Nighttime Bedwetting

[noodlesmom]

Unsure how to help our son with bedwetting - he turns six soon & still wets almost nightly. Using Pull-ups are preferred than taking him from cold/wet sheets in the morning & waking him extra early to bathe before school. He does a great job of using the toilet during the day & Dr. found no physical impairment. He doesn't have a problem during a nap or falling asleep in the car. He uses the toilet each night as he gets himself ready for bed & we eliminate food/drink 1.5 - 2 hours before bedtime. He sometimes goes for a few days without wetting & we give lots of positive reinforcement but can't see a pattern. We don't scold unless he tries to lie about it (which isn't often at all). We tried waking him & walking to the toilet during the night but that didn't go over too well - he's a pretty deep sleeper & besides, the last thing a kid needs is frustration forced upon him in the wee hours - pardon the expression! I also wonder if that method simply reminds his little body to pee vs. reinforcing the message of not doing it in the bed. Plus, even if he did pee during the midnight tour to the toilet, he'd sometimes pee again and we'd be at square one in the morning. We gently talk to him about it & he knows it's an issue but we haven't a clue what to do next. He's getting to the age where sleepovers are allowed and I don't want him to feel embarrassed when he learns his friends don't do this. We've replaced his twin bed with a super fun/comfy bunkbed but minimal results... Replies with advice are greatly appreciated - thanks!!

[mom at home]

You described my 6 yr old to a tee. She stopped using diapers during the day around the age of 2, but has always peed (alot) at night. We also use pull-ups and until recently they've always been very full in the morning. I attribute the night wetting to two things mainly. One, she's also a very heavy sleeper and just doesn't wake up to pee, even taking her to the toilet doesn't work as she cannot wake up to go. Two, she often drinks a lot of water before bed. Because she's not a big water drinker I do not want to deny her water at any time of the day and she seems to be most wanting it at bedtime. We don't talk much about it. I know she would like to stay dry at night and is usually excited when her pullup is dry or close to dry in the morning. We've suggested that she drink more water earlier in the day so she's not so thirsty and bedtime and sometimes she remembers during the day. I think she will outgrow it eventually. Right now I'm just glad that she's not upset by it as that would make the situation a lot harder -if she wanted to stop but can't.

I guess I would suggest not making an issue of it. It seems unlikely that your son can control it and I think it will eventually run it's course. Occasionally, I wonder how long it might continue for us. For some kids it can last a long time, but I think parental support is very important.

Hoped this helped.

Alison

[Myboysmom]

Been there too

When our son was 8 he had finally had enough. We never made an issue of it but others (grandparents) did. They quit having him spend the night because even with a Goodnite Pull Up, he could still soak a bed.

We got an alarm that fit in his pullup and within a matter of months he was dry and has been dry ever since. The key was HE was ready to do more. HE was tired of wetting the bed.

[noodlesmom]

Responses

Wow, that was quick - thanks! I totally agree with not making it an issue - it comes up either when he's vocally proud of dry mornings or when he reassures us he won't need a PU that night. When he lets us know he doesn't need one, we let him party on with feeling empowered & don't give him one. That's when the stint of dry mornings comes but then goes. He gets disappointed, but we just tell him it's ok & he's not done anything wrong. The couple of times he tried to hide it, I just gave him 'the look' (you know the one, raised eyebrow or the smile that says 'you know you're not fooling me, right?') & he walked right over to his hamper & handed over the solied bedding - hasn't happened for about a year. We definitely don't lean on him to make progress and it probably will just run it's course... Thanks again and I hope to hear more.

[daylily]

My oldest is 9 and has been wetting the bed almost every night ever since he gave up diapers. I have tried not to make too big a deal out of it. I remember that my brother used to wet the bed and my parents used to get pretty angry with him and the bed alarm never worked for him. I always took him to the bathroom before I would go to bed but this didn't help. I tried setting an alarm clock for 1:00Am so he'd wake up and go to the bathroom, but this didn't really work. He'd either already have wet the bed or he would deliberately turn off the alarm before getting into bed because he didn't want to be awakened. Then I read somewhere (possibly in Mothering) that dairy allergy is a common cause of bedwetting. My son was unwilling to give up milk completely; he really likes cereal with milk on it but we decided that he would consume milk only in the morning. Since then there's been a dramatic improvement. He now wets the bed once or twice a week rather than 6 or 7 times a week and often on the nights he has wet he's either accidentally drunk milk in the afternoon or was sick which I have observed will sometimes cause kids to wet the bed.

[LEmama]

I just wanted to mention food allergies, too. Bedwtting is a sign of food allergy, especially to milk. My six year old boy wets the bed if he consumes too much dairy. You might want to eliminate/reduce dairy in your son's diet - even just for two weeks - to see if things improve. Our children love Imagine Vanilla Enriched Rice or Soy Dream on their cereal. Good Luck!

[lauren]

These posts also completely describe my 6 y.o. son. His dr. told me that at his age, 5% of children still have this problem. It sounds like all of us are doing the right thing in just waiting it out. My son also would really like to be dry, on his own accord, not because we have ever made him feel bad. He has recently asked for us to get the alarm thing and I'm waiting a little while because it's $60 and want to make sure he's ready. He hardly eats ANY dairy and never has. He's always been a water drinker and doesn't like cheese or even soymilk. Does anyone know if it is associated with any other allergies?

[sleepies]

is there medicine you can get him? or maybe you are against medicines...because i reallllly don't like giving kids pills, but maybe in this case.

i had to pee about every 15 minutes after my first baby was born.

my bladder kept contraction. so i had to go a LOT

so my dr gave me pills.

they decrease the contractions of the bladder

you only have to take them for a month or two, and then you stop.

your body LEARNS not to have so many contractions.


good luck

[sleepies]

PS

ME AGAIN


also, maybe put a llittle potty chair in his room

or a jar or something

he might just be afraid or tired and doesn't want to walk into another room

let him pee in a container. better than ruining the matress and making hte house smelly

[sagewinna]

My son wet the bed at that age once in a while. He just slept very deeply and couldn't wake up enough to find his way to the bathroom. I still keep a waterproof mattress protector on the bed, so, on the rare occasion it happens now (He is 7) we just peel off the wet stuff and throw on some dry bedding. It's only happened once in the last 6 months or so.

It did improve dramatically when I cut dairy out of his diet, due to other symptoms. I didn't read about the connection until afterward.


He will outgrow it. It's normal.

[noodlesmom]

Wow - I sure haven't been here in a while!

Not sure if anyone will find this message since this thread is so old, but if someone's diggin in archives... After about a year, the bedwetting it really took it's toll on our son - who is about to turn 9 in December and is doing great. A girlfriend suggested a nasal spray called Desmopressin. IT WAS A MIRACLE! I reeeeeally don't like giving meds if I can avoid it at all, so I was hesitant to ask the dr. but man, what a difference and it only took a month. Our doc made sure we tried everything under the sun before prescribing it too - we'd shared our progress with him over time, so he was in the loop - so nice to have a doc who doesn't jump to meds right away. Our son was overjoyed and had maybe two accidents in the year following. We still have a plastic zippered cover on his bed, but it sure was nice to see him smile in the morning and tell me his bed was dry. Take care and thanks again for all the good advice.

[Richie'sMama]

Four yo and bed wetting

My 4 yo ds was dry at night until this summer. I wonder if it's because of dairy allergies. We'll try not to eat yogurt or have smoothies at night and see if that makes a difference.
Thanks!