5 year old peeing a lot at night

[sbrinton]

My oldest son is 5.5. He's been potty trained during the day for over three years, but he's still wet at night. He's trying hard and we're trying to figure out if there's anything we can do to help him stay dry. Any help?

[Earthy Mama]

in relation to when he goes to bed, what time does he have his last drink and how much?

[annamama]

My DS is also 5.5 and has never been dry at night.We had a routine 'hi, nice to meet you' appt with the school nurse and I reluctantly mentioned it to her.
Her feeling was that because he had never been dry, it wasn't that he wouldn't be dry, but that he couldn't be dry. She thinks that he is lacking enough of the nighttime hormone that makes us store up and concentrate our urine whilst we sleep.

She said that we can give him tablets to increase the level of the hormone, but none of us really liked that option.
She's confident that it will happen in time and as he ages. Her argument is that it's all about brain development and as he's exceeding all other milestones, we could cut him some slack in this area.

There mentioned lots of other reasons that can cause it - off the top of my head, she mentioned an irritable bladder (they wee loads during the day - like 15 times), lacking this night hormone or being really deep sleepers so that the signal goes to the brain but they don't wake up.

All in all, she said that if we were very concerned, by all means go to the Dr and discuss a remedy (meds, mattress alarm/whatever), but failing that, she would meet us again in September to see where we are.
I was so surprised at how laidback she was about it all - I really didn't want to talk to her about it for fear of getting the shock/horror/really? Still? reaction, but not at all - she was unsurprised and chilled about it.
She did stress the importance of getting his fluids spread out through the day - downing a pint of water at 6pm wasn't going to help him get dry, regardless of hormone levels.

[hillymum]

My middle son wasn't dry through the night until after he turned 7 and my youngest is almost 6 and not dry at night. My husbands amily were all older before they were dry at night. It really is not that uncommon. I chose not to make a deal of it until my middle son wanted to do sleepovers. At that point he wanted to stop wearing pull ups so after a few accidents he was able to stay dry.

[sbrinton]

I really don't know how it all works, but it seems like his body is used to peeing a lot at night. When he was first potty trained and in preschool, he learned to hold it for a long time during the day. He eventually told us he was trying to hold it all day and then go in his diaper at night.

He doesn't do that anymore, but I think his body is used to peeing a lot at night.

We're trying to encourage him to use the potty more frequently in the day and then several times before bed. We're also trying to limit fluids after about 5 pm.

He stayed dry last night!! It's been 1-2 nights/week dry.

Practically, I want to keep him in cloth diapers/cloth training pants at night. I'm tired of pull ups. But I also don't want to change the sheets every day. Any suggestions for dealing with accidents?

[littlehoneybee]

My 5 year old son had never been dry at night until a few weeks ago when I bought an alarm. He was such a deep sleeper and I discovered he was wetting up to four times per night. It's still a work in progress, but he's staying dry a couple of nights per week now.

He wears regular underwear with the alarm attached and then pull ups over the underwear. The underwear allows him to feel wet and the pullups save me from having to change his PJs and sheets. I also use a large waterproof pad that goes on top of the bottomsheet. If we have a leak, all I have to change is the pad.

[tatermom]

My 5.5 year old pees a ton at night (he usually soaks through a pull up in the night and often leaks) and is a very deep sleeper. I take him to the bathroom before I go to bed and I have to drag him out of his bed and lug him over to the toilet; he so sound asleep he won't even wake up when standing in front of the toilet peeing. My husband wet the bed until late childhood so we're expecting it will be several years before DS is able to stay dry during the night and/or wake himself up to go to the bathroom on his own.

Is your DS able to wake himself up in the night when he has to pee or does he sleep as deeply as my DS? I suspect that's one of the biggest factors, along with bladder maturation.

[NicaG]

Same situation here--ds just turned 5, has never been dry at night, not even one night. I just talked to our pedi about it last week, she was also very laid back and said some kids just can't stay dry at night until 7 or even later, for all the reasons already discussed here (family history, hormone, deep sleep, etc.). She also emphasized that ds should try to spread out his liquids/drinking earlier in the day, with nothing after 6. She also said that it's not really possible to "work on" staying dry until ds is dry about 50% of the time at night, so he has some awareness of how to do it and can figure out how to do it more often.

[Drummer's Wife]

My 5 yo DS still pees at night, too - I just put him in a diaper/pull-up and call it good. I know from experience with my older two kids, that they will be dry overnight when they're ready.