Hi. My boy turns 5 in less than a month, and has been day toilet trained for about 2 years now. It has only been a week since he has been out of night time nappies. He used to wake up every morning with a very full nappy, which has made me delay taking him out of them at night. We dont use night pants...went straight to undies.
My question is, how do i go about training my boy to stay dry during the night? So far, i have been waking him every 2-3 hours during the night to go to the bathroom. If i leave him past 3 hours without a trip, he will wet himself. It is not easy for myself, nor him, to wake up every 2-3 hours, and im not sure whether this is the right thing to do or not. He is a very heavy sleeper, and will not wake even if he has wet himself. Please i need your advise on what the best way to train at night is.
Thankyou
It is perfectly normal for a 5-year-old boy to be still wetting at night, with about 1 in 5 children continuing to do so at age 6. While the majority of bedwetting cases result from neurphysiological delay or low hormone levels there are a small percentage that result from some physical abnormality like an overactive bladder, small bladder capacity or a medical issue so it is always important to rule this out first. Unlike toilet training, which is conscious and deliberate, nighttime bladder control is more dependent on maturation of children’s nervous systems and bladder so it is much more challenging to train a child a night. Training at night usually involves the use of a conditioning alarm (also commonly referred to as a bedwetting alarm), this works by helping your son learn to recognise the need to pass urine and either wake-up and go to the toilet or learn to hold on until morning. With respect to the waking/lifting, this is typically seen as a practical approach to managing children’s bedwetting in the short-term only but does little to help them to become dry on their own and often results in an overtired and cranky child (and parent!). Lifting at night means children do not get the chance to get used to the signals that the bladder sends to the brain telling them to wake-up and empty their bladder nor does the bladder have the opportunity to stretch and develop. One of the best indicators that a child is moving toward achieving nighttime continence is an increase in the number of mornings where he wakes-up dry. Until then it is perfectly fine for you to use DryNites to help manage his bedwetting and avoid the stress associated with dealing with constant wet sheets.
Regards,
Dr Cathrine
Comments
Be the first to post a comment
Add a comment