My daughter will be six in July! She is a very friendly and outgoing child with many friends so she is invited to a lot of sleepovers, yes, already, at age six! My only issue is...she is still wearing a diaper at night and she is still SOAKING it! Is this normal?
The two times I have let her go to her friend's house and spend the night, I have instructed the host mother to keep the diaper issue quiet for my daughter's sake. She adamantely agreed and while the girls were playing hide-n-seek, she took my daughter in the bathroom and quickly put her diaper on before bed and did the same for her that next morning before anyone else woke up! The last thing I want is for the other girls to make fun of my daughter or for it to get back to her small private school that, at age six, she is still wearing a diaper to bed! It would crush her (and ME!) if the other children made fun of her for this!
Our pediatrician says it is normal and okay and should subside soon! My daughter doesn't drink anything after 7:00 and potties before bedtime. I've even set my alarm to get her up in the middle of the night to potty and she still wets the bed!
So, with that said....I am completely open to suggestions!
I am having the same issues with my 6 year old as of 2/28 of this year - how do I see the other comments/answers posted?
My daughter was also in this situation at age six. While it's not super-common it's also not unusual - something like 10% of the kids - which means in a class room of 20 kids there are two kids wearing pull-ups to bed.
My nephew had this issue as well - still at age 8 - when my sister found a good urologist she learned the following - our bodies produce a hormone at night that instructs the kidney to hold fluids for an extended period - overnight so the body can rest properly. Then in the morning the kidneys release the urine into the bladder and we wake up with a dire need to get to the bathroom - fast! Some kids have a deficiency in this hormone so the kidneys just don't "know" to hold the urine - so it's released into the bladder in the middle of the night. Since most kids are tired from being a 6 yr old all day, they sleep through it. Most kids grow out of it by the end of 1st grade - and it was just around my DD's 7th brithday that she had lasted a few weeks dry at night and we could stop using the pullups. Before that time she wanted to try going without and we always ended up changing sheets in the middle of the night!
If by age 7 she's still not able to stay dry through the night take her to a pediatric urologist. They have medication that replaces the hormone and your girl would be able to stay dry.
When puberty hits, all hormones are surging at a high level so even the child who is wet at age 10 eventually gets enough of the hormone and is able to stay dry through the night.
I remember my daughter and the other 1st graders all talking about who wore a pull up at night and who didn't - my daughter and a boy named Anthony were the 10% in the class - and no one seemed to bat an eye at it. That was 10 years ago.
Good luck mama - understanding the cause is more than half the battle!
She just needs more time. Her body is not ready yet. You are not doing anything wrong, some kids just take a long time to be able to hold it all night. It is not uncommon for children to still wet at night at this age. And, great job on having the other moms quietly help your daughter... it is very normal but I can still certainly understand why she would not want to discuss with her friends :)
There is nothing honestly that you can do short of meds but I would sugest waiting a few more years. My oldest was almost 7 when he stopped wetting but my youngest is almost 11 and we started meds in December. He is dry only if he takes it an hour before bed and doesn't drink anythign after and uses the restroom right before bed. 99% of the time he is dry. The dr said his kidneys are not naturally producing the hormone that tells it to hold it. For my son it's genetic. He has a cousin that is 16 that still does sometimes and my brother was a teen when he stopped. Honestly there are more kids out there that do than you think!! I was nervous to send my son to a camp which was his first time sleeping away from family ever. He qualified to try out for a national gymnastics team. And it was hard letting him go. I spoke to the coach and let him know as he had just started the meds. And was still wearing pullups. We just told him to go in the restroom and change and gave him a plastic bag to put it in if it was wet. He was ok with that. And when he got there the first night found out that there was another kid in his cabin that was on the same exact meds he was. And same age. Just talk to the parents like you did last time and everything should work out just fine!!!!
We had the same problem with my older son. It got to the point when he was 7 that my younger son was waking up dry and he wasn't. Up until that point, we didn't think of it as a big deal. I took him back to the pediatrician and he recommended the potty pager. It worked wonders. After about 3 months, he was waking up dry. It was the best $75 I ever spent. If you don't want to go the medication route, then I would try this. I tell everyone about it.
You are getting some great advice. I was a bedwetter and it is awful when you sleep away from home, even at a relatives, anyone that 's not Mom just can't understand, right?? I believe the hormone information, but I also think that it is how deeply a child sleeps. I can remember dreaming of going to the bathroom and waking up because I'd just wet. Somehow my brain just couldn't take that signal that I needed to go and get me awake enough to get up and do it. I can remember waking in the morning and feeling like I had to pull myself out of a "sleep well". I was still half asleep and trying desperately to wake up, it was very odd and disorienting at times. It is something she will grow out of and perhaps in a couple of years if she is still wetting you can get an alarm. My oldest son wet the bed until about 8 1/2. We bought an alarm and it worked like a charm, after a week he was dry every night. We continued turning on the alarm for about another week, but one week was all it took. The child must be old enough and really want to stop in order for the alarm to help.
Good Luck,
M.
Constipation ended up being my daughter's problem. I knew she had some issues but didn't really realize the impact. Going on prescription laxative powder (to actually try to fix her GERD problems) instantly solved the bedwetting (at age 7). She has a slightly different angle, I believe, to her anus that actually is very common in girls. Anyway, we were surprised to have her going from wet nearly every night, to only wet the handful of days over the past year when we forgot to give her her powder! Funny--I never saw anyone mentioning constipation when I was looking for answers, and now so many people are! :-P Some kids, of course, have other issues as mentioned by other mamas.
Waking her up is a waste of time, stop. She wakes up enough to use her vaginal/bladder muscles to hold the urine inside and as soon as she goes to sleep they relax, so she goes as soon as she goes back to sleep.
She needs her brain to send a chemical signal to her kidneys to STOP urine production when she falls asleep. It's that simple. There is no magic to it. Her brain sends that signal when she falls asleep or it doesn't.
There are some things that do contribute to peeing though. Caffeine can contribute, google it. Kids don't get a lot of caffeine like adults who drink a tub of coffee or drink half a dozen pops throughout their day though.
Constipation is the big one. If the insides are full of hard pooh and that person lays down, the weight of the pooh lays on the bladder and the urine comes out.
Dehydration, if she is thirsty after 7pm let her drink something. It really makes no difference at all if she's drinking or not. Her bladder isn't telling her it's full and that she needs to wake up. So let her drink what every she wants at night. If she's wet the same regardless then it won't make any difference.
You could use the search option on the top of this page too. We all give the same answers several times per day. If you type in night time wetting, bedwetting, pull ups, etc...all our stuff will come up and you can read massive posts on this topic. Maybe one of the mom's will have written something that sparks an idea in you.
I have had this type of problem all my life. while asleep I will dream that I am getting up and going to the bathroom to pee. So has a child I had accidents. As I grew older I realized they were dreams and had to wake myself so I would not have problems. I also talk in my sleep and sometimes sleep walk.
Does you daughter talk in her sleep? If so her dreams are very real and she may have trouble telling the differance between dreams and being awake. Talk to her and see what she remembers and if she thinks she is getting up to go. If this is the case you will need to talk to her about being able to contol her dreams. It takes pratice and time.
Hang in there, not your fault or childs
While it is perfectly normal for a 6 year old to wet the bed (up to age 12-13 per my pedi urologist) it can't hurt to have a doctor look at her. Many kids who wet the bed also suffer from constipation, when the constipation clears up the bedwetting stops. It makes sense, full intestine pushes on bladder and desensitizes it so child doesn't recognize 'got to go' signals. Once constipation is cleared up the body begins to slowly recover and recognize the 'urge' signal.
Alarms are effective, but the child has to want to do it or they don't work. The typical 6 year old is not mature enough for an alarm to work. We used one with my son when he was 9. It was a long (6-12 weeks) process, but it worked. He was wet every night, no exceptions. I had to sleep with him for 3-4 weeks to help him wake up to the alarm, but eventually he began waking up before the alarm. We stopped using it after he was dry 2 weeks and we've only had a few (2-3) accidents since, he's almost 11 now.
Are you using an actual diaper or pull up? I am hearing that when they are ready they are ready..
Have you tried underwear for a few nights? I know that my son like to "use" his pull up even though he is awake..
Good Luck
She will get through this stage. Some kids....it takes time.
When she goes for a sleepover, what about this? having her sleep in
her underwear in her own sleeping bag she brings so she's "not
found out"? Then tell her to change her clothes all by herself putting
the soiled clothes in a plastic bag. This could save her embarrasment.
