Nighttime wetness

[juliajaj]

My 6-year-old daughter has been having problems staying dry through the night. Occasionally she does stay dry, but the majority of the time she's wet when she wakes up. I used to put her in thick underwear at night but she has very sensitive skin & would have a bad rash in the morning. I ended up switching to Pullups which has helped with the rash, but obviously doesn't help her stay dry. My daughter has sensory integration issues, so I think that might be part of the issue. She's 100% daytime trained & has been since she was 3. She's also a solid sleeper, so she's probably not alert to the sensation when she's going at night.

I've asked our ped about it & she said to stop using the Pullups & put a Chux type pad in her underwear when she goes to bed. Also, she said to have her help with the clean up (getting new underwear & pad, changing bed sheets, putting dirty sheets, underwear, and pad in bucket, etc.) She also said the potty pager alarm helps, so I'm going to check into that. I'm trying to figure out at what point is she wetting herself. The doctor said to wake her up a couple of hours after she goes to bed & have her go potty. The drawback to this is it doesn't really train her to wake herself up. I wake up 2 hours before she does, so I'm going to see if she's wet at that time or if she's dry (maybe she's wetting herself as her body starts waking up but she's too sleepy to be fully aware of it). The doctor also said there's medication that can be used (DDAVP) but only works for that night that you take it. She didn't recommend taking it very often since it tends to dehydrate. She said monitoring/cutting back on fluids don't stop nighttime wetness that much.

So, right now I'm going to check into Chux pads, look into the price of the potty alarm, and figure out when she's wetting herself (at night or early AM before her body is completely awake). I'm also curious about a connection between dairy sensitivity and nighttime wetness. I read about the connection & my daughter does have some dairy sensitivity symptoms. I'm not sure if I completely believe the connection, but it's something else to check into.

I thought I'd post a question here to see if anyone else has ideas/suggestions for getting thru the nighttime wetness issue especially when dealing with a child that has special needs. Does anyone have any input about the dairy sensitivity/nighttime wetness issue. Also, where can I purchase Chux pads or something similar since I've never used them. Thanks.

[Shanny2032]

My daughter is only 21 months and potty trained so I'm not speaking from motherhood experience, but as someone who has had bladder issues my entire life I am very sensitive to these issues. With your daughter it really does not sound like this is a behavioral issue (to me and I am not a professional) and I think that using the underpants with pad (so she "feels" wet presumably) and making her clean up sounds like a punishment of sorts to me (not to mention torture for the whole family in the middle of the night). It makes much more sense to me to wake her - more than once if needed once you figure out when she seems to go - to use the restroom. I DO think this can condition her to eventually wake on her own, just like a baby who gets fed everynight when he wakes at a certain time - it becomes habit for her mind and her body. It may take a while for her to start waking on her own and she may still need help since she will be 1/2 asleep but I think I would try that route before any others. I have also heard from many very high functioning adults that they had nighttime wetness until they were 7,8 10 years old so I don't think it is a precursor to lifetime bedwetting!