[bumpkin]

Hello All,

I thought I would tap into this endless source of infor for help.

My 6 1/2 year old son is still bedwetting at night. About Christmas time we started having him go to bed without a pull up and we would get him up at 11 to tinkle and then he was dry through the night !!!! YEAH we thought we were on our way. However, about a month ago he started soaking the bed between 11 and the morning.

Last night he soaked the bed before 11 - got up at 11 and tinkled (change of bed, change of clothes) and then tinkled again in his bed before 4:30 at night!!!!!

We are not really worried about it medically, we know boys in particular vary with this issue, but it's just too much laundry and the pullups he was using before Xmas didn't help much either - soaked right through them. It's also starting to bother him more and he wants to be sure none of his friends know.

To answer your next questions. He does not drink alot - comes home from school and has a snack and a drink (he is thirsty at this time) and then has a small drink with dinner and sometimes doesn't even finish it.

He also occassionally has "accidents" during the day when he is playing and doesn't want to come in etc... Poor thing, he just hasn't been "caught" by his friends yet. I'm just waiting for that to happen - he'll be absolutely mortified.

Any ideas? His pediatrician says they don't usually do anything till 7 (pills to keep him dry at night or some sort of sensor device that gets him up). i'm not anxious to try either of these methods.

Can you help me???

Bumpkin

[lambeausam]

Hey Bumpkin - Been there done that! My oldest son has the same problem. Have you been using Pull-ups or have you tried the Goodnites from Huggies? My son is 8 1/2 and, until last fall, used the Goodnites. If the Goodnites alone are not enough, you can add disposable diaper "doublers."

The sensation of a full bladder just does not wake my son up. He started taking a low dose of DDAVP shortly after his eighth birthday and it has helped considerably. While it does not change his sleeping pattern to a "lighter sleep," it allows him to make it through the night without wetting. I didn't consider placing him on medication until last summer in anticipation for camp. I didn't want him to have to deal with using Goodnites for five days of camp. By the way, four of the seven boys (8-9 year olds) in his den are bed wetters. Personally, I think the bedwetting devices are cruel. After all, they don't even activate until the wetting has occurred.

As for the daytime accidents, you may want to use the same method I use for my youngest son. He has to use the bathroom before he goes out to play. I then set the timer on the microwave for 90 minutes and have him go again then. I don't even ask him if he has to go. I just send him. Another thing I noticed is that the boys are so anxious to go back to playing that they don't take the time to fully empty their bladder. So we enacted the 5-second count. After they finish peeing, they have to count slowly to five before flushing and pulling pants up. That way it gives them a bit of a delay to make sure they are completely done.

Hope this helps!

[PinkRibbon]

I've worked with this as a child psychologist and seen several kids have success when the mom (parents) teach the child how to do laundry and change the sheets. It's not a punishment for wetting, but having the child take some responsibility for himself and takes the frustration out of washing sheets away from the mom.

[kforkids]

I'd highly recommend the goodnights as well. They come in pretty large sizes!
I also had a waterproof pad on the bed- the same kind I had in the crib for babies. It kept us from soaking into the mattress pad and the mattress itself. That helped us with the laundry thing, but the goodnights nearly eliminated that problem!

[cj416]

I have have an 8 1/2 year old son and he still has accidents at night. We tried DDAVP in the spray and the pills, but they only worked maybe one night a week, not worth the amount of money the cost. He also got meds for and overactive bladder, just in case.He has seen the doctor about this for a couple of years now. He did a urine test and found nothing. He said it is common for boys to wet the bed up to age 12! Crap I hoe I am not going throughh this for 3 1/2 more years. Anyway, we cut fluids off at 6:30pm, we basically cut is caffine intake out, we do Goodnight and he has to put his sheets in the washer. All this and we still have wetting every night. We don't make a deal out of it. I don't want him to feel bad. He already hates to have friends overnight and will not go stay with friends over noght because he is emabrassed..

[Sienna3]

I recommend 3 things: Goodnites (definitely more absorbant than the Pullups), a waterproof mattress pad that goes under the fitted sheet to protect the mattress itself AND a get a few waterproof pads that go OVER the fitted sheet and tuck in on both side of the bed-it covers about 1/3 the length of the bed. If he pees thru the goodnite and it gets on the pad that goes over the fitted sheet, it would not be hard for him to put the spare one on in the middle of the night and that is way less laundry for you too.

[Sandyy]

My daughter is 7 1/2, she was potty trained at 2 1/2 daytime. But she had never gone dry at night. Six months ago we tried the alarm and it was wonderfull! We used it for two months and it woke us up for the first month. DD still doesn't wake up in the night to pee but she has only had one accident since we stopped using the alarm. Toward the end the alarm went off when she started to wet, but it was just a change of underwear. Toward the end when it alarmed you couldn't even tell there was any wetness.

[Jillrandy7]

my son was potty trained at 2-1/2 but still wet at night so we tried the diaper thing and realized he was getting too old and kids would start making fun or when he got invited for sleep overs it was too embarassing. I went to the medical supplies store and bought the bed alarm and within a month it had worked, it was a little skeptical at first because i didn;t know how it would stop the peeing, but it was one that you place the end inside the underwear and slip the wires up the sleeve of the shirt and atach it to the wrist. we made him sleep in our room for a month so i would wake up with him and walla it worked, he has had only 1 accident and that was over a year ago. it really worked for us, hopes this helps!

[Sledge]

My 7 yr old had the same problem, we were waking him up three times a night and he was still wetting the bed. The medicine helped a little but we had to help stretch his bladder so it could hold more. We had to give him 16 oz of water and make him hold it as long as possible before going. He was used to going to the bathroom every few minutes. We did this over xmas vacation (about 2 1/2 weeks) and the problem slowly went away (also used meds for two additional months to make the kidneys slow the production of urine overnight). Caffene has a lot to do with bladder control also, cut out as much caffene as possible from his diet.

[lorry]

Hi there,

I'm certainly no guru on this subject but we have been going through the same thing with our now 7year old son since forever. Having recently connected to the internet at home I am now devouring all the information I can. It is so comforting to find so many other mums in the same situation as me.

One of the best resources we have found so far is an Australian website www.drynites.com.au. It has some great information for the parents but the thing that has been the best for my son is that he has realised he is not the only kid to be going through this stage. The website has a kids forum where they can get together and chat and also it has some information presented in a child friendly way. I hope that some other families get some benefit out of this site.

Good luck with the bumpy road they call parenting!!!!!

[bumpkin]

Hi Lorry - thanks for the site, I'll check it out. Welcome to the forum, I see it is your first post... I'm honored!

Bumpkin

[MomNeedinghelp]

Hello! You should read my thread about my sixteen year old daughter who still wets the bed. luckily your child is one six and a half. hopefully he will grow out of the bed wetting phase. i grew out of it and have had dry nights since i was in my twenties. hopefully your child will not wet the bed as long as me but i am sure he/she will grow out of it. leave meeh a reply abouy what you have tried i would really appreciate that.