Advice: 6 year old dd still bed wetting....

[echowarrior]

She just turned 6. It has never been an issues for her before. All summer she ran around the house in her pull-up or "dipe" as she calls it, every night. Even during sleep overs with her cousins or friends she wore it proudly! I have noticed a change in her maturity or the past month or so. It's like she transitioned from a little girl to a.big girl. So she is asking why she is still bed wetting. Part of her liked to wear the dipes because it made her a baby still but I think that the baby thing isn't so fun anymore and she is ready to be dry at night! And to be honest I am ready to be done buying pull-ups, sheesh they are pricey! So my sister was telling me about an alarm that goes on her dipe or something. Had anybody used one of these? What other options do we have? Should I be worried? I really don't want to go see a specialist, she does not like going to the doctor and I feel like this is starting to embarrass the poor kid. Dh and I have never said anything negative to her about it, just told her that everyone is different and her body will stop bed wetting when it is ready. Any advice is appreciated.

[colsxjack]

I would tell her that all night is a long time to hold your pee and many 6, 7 or 8 yr olds still have a hard time doing so.

Then I would ask her if she would like some help staying dry and getting rid of the dipes. If she says yes, then do what you can to help her.

Get her to work on holding it for a bit during the day.

Get her to go pee just before bed.

Limit drinks before bed.

Maybe wake her to have a pee before you go to bed.

Buy a rubber sheet to protect her bed nd let her know that there will be accidents while she perfects her ability.

And then just see how it goes.

Eventually she will be able to hold it over night.

[SweetSilver]

Most accidents for my accident-prone younger daughter happened within 1-1.5 hours of her going to bed.  She simply couldn't wake herself up.  She still has a hard time alerting me, though she tries.  One night she managed to get a "Bah--uh" out.  She can't even wake up enough most times to say something.  Her father had an even worse time when he was as old as 8 and can remember having to wear those awful plastic pants we all grew up with.  He, too, could not wake up.  

I still have to carry my just-6 yo to the potty at night, but at least she can hold herself up now.  Slowly, slowly.  Looking forward to when she can wake up enough to walk, she almost to 50 lbs!

[LynnS6]

Kids' bodies mature at different times. I would try a couple of nights without the pull-up to see if she's ready. If she's not, just go back to it and tray again in 6 months. I'd tell her that some kids' bodies are ready to go all night without peeing when they're 2 or 3, and other kids aren't ready until they're closer to 10. Doctors won't do anything for a 6 year old bed wetter, because it's still within the range of normal. It's not until they get close to puberty that it becomes an issue. I have relatives who bed wet until puberty. Our son was a bed wetter until about 8 1/2. It's really no big deal.

[echowarrior]

Ok, thanks. I know all of this. I guess I'm just starting to feel bad that she'd is getting embarrassed about it.

[Steve Hodges]

Most cases are due to occult constipation and can be fixed. Google "bedwetting" and "Hodges" or '"O'Regan" for the research, or see the Slate article.

[emilyfaith]

My son is four and still wears a pull-up at night. He went for a year dry all night (2.5-3.5 years old) then we moved and he seemed to revert back to wetting the bed. I'm not too concerned about that but he has started having accidents during the day a lot. What should I do? It seems no big deal to him. It doesn't seem to matter where we are although it does happen more at preschool/church. We talk about it and he usually has to help do the dirty laundry. He seems like he just wants to play in wet stinky pants instead of going to the bathroom. Would love any suggestions
 

[AshS]

I think your sister was referring to a bedwetting alarm. They go off whenever your LO wets, which conditions their brain to respond to a full bladder. The process usually takes a couple months but it'll solve the wetting. Most alarms attach to the outside of underwear, so your dd may need to switch to briefs for the time being. Or she could use an Eclipse which is one of the wireless alarms. You just cut a hole in the dipper and slip the alarm sensor in. You can find all the bedwetting alarm models here. Good luck!

[AshS]

I think your sister was referring to a bedwetting alarm. They go off whenever your LO wets, which conditions their brain to respond to a full bladder. The process usually takes a couple months but it'll solve the wetting. Most alarms attach to the outside of underwear, so your dd may need to switch to briefs for the time being. Or she could use an Eclipse which is one of the wireless alarms. You just cut a hole in the dipper and slip the alarm sensor in. You can find all the bedwetting alarm models here. Good luck!

[girlfromthenc]

I have been going through the same thing with my 7yo son, and just in the past few weeks, we found out some new info about it. Apparently my son has sleep apnea, and for some reason, children with apnea have a very difficult time staying dry at night. Most cases of sleep apnea in children are related to enlarged tonsils. We saw a really great and friendly ENT this week, and she said that whenever a child is bedwetting over age 5 and snoring, sleep apnea should be ruled out. I have no idea if your DD snores, but I wanted to throw this out there. I really wish that my son had been diagnosed sooner. He's having a wide array of issues stemming from it, and they could have been avoided if we found this out sooner. Good luck!

[Tizzy]

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Edited by Tizzy - 11/26/12 at 12:17pm

[Tizzy]

I deleted my previous post for various reasons but thought an update could be helpful!
My oldest who just turned 6 has had very few dry nights. It started to really bother him so I played around with some homeopathic and home remedies, took him for a couple chiropractic adjustments and tried the taking him to the bathroom a couple times overnight. None of these worked, waking him up was traumatic for everyone. Finally I found a 2nd hand Malem alarm and after a challenging three weeks he is dry and rarely even gets up to use the bathroom overnight! Now for him he had no daytime issues and has exceptional bladder control otherwise but I highly recommend the alarm.

[NoraC]

My daughter at 6.5 was still regularly wetting her bed at night. I read a book called "Stop Washing the Sheets" by Dr. Lane Robson and used some of the suggestions to help her and it did help tremendously. It's been a while since I read the book but a few of the main things were increasing bowel health  with more fiber even using stool softener, making it a point to sit on the toilet early in the day and not trying to be rushed about it as a start and also encouraging more drinking earlier in the day rather than filling up with liquids in the later part of the day. Quite possibly, my daughter was already on her way to staying dry at night. She'd said that she didn't want to get up because it was too cold -- we looked for warmer pajamas-- and she thought she might wake us up if she flushed the toilet at night -- said not to worry about it. So these other few things helped to put it all together for us. Good luck!