4 year old not dry at night

daska

Do you still have a baby alarm. You could use that to establish whether/when she's getting restless at which point you can walk her to the loo and begin to build that subconscious association between a full bladder and waking up.

If she isn't getting restless then personally I don't think you should stop the pull-ups. If her full bladder isn't waking her up and she carries on sleeping even though her bed is soaking wet then the only effect of removing the pull-ups will be to give you more washing and to make her upset. Do you need that? She won't learn because she isn't conscious of what she's doing. I would wait another 6 months and then try again.

A lot of 4 year olds aren't dry at night. It's not considered a problem until they're over 7 because children develop at their own rate.

Bed mats - depends on the mat I find LOL. With DSD, who was still wetting the bed at 12 (due to stress), we kept a second duvet in a bag at the end of the bed and made the bed twice so that we could literally pull of the sheet/protector/waterproof and it was fully made underneath.

Iris_Blue

Give her time, I'm sure she will pick it up soon.



One thing, which no one has said, Is your daughter a worrier or does she have anything big going on in her life ? I'm not saying that anything is wrong but it maybe something that hasn't been thought of.

saving123

she's not normally a worrier and nothing changed in her life/big in her life going on. No house moves, me and her dad are happily married etc so dont think it could be anything like that

babymoo

My brother was around 8 years old when he finally stopped wetting the bed at night, he sleeps so deeply that he could never wake himself up when he needed to wee. In the end our GP gave him a mattress protector with an alarm fitted and that went off even with the slighest dribble, it woke him up and trained him to wake up at the same time every night to go for a wee.

liney

Bed mats are designed to go underneath the sheets and protect the mattress although they used to get moved and crumpled for me.

If you already have a plastic sheet, then i'd probably just put an old towel under the sheet to absorb the liquid and wash as needed. Save your £7 a pack, or whatever bed mats cost nowdays.

I don't know how true it is, but I heard somewhere that blackcurrant irritates the bladder, so cutting out blackcurrant squash might be worth a try if you she has it.

traleegirl

My son was nearly eight when he was finally dry, I know it frustrating but I really wouldn't worry. Just invest in a really good mattress protector and plenty of cheap sheets/pyjamas.

daska

Should point out that there are also washable mats - kylies - that go over the sheet. They seem expensive but when compared to the disposable sheets or pull-ups the costs even out very quickly - though you do have to factor in the hassle and cost of washing them.

Gorgeestwo

My son wasn't dry overnight until he was just over 5, he is also a very deep sleeper and would be soaking wet by the morning, I spoke to the school nurse who was really helpful, she suggested (as others have mentioned here) about getting him to drink more during the day, limiting fruit juice and squash and mainly sticking to water or milk. She also said not to bother lifting during the night as his brain needed to get used to recognising the signal from his bladder that its full.

We kept him in pull up's, as when he wet the bed he would get very upset and we really didn't want it to become an 'issue' for him to worry about and probably make the problem worse anyway iykwim.

It can also be to do with the levels of a hormone (vasopressin I think) and some children just take a bit longer to produce enough vasopressin to stop their kidney's producing so much urine overnight.

I used to feel like my son would never get it, but literally within a week of increasing his drinks, stopping taking him to the toilet and not worrying if he had a drink after 5.30pm he was dry and hasn't had an accident since, it probably was a coincidence and he would have been dry anyway lol but if definitely didn't do any harm
There is some good advice here http://www.eric.org.uk/Bedwetting/info_bedwetting_wetting_parents

Good luck

GobbledyGook

If you are going to go down the 'cold turkey' route then can I suggest double wrapping the bed. So do waterproof protector, sheet, waterproof protector then sheet - that way if you have to strip the bed in the night it's just a case of taking 1 layer off and getting back in instead of having to try and make the bed again. Also worth having a spare duvet on standby in case her's gets wet.

There's nothing worse than having to faff about making a bed in the middle of the night, sometimes with an upset child.

FBaby

Leave her to it. She is only 4, still plenty of time to acquire that skill which can happen at any time. My boy wasn't dry until close to 6 and didn't look like he was any close to being so, wetting the bed every single nights, pull ups or not, trying all the tips. I wasn't bothered by it, just knew his time would come but his dad was very anxious about it, which ended up stressing our boy and making him self-conscious. I had to repeat constantly that it was nothing to worry about and he would be dry when he was ready.

Sure enough, one day, out of the blue, he decided to take them off himself, and he didn't wee that night, or the one after or the one after... I think he only had 1 or 2 acccidents in the year that followed.

It's not fair to stress them about something they have no control over. It only becomes a possible concern when they are much older than 4.