6 Year Old Still Wetting the Bed

They were just talking about this very topic on "The Doctors" tv show. Dr. Sears said that bedwetting is because the childs brain has not learned that a full bladder means wake up. It is an under-developed signal in the brain to wake up and go to the bathroom. He said that limiting fluids doesn't really help, nor does waking the child to go. They just need to outgrow it. That signal in the brain needs more time to develope.

He did demonstrate this "alarm" underwear that really helped some kids. It is this pad looking thing that you slip into the pull-up and when it gets wet it sounds the alarm to wake the child. It helps to speed the brain up. Kind of a "pavlov dog" type of training. He said in a lot of cases it really helped. Maybe you could google it if you are interested. But basically the child just needs to outgrow it.

PS I personally wet the bed until I was about 6 or 7 and I remember being punished for it. Kudos to you for being an understanding mother.

personally i'd rather deal a wet diaper than wake my kid at night to pee.... and i'd MUCH rather deal with a wet diaper than washing sheets, pjs, and underwear every night!!!

This is a very frustrating problem, for both of you. Talk to her doctor and see if there are other things you can try. My son wet the bed from age 5 to age 9. Nothing we did helped- medication, nighttime alarm clock, etc. But he did stop, so there is hope.

We battled with the same issue with my son who is now 9. When he was 7 1/2 my ped finally sent him to a ped urioligist. She did a belly scan on him to find out he has enlarged bowels which was pushing on his bladder at night time causing him to wet the bed. The kid eats veggies more than anything else even over candy. but because of his enlarged bowels his poop would sit for 3-4 days getting hard. She put him on miralax once a day to help soften the poop which in turn will shrink the bowels over time. as long as he gets the miralx everyday we dont have any probs with wetting the bed.

Contact Dr. Debbie McFarland! She can tell you where the accu pressure point is on her hand to press for such! It works! and painless! ____@____.com or ###-###-####! It WORKS!

Hi! I realize that many have responded but thought I would share some of my thoughts. My brother (now in his 30's) wet the bed forever. He was part of the clinical studies for DDAVP back in the 80's which successfully stopped his bedwetting just prior to his leaving for college. He has experienced no side effects from the drug and at that point it was truly EXPERIMENTAL - but they were willing to try anything. I mention this because my oldest struggled with wetting the bed and nothing that we tried worked (waking her, reducing fluids, discussing with and encouraging her, visiting the doctor, etc.) My brother recommended that we look into DDAVP. Although I am strongly opposed to medication, I realized through my research that this is a synthetic hormone that teaches the brain to concentrate the urine. (not a typical type of medication!)
After lots of debate and many loads of laundry, I realized that my daughter's self esteem outweighed my fears of the medicine and so we tried this drug. I was floored! It worked extremely well and within 6 months to a year, she no longer took it with no further bedwetting. She began taking the drug near her 7th birthday. While the drug may not be for everyone, I can honestly say it made a huge and happy impact in our lives. Good luck!

Hello A.,
I can imagine how tired you are of changing bed linens, not to mention the embarrasment for your daughter. No one else has mentioned this so I thought I would add it to the mix. Nutrition can make the difference in whether or not her body is able to recognize and then hold the urine. I could share a testimonial of a girl who was a bedwetter until she was 21 - had tried every option (they thought). When she gave her body the nutrition it was lacking, the bedwetting stopped almost immediately. These solutions are unlike prescriptions where you take a pill and the symptoms cease. True healing is at the cellular level and your daughter's solution will probably come from a couple of directions. I'd be happy to help you explore what would best help her if you want to contact me off site. My email is ____@____.com

Kids will occasionally wet the bed up till your daughters age and that is normal. However if she is doing it everynight, your should take her to see your ped.

we had a similar problem with my son after he started kindergarden. for almost 2 weeks he wet the bed everynight. i talked to a friend of mine who is a child psychologist & she said stress can make them back slide. she said to ask everyday how their day went & if anyone bothered them, then she said it's like retraining the body, set a timer at night & wake them up & have them go to the bathroom. it took alittle while, but by the end of the month he was back to getting up on his own to go to the bathroom at night instead of soaking his bed.good luck.

As a young child my brother did too, the dr said his kidneys or bladder grew bigger, faster than the rest of his body. I remember him having some kind of surgery, medical procedure....i see you said there is nothing found wrong with her but did they say if the size of her organs was normal??? Worth a try....maybe you could buy the smallest adult diapers and they would hold more liquid??? Again, just an idea
Good luck

Went thru something similar with my son. Turned out he had an allergy to dairy. As long as we gave him nothing dairy after the afternoon snack he was fine. Which meant he was always wetting the bed at grandma's cause they would give him ice cream before bed!! hehehehehe

Three of my nephews used the alarm with great success. They just slept too hard. It took a while, but all of them were successful. Good luck!

It amazes me that some of the responses are still very typical of potty secrets today. For example, it has been said to "try pull ups at night, stop liquids 2-3 hours before bed, wake up to potty in the middle of the night..etc. " Although these are all good, I am surprised no one mentioned having a conversation with your child about the importance of not wetting the bed. We as parents sometimes forget that our children are smarter than we like to admit. Try talking with your daughter about the importance of keeping her panties dry and use positive reinforments to back it up. Say words like you are "big girl" and "you can do it". Never let her see your frustration surrounding the potty incidents because she will use this as a means to get attention. Have her also use negative tones and words when she does make a mistake and get her to verbalize her own dislikes about wetting the bed. For example have her use words like, "yucky, nasty, I wet my panties, etc" This usually creates ownership which allows the child to be a part of the frustrating experience. Also go as far as having them help you clean up the mess they have made and they will stop having the issue because now it is not only disrupting your sleep, it is also bothering theirs. It will not only frustrate you, it will not irritate them to a point that they will want to stop.
I have successfully trained 9 toddlers with a 3 day potty training system and these are some of the tips I suggest. Hopefully this helps.
Signing out... Mommy C

My son just turned seven, and still wets the bed as you say. He wears pull-ups every night, and half the time still goes through those. We've tried everything, so I'm glad that you posted this, as I'm interested to hear the responses as well!

I used to be a bedwetter too and my oldest son has struggled with it. I recently found out that some people's bodies produce more urine (sweat, too) during the night, that it's genetic. My sister's son has it too. I grew out of it during kindergarten - though I do like the suggestion about talking it over with your daughter. I remember my mom talking to me about it and asking if anyone in my class still wet the bed. Mama went more for negative reinforcement (but I was a stubborn kid too LOL), but if I remember the talking-to, it's probably the thing that made me try to stop. Good luck!

My sister's middle son has these isues. He had an undersized bladder and over active bladder. She had to wake him up every 2 hours to go and then they had him do exercises meant to enlarge the bladder and then meds to make the bladder not go so offen.

I'm a former bedwetter myself, almost every night til I was 11, then several times a week til I was 13, 2 accidents when I was 16, and one when I was pregnant with my daughter. She is almost 6 now and has the same issues. The only thing I have had any luck with is waking her up and taking her to the bathroom 2 or 3 times a night. An alarm hasn't been invented that she and I can't sleep through, and her pediatrician said to hold off on meds until she is closer to 7. Luckily I get up several times a night to go to the bathroom myself, and if I make the effort to take her with me she can stay dry. The waking up was the only thing that fixed my own problem, I just had to develop the routine myself. I'm hoping that if I keep taking her at the same times every night she will eventually start waking up on her own too. Something I read once was interesting, one study suggested that if you also use the restroom frequently while you are awake you may have an undersized bladder, and would actually benefit more from drinking more fluids and then holding it to stretch your bladder. Wait until you feel like you really have to go, then use kegel exercises to stop and start the flow of urine to build the muscles that can help you hold it til you make it to the bathroom, since sometimes people with bladder problems don't feel the need to urinate as soon as others

I think that it is something you have to outgrow because it's really nothing you can do about it except what your doing now. Be patience with her and when i was a young child i wet the bed and some times it is from holding your pee when you have to go so just make sure that she does not hold her pee cause that sometimes messes up the bladder. i didnt stop wetting the bed until i was twelve and sometimes i still have accidents like if i drink alot before i go to bed and forget to use the bathroom. Don't be hard on her just let her know that she goning to have to slow down on the drinks.Maybe push it to no drinking before 3-4 hours before bed or just s little bit.

SHe may be a heavy sleeper. I would not make a big deal about it so she doesn't feel bad. My 10 year old boy still occasionally does it. There is medicine for it. I never got it. I don't like giving my kids any medicine that isn't totally necessary. I am just hoping he grows out of it. Talk to your doctor on what your options are.

Hi
When my daughter was 10 we still had bed wetting. We had no idea what to do the pediatrician said it was because she was sleeping to hard and that before we went to bed we should get her up to go to the bathroom. She also told us all the normal things like stop fluids after dinner ect. ect.
I was at my chiropractor one day and just was talking to him and mentioned this problem with our daughter and how I was really tired of changing sheets and laundry. He asked me a few questions and the suggested her pelvis could be a little tilted forward and pushing on her bladder. I went home talked to my very sceptic husband about it. Together we agreed to at least let him do the x rays and sure enough we could see on the x ray what he was talking about. She started with full spinal adjustments and he saw her 3 times a week for 2 weeks. The result was no more wet beds. This daughter is almost 30 now and sees her chiropractor every 3 months just to feel good.

My six year old will wet her bed like once or twice a month. So I no longer give her anything to drink after dinner (we usually eat about 5:30). She goes potty before she goes to bed and then I wake her up before I go to bed (usually around 10:30-11:00) and I have her go again.I think she is just so tired by the time bed-time goes again that she can't wake herself up to go to the bathroom. Hope this helps.

Hi A., don't get to upset right away, the last time my friend wet the bed was on Christmas Eve the year she turned 18. Her mother had taken her to two Dr.'s. one gave her pills that made her wake in the early morning only to feel like bugs crawling all over her and the other one said to make her wash her sheets out and hang them on the like as to embarasse her and finally it was found that not everyones body matures at the same rate and her's finally did at such a late date but I think it ran in the family. Good Luck and HANG IN THERE

2 words cinnamon sticks from the grocery store or take her to a specialist

We are in the same boat with my son. I havenot had everything checked out, but the ped. said it's normal and they will grow out of it...Our sheets need a break from the wash...we have to wash at least twice a week b/c he pees through the pull up so much and so often.

I have gone through this with all three of mine(2 boys and a girl). My first son had tests done to make sure there was nothing wrong. There wasn't. All of my kids sleep hard!! They sleep through everything, including the smoke alarms - on several occasions. We used the alarm system for my first son and he was dry at night in less than 2 weeks. My second son just kind of outgrew it on his own. I'm going to use the alarm with my daughter who is 7, now. The boys were embarassed to go to sleep-overs due to the fact that they still wore pull-ups at age 7 and 8. The doctor gave us a medication to supress the amount of urine at night, but that was only for a night or two. It's not a long-term solution. We didn't have to talk about how this wasn't normal or anything. My kids wanted to stop wetting at night, they just couldn't. They slept too hard. The pediatrician said they would just outgrow it and it takes some kids longer. I can see talking to your child to let them know why you are restricting fluids and stuff like that, but it is so NOT their fault and they're not lazy, just heavy sleepers. I would caution you to be careful not to make the child think there's something "wrong" with them. Even making them strip the bed and wash the sheets may make them feel ashamed. BTW, my oldest was 8 before he finally was dry at night. I would advise you to be patient. I know it can be frustrating!!! I'm going through it now with my daughter and just have to remember to get new batteries for the alarm. I used a baby monitor to be able to help my daughter if she needs me at night when the alarm goes off. I had bladder issues as a child and so did my sister, so I feel it can be somewhat genetic. Know that your daughter is not the only one going through this and let her know it will get better. Good luck!!