Withhold Milk / Bed Wetting or Not???

[thedomesticdiva]

My ds (10) has figured out that milk causes his bed-wetting, but he does not want to quit drinking it. He does not wet the bed when he only drinks kefir.

Our milk is great raw milk. He says he misses drinking it - he was a huge cereal-eater before TF. He does not complain about no cereal, but wants the milk.

My question is - if he is ok w/ bedwetting, is it causing any other damage?

He is perfectly healthy otherwise. He is a great eater, and not picky at all -He eats tons of veggies, good fats, good meat, and kefir.

What would you do?

[MamaTessa]

That's very interesting. My DS has a problem with bedwetting, but we have never attributed it to milk, maybe we need to do a test run!

I would suggest having him cut out milk for a week or so, and see what happens. It may be just a coincidence.

If it does turn out to be the milk for sure, I would probably try to cut it out for a month or two and then try to gradually add it back and see if the BW comes back or not.

[thedomesticdiva]

I had posted a while back about my son being cured by TF - the other mamas mentioned milk and I was skeptical - so I talked with him about it, and he decided he wanted to drink the milk and see - he wet that night - he had never been "dry" before because he had never been without milk.

Now time has passed and everytime he drinks milk he will wet that night.

I just wonder if it is "bad for him" other than the bedwetting.

I have never made an issue about BW so he is not embarrassed by it at all.

[Pookietooth]

I wet the bed a lot as a kid, and I went on to develop PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome) and sleep apnea. While your ds is not going to develop PCOS being a boy, he could get syndrome X, which both men and women get, and diabetes. I think for me, dairy is a big trigger, and now that it's out of my life, my sleep apnea is better (the PCOS is still here but better too). I read awhile back that bed wetting in later childhood is linked to sleep apnea later in life, so I'm guessing that both are a type of sleep disorder and may both be triggered by the same problem. I think if it's causing bed wetting, that it's a sign that it's disturbing the brain. But I don't think any of that has been proven either way. Could you perhaps try some of the fancy Houston's enzymes (Peptizyde) or another that has DPP-IV? See:
http://enzymestuff.com/dietsgfcf.htm#7
http://www.houstonni.com/

[kjbrown92]

In my opinion, if it's making him wet the bed, then it is probably wreaking havoc on some other system in his body (most likely his intestines). My DS was milk/soy intolerant as an infant and he supposedly outgrew them when challenged at 13 months. If was still wetting the bed when he was 6, and the ped. said it was normal. For some reason I suddenly connected the dots, took out the milk, and the bedwetting stopped completely. I added it back in as a challenge, he wet the bed that night. I also noticed when he stopped the milk that his behavior was better, attention span was better, etc. Things I didn't even connect to milk. I went to a parent-teacher conference and she said that DS was paying attention much better and was quieter than he had been at the beginning of the year, and I asked when, she said late November, which was when I took him off dairy. You never know. Milk could be affecting him in more ways than just his bladder.
K

[kristenburgess]

I think in your case I would have him stop the milk for a few weeks and see how he does entirely. Do other issues go away? Does he feel better? Then consider.

I sort of wish bedwetting was caused by dairy for us. But we were dairy free a year and had wet beds pretty much every night. As we do now. I'm tired of buying pullups for three kids every night. I'm tired of bedwetting.

[LoMaH]

Hi all
It's happened here as well- bedwetting and milk.
Supposedly if you increase calcium, you should increase magnesium (although I thought the milk was supposed to have mag)...
What I've done is increase magnesium.
Natural Calm- 1/4 tsp or so right b4 bed.
My ds's 7, btw.

HTH

[Ruthla]

Was he wetting the bed drinking raw milk, or was bed-wetting related to milk consumption before you started drinking raw milk?

[thedomesticdiva]

Ruthla,
He always wet the bed - literally never a dry night for 8+ years - we have been doing raw milk for about a year, but he stopped drinking milk when we stopped cereal and started SF porridge in the AM.

Do you think raw milk has something to do with it because my husband feels "wierd" when he drinks the raw milk. I have been wondering about all of this.

Thanks for any input.

[Ruthla]

I was wondering if maybe he had a bad reaction to pasturized milk, then there's a possibility that he wouldn't react the same to the raw milk. But if the raw milk is causing bedwetting, and cutting out the milk stops the bedwetting, then I'd stop feeding him milk. As others have stated, it's not JUST about the bedwetting- it's that bedwetting is a sign that this food isnt' good for him and may be causing other health problems.

[tanyalynn]

Sara, have you gone over to Allergies? Bed-wetting seems to come up at lot with regards to allergenic foods. My daughter (albeit a lot younger, 3.5) stopped bedwetting within a week or so of eliminating gluten. And I _do_ think it's something that runs in my husband's family, so I think it's probably gone permanently for us. I saw other things at the same time: dark rings under her eyes that lightened (though they didn't go away entirely), swollen tonsils that went back to normal size, better sleep/the return of daytime naps, and normal (vs extra-squishy) poop. I think the gluten is doing something negative throughout her system.

[caedmyn]

Originally Posted by Skrimpy

I think in your case I would have him stop the milk for a few weeks and see how he does entirely. Do other issues go away? Does he feel better? Then consider.

I sort of wish bedwetting was caused by dairy for us. But we were dairy free a year and had wet beds pretty much every night. As we do now. I'm tired of buying pullups for three kids every night. I'm tired of bedwetting.

You might look into food chemical sensitivity--a naturally occurring food chemical called salicylates can cause bedwetting. They cause my DD to pee more, although she was in diapers at the time we tested them so it wasn't too big of an issue. www.fedupwithfoodadditives.info

[sunnygir1]

Originally Posted by LoMaH

Hi all
It's happened here as well- bedwetting and milk.
Supposedly if you increase calcium, you should increase magnesium (although I thought the milk was supposed to have mag)...
What I've done is increase magnesium.
Natural Calm- 1/4 tsp or so right b4 bed.
My ds's 7, btw.

HTH

If you are going to supplement with magnesium, I suggest that you do so gradually because it can cause loose stools. Start with a low dose and gradually increase it as needed.