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My seven year old son has never had a dry nappy
Question:
My 7 year old son has never had a dry nappy at night. We've been referred to the continence service at the hospital but there is about an 8 month waiting list. Should I stop putting him in a nappy at night? Is this likely to help or not make any difference? I have tried for a few nights at a time in the past but he still wet the bed. We have mattress protectors and I don't mind washing every day.
Answer(s):
Seven is a great age for children to start working on becoming dry as the brain/bladder connection is more developed. There are several reasons why children are bed wetters. They tend to be deep sleepers and don’t wake when their bladder is full, the hormone that stops us making so much urine at night has not matured in them, and the most common reason I see children is that their bladder capacity is not as big as it should be. It would be handy if your son could measure his urine a couple of times – not when he is busting, just with a normal urge to go to the toilet. I would expect him to be passing about 210 – 140ml. If his measures are a lot smaller than that he should then follow a drinking/toileting schedule to increase his bladder capacity.As for the pull-ups. Keep him in them for a few more weeks until his bladder size has started increasing. Initially children wet more when commencing a bladder retraining programme. Once he is in the swing of it, you can stop him wearing them as it will enhance his awareness that he is wetting.
