'Me time'

And tegan is right about the development, or otherwise, of night-time bladder control. That's something else not to be judgmental about.

I wouldn't (and didn't) do what this mother has done.

I think they are carefully posed photographs, that the photographer has taken multiple shots of the child looking everything from delighted to bored and everything in between, and then that the photographer has chosen the what s/he regards as the most emotive pics for the article.

I think that in the one of the mother and child the mother is having to arrange her face carefully so as not to smile.

I suspect that the child does not use her dummy very often during the day but, even if she does, so what? What surprises me in some of the reactions to the article is that anyone is surprised by the picture of a just four year old with a dummy in its mouth, as if childhood dummy-sucking were the absolute pit of disgustingness. This, to me, shows a lot of prejudice against children and a lot of unreasonable adult expectations of What Children Of Four Years Old Should Be Like.

In short, a lot of the comments are too judgmental for my taste.

So yes, those pics are acceptable. What's wrong with them? They illustrate the very contrived article (I hesitate to call it journalism) very well.

Not in the context of the nightime nappies but perhaps in other ways. Children only become dry at night when their bodies are capable of being so [unless there's an emotional problem of some kind]. Thought one of my grandchildren would never come out of nappies at night, whereas the other one was just dry without anyone doing anything at all; nappies were just bone dry every morning.

I don't agree that the mother has kept the child a baby eithe, but you haven't said whether you think the posed photos are acceptable, thatbags - sad face in the first one, dummy in the second one...

I don't agree that she has kept the child a baby. The child seems like a normal four year old to me.

I was horrified by this article. How could a mum put such a picture of her wee girl in the paper? That article will be around on the world wide web forever. It is no longer just tomorrow's fish and chip paper. Of course if mum needs to work she could find a lovely childminder who will give her little girl some care and attention but surely she could find something other than her daughter to write about.

None of what I wrote was directed at an individual. Nor was any of uncivil. It is just straighforward facts expressed, I have to admit, in a somewhat impatient way because several people commented on the nappy thing even though it was quite clear from the article that the child was out of nappies except at night.

It cannot be news to anyone that some children wet the bed well beyond the age when most stop night-time wetting.

LizG; your previous comment about keeping the child as a baby has hit the nail on the head [taken in the context of the whole article]. She wanted to 'enjoy' the early years of one of her children, so had another child so as to do so, but has tried to keep the poor little girl as a baby..until she's got fed up with it. Quite scary stuff imo.

I have obviously been very lucky not coming across nocturnal enuresis thatbags and no, I would not write about it in the Daily Mail and smother the pages with embarrasing photographs of my children either. This is positively the last time I will take part in a slightly contentious discussion as it would appear you are totally incapable of being civil 'END OF'

One of my GDs also has it, and she's 7. Doesn't bother her, nor does it affect her life as she hasn't gone to sleepovers other than with family members.

I don't think she'd want attention drawn to it in a newspaper article though!

Soppy woman, lousy writer – I couldn't be bothered to read the whole article.

Sheesh! It makes me cross when people seem to blame parents for the common and normal childhood problem of bed-wetting. If none of your kids suffered from it, you're lucky. End of.

And there's damn all you can do about it.

Which is VERY COMMON.

The child only has nocturnal enuresis.

Mind you, the way the article is written doesn't help.

You can't "train" enuresis! The child is toilet trained!

I do wish people would stop twisting things.

That's nice, thatbags. Some schools don't allow any toys to be brought in, even in the reception class!

My youngest daughter was a June baby and because of the rules at the time she was four when starting school. We had no option. At the time I felt she was too young and I still feel it now. However she is now, probably the most well adjusted adult you could ever hope to meet. She abandoned her dummy at 6 months, was well dry at night when starting school, could read starter books, use a knife and fork and tie shoe laces from her first schoolday. (I do hope she never comes on here or she will kill me )

Ms Shobary wants her cake as well as eating it. She has kept her daughter a baby over-long yet wants to turf her out for someone else to train.

And many (not just several, many) kids at DD's nursery and reception class brought their favourite soft toy to school. She didn't because she sucked her thumb and didn't have a favourite toy.

A four year old is not much more than a baby, for goodness' sake.

Yes. Why not? Lots of kids suck their thumbs at that age and older – essentially no different.

So you find the dummy photo acceptable then?

Oh pish! As if...