The arrival of a new baby into the house can be quite a stressful experience for young children. Some children feel that they are somehow being replaced and that their parents will not love them as much as they did before the baby came. It is important to be as understanding and patient as possible – you need to adopt a ‘slowly slowly’ approach when it comes to his bedwetting. His refusal to wear his Pull-Ups may be a desire for attention (unfortunately babies do take-up a lot of our time and attention and older siblings can suffer if we are not careful) or it may be that he sees the baby wearing nappies and wishes to discard his own viewing himself now very much as the older brother. Either way I would sit him down and calmly discuss the benefits of wearing absorbent pants – explain to him that you do not want him to wake-up cold and wet in his bed. While the idea of facing additional loads of washing with a new baby must seem overwhelming to you, it is important that you do not convey this as the main reason to him. I would try him with DryNites – explaining these are only for big boys not babies show him the packaging and point out that you have to be at least 4-years-old before you are even allowed to wear them!! If these strategies fail please do not hesitate to contact me again.

Ask Dr Cathrine a question