Dr Catherine
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Girl
4-7 years

My daughter has been toilet trained for about 2 years but she has always worn nappy pants to bed and wet them every night. We have just decided to train her overnight by removing the nappies, however she has wet the bed every night except 1 over approximately 2 weeks. She is 5 years old. We are wondering what we should try next to help her overnight. Thanks

The time between achieving daytime control and nighttime continence can vary from child to child. While some children will become dry at night within a few weeks or months of being trained during the day, others may take years, with about 1 in 5 children your daughters age continuing to wet the bed at night on a regular basis. Unfortunately nighttime continence does not work in the same way as daytime training – nighttime wetting typically happens when children are asleep and are not in conscious control over their bladder, making it more difficult to train a child to become dry at night. You can certainly help your daughter by making sure she doesn't get overtired (as this will make it harder for her to wake in response to a full bladder), encourage her to drink water regularly throughout the day and reduce the amount she drinks after dinner. Time is usually the best way to deal with nighttime wetting; the best indicator of readiness is an increase in the number of consecutive nights your daughter wakes up dry until then it is perfectly fine to keep her in DryNites. All the best, Dr Cathrine