Night training (3yo) - how long does it take?

[Peaceangels]

Just need some reassurance from other mums who have successfully night t.trained a 3y.o. (DS1 has been fully trained during the day for almost a year now).

For the past 4-5months he goes to the toilet before bed, then we get him up when we go to bed to do a wee, but he still wet's the bed at least once a week.

Is there any other tactic's we should be trying? Is this normal? (have tried dry nites, but he seems to fill them - like he is waiting till bed time to go).

Thanks in advance :hugs:

[draught]

Ness - I have no advice because my nearly 4 year old has been day trained for a year but still has a wet nappy two or three times a week. Just when we think we have a break through and have a dry nappy for a few nights we then have a wet leaking one that wakes her in the night. So I will watch for any tips people have as I need them too!

[MammaMia]

We found that we had the best success when we just bit the bullet - and removed all nappies/dry nites. That way there was no "baby" concepts and easy ways to do wees in things rather than toilets ie there was a consequence in the form of wet PJs, and sheets etc.

Yes, we had some wet nights - but that also taught DS to get himself up from bed & take himself to the toilet during the night if he needed to. DS didn't like the sensation. He was never in trouble - we just cleaned him & the bed up and explained that he needs to take himself off to the toilet. We just had 2 rubber mattress protectors (for rotating) and had spare night changes in the cupboard in his room to make it faster (sheets/PJs as required).

We had a relapse for a little while when DD was born (DS was 3years and 2 months at that point) - but we figured there was a big adjustment. He had started going through the night before he turned 3yo.

DS does great now - takes himself off to the toilet in the middle of the night. He has a little torch by his bed.

I think it is one of those things you just have to make your way through with time & patience.

[the_queen]

It's a physiological issue - a child's brain will at some point begin producing a hormone which concentrates the urine, and allows them to "hold it" for longer, and allows their bladder to automatically "hold it" while they're asleep. Some kids start producing this hormone at 2yo (my daughter's best friend has never had a wet bed at night ever, she went straight from full-time nappies to full-time knickers at 2yo) and other kids don't start producing the hormone until 4 or 5. My 5.5 yr old has never had a dry night. I think it can help slightly to empty the bladder before bed, but to be honest (and I've spoken to doctors about this) it is not possible to teach them to be dry at night. A child who has started producing this hormone WILL wake up when their bladder needs emptying. A child who hasn't got this hormone yet, is not physically capable of waking when their bladder needs emptying. Their body just empties it, automatically.
Sometimes you can start doing something and then co-incidentally they start being night-dry. But it isn't something YOU can control. It isn't even something the child can control.
The doctor said it to me like this: It's like saying "Why doesn't my 12 yr old have her period yet? Can't I somehow make her get it?"
I use cloth nappies for DS, and I've got cloth night-knickers for DD. If she's not night-dry by age 7, our doctor will start doing some physical tests.

[choplits mum]

my dd was dry at 2yrs, then she got a sick and was up all night, which took us back to wetting the bed, so i stuck her back in nappies.
Then it was winter ( i never tried in winter because of having to wash the doona everytime, summer is easier) so we waited for next summer but had to go to UK (winter) for a month ... aaarrrggh!
DD is now 5 and has only been completely dry for about 3 months at night.
We were doing the whole putting her on the toilet at 10pm, but I am now 5 months pregnant and couldn't physically do it anymore, so we bit the bullet and she has wet only once!
:reindeer: It feels a great relief...just got to do it all over again now next year with no2!

[BeachBaby3]

i agree with the_queen, my DS2 is 5 1/2 and is still not dry overnight. I worked with a continence adviser for a while and she said the same thing about the hormone. She also said that there is a muscle around the bladder neck ( detrusor) that develops at different rates.

There is no proven 'cure'. You can go cold turkey, we did and were up every night for 2 weeks by which time DS was exhausted so we went back to drynites. Or you can let him develop at his own rate. Try not to compare him with others. Apparently my brother still wet the bed until he was 8yrs then just stopped.

[Ky]

My dd is nearly 6 and still in night nappies (the aldi training pants) and is wet every morning. She just doesn't realise that she is weeing during the night and has only ever had a couple of dry nights and they are usually the ones where she has woken in the night from a bad dream or been up vomiting and is dehydrated anyway!

My ds is nearly 4 and is dry most nights. He has only been day trained for 6 months but was having dry nights before that.

There is no rhyme or reason as to when our children will be night dry - it truely is a hormonal thing! I have friends who the entire 4 kids in the family were wetting constantly until they were teenagers and then it suddenly stopped. These was nothing physically wrong with the, they were psychologically undisturbed ... it had just run in the family like that for many generations! They have now found a similar pattern with their own kids.

My rule of thumb is that if there are 10 dry nappies in a row, then I will try putting them ot bed in undies ... I don't want to make a rod for my own back with wet beds every morning, getting them up a couple of times a night to go to the toilet etc. My siser did this and is still taking her nearly 8yo to the toilet twice a night - she is utterly exhausted!