9 Year Old Is Always Wetting His Pants!!!!

my son has the same issues and he is 6, especially w/the add/adhd. he has fewer accidents than he used to. the only thing i ever tried was patients. i never took him to any doc about it, and it use to aggrivate me imensly back them. i just dont make a big issue out of it when he does it. then when he is a big boy and doesnt wet the bed he gets big one~on~one time w/me and my husband when he is a big boy. the only other thing i did was implement a chart w/stickers. when he was a big boy, he got to put a sticker on the chart. i do hope that u use some kind of mattress protector. that helps, that way ur not washing bedding everyday or flipping and buying mattresses every month. i hope this helps.

take care,
kat-geneva

L.,

I don't know if this information will help or not but...when my sister in-law was little she had the same problems with having accidents. She didn't have the other problems like your son does, but I thought I'd share anyway. They found out her bladder is always constricted so when she finally felt that she had to go, it was always too late. Once they found that out, they were able to help control it by making sure she went to the bathroom every so often, even if she didn't think she needed to. She also had special permission from the school to get up and go whenever she needed to go. She is now 22 and she still goes a lot more than anyone I've ever known! But, once you are able to find out what is wrong, you can take the proper steps to help control it.

I hope this helps...S.

L.

all the other mothers have great insight, i'm not sure it has anything to do with his medicine though. my son will be 9 in a couple weeks and is diagnosed with bipolar, ADHD, ODD, OCD, and RAD. he is on medicine for these which are Metadate CD, Tenex, Clonidine, and Risperdol. I do notice my son going often but not so frequent that he has to go every hour or so. he has never wet the bed or wet himself during the daytime. i do not believe it has anything to do with his meds or his condition, but like a couple others i do feel you need to have him checked more thoroughly for other conditions. have his physician refer him to a urologist to have it checked again by a specialist. i hope this helps. take care and may God Bless you.

L.,
First of all, tell that doctor BULL HOCKEY!

There are people who have to go more than others, and my son is one of them...but it is a MEDICAL CONDITION! It's name is Diabetes Inspidius, other wise known as Water diabetes. It is where a hormone is missing called ADH (anti-diurtic hormone) and the body doesn't know to concentrate the urine.
My son has this because he is missing his pitutary gland. His symptoms were:
Frequent urniation - usually every 45 minutes, but could go an hour while sleeping
Excessive drinking - everytime he peed, he drank. Was drinking over 140 ounces of Ice water a day.
Headaches, nausea, fatigue....

He takes medication called dDAVP - and while his is medically necessary - it is also perscribed to children who have chronic bed wetting problems.
The first night he took it, was the first night I had slept through the night in 5 years.

Feel free to email me privately if I can help any more!

S.
Mommy to John IV
EDC 12/12/2007

I home school a 15 year old boy with extreme ADHD, and while he has perfectly fine bladder control I could see how a similar kid could easily not make it to the bathroom on time. But if it's getting worse and you feel in your gut that something is off, I would definitely get it checked out by someone else.

In the mean time, creating a schedule to help him remember when he needs to go to the bathroom might be a great idea. Maybe have his teacher remind him to go every hour, on the hour or something along those lines, and see if that helps.

Does he have the same problem on the weekends at home, or just at school? Thinking about that might also help you figure out what's going on.

I don't know if this is any help or not, but our daughter was put on Ditropan for bladder spasms. There were other problems, so she had further testing, and what we found out is that ditropan helps stretch the bladder. (the pediatric urologist told us that). She had been "leaking" urine all the time (Day and Night). The ditropan helped to make her bladder larger and she is no longer "leaking' Good Luck!!

Couple of things I would do. 1. Ask your pediatrician for a referral to a urologist and have him/her check the problem out. 2. There are some studies out there that link Risperdal with increased enuresis (wetting), so I would ask the neurologist about maybe switching to another atypical antipsychotic to treat his Tourettes.

I don't have too much experience on my children having accidents during the day....but my son who has PDD NOS and another child I cared for who had ADHD both have accidents at night. My son't accidents are pretty much nightly. We have just used the goodnights. They are made for bigger kids. My son is self concious about having accidents at night but it isn't as bad knowing that the whole bed won't be soaked. You may be able to help your son create a schedule for using the bathroom. So that he is just going more frequently even if he doesn't feel like he has to go. And you may try letting him wear the training pants to school. They aren't big and bulky so that other children would know. I don't know it is a difficult situation. Good luck!
Kris