep sleeper and not drinking enough during the day to stretch his bladder. In the end they had this alarm device that would wake him up if he did a wee! Sounds bizarre but amazingly it worked within 3 days and he was dry at night!

[tor]

Very normal indeed - my eldest wasn't dry at night until he was just over 5 years old - we thought it would NEVER happen and tried bribes, sticker charts etc. Having been through it, I now thoroughly believe they just do it when their bodies are ready.

[Jacks50]

I read somewhere that its not something that they can learn, it just happens at some point. some are earlier than others.

My son is nearly 3.5 and he's still in pullups at nights (I just got him out of them in the day a few months ago!) but I'm not worried - infact, the longer he stays in them the better, so he doesn't wake even earlier to go to the loo!

[sanity girl]

I wouldn't worry about it. My daughter was in pull-ups until almost 4, and only the last couple of months has been dry at night. I still get her up just before I go to bed to do a wee and that seems to prevent accidents. Still, waterproof mattress protectors are a must - hippychick do good ones!

[sledge]

Don't worry - very normal.

[Fuschia]

Good site:

http://www.eric.org.uk/Bedwetting/info_bedwetting_wetting_parents

[IrishDancer]

Thanks for all the comments,im glad she's not on her own out there with the pull up wearing! :):):)

[craigy]

We took away my little boys pull ups 3 days before his 4th birthday, had never had a dry nappy..

He was dry the first night which gave him a massive incentive then wet for the next 2 and then pretty much dry ever since... We work on the currency of earning smiley faces in our house which lead to a toy after about 30 and that seems to help him...

If we had waited for a dry nappy then he would be about 12 before we tried it as he knew the nappy was there so would wee I to it when he woke up rather than get up....

[ryedalema]

I agree it's totally normal and all about hormones, not a learned behaviour as such. Have you tried 'sleep wees' though? When our DD was ready we did sleep wees for a few nights.It involved basically working out from when the bed was wet, what time she 'went' in the night, then we picked her up and put her on the loo just before then. It worked really well and as she hadn't actually woken up, she had the confidence of thinking she'd acheived a dry bed in the morning - i think that really helped.