Bedwetting Blues

My son is 8 years old and has the same problem,he's had it for the last few years the doctors say it is heriditary since his father and grandmother also had the same problem.I just buy him goodnites and reinforce the importance to get up and go pottynat night,I do not allow him to drink after 7pm and this seems to help somewhat.

Hi A.,

My daughter Hope who is now 16..had the same problems, but it started at 8...two years later we learned she had a pituitary tumor which caused the bed wetting.. She can not produce the antidiuretic hormone that helps the water balance.. since the surgery she has a rare conditon called panhypopituitarism...meaning she can not produce any hormones on her own and must replace them everyday with synthetic ones.. hence DDAVP for diabetic Insipidus (bed wetting), growth hormones to help her grow, synthroid for thyroid, Cortef for adrenal insuffiency and melatonin to help her sleep..we been doing this now for almost 6yrs and she still has accidents but thats because she would fail to take her pill on time..... does your son drink alot during the days.. more than most children his age.. Talk to your doctor and have his hormones checked to make sure that they are at the normal levels.. any question feel free to email me anytime at ____@____.com.. I hope it helps

T.

Hi A.,

I have a 12 yr old step daughter who has the same problem. It is very hard to deal with, I know. We initially tried a natural herbal remedy called "Be Dry" from a website called Native Remedies. It seemed to work pretty well. During the weekend, she visits her mother & her mother wouldnt let her take the Be Dry at her house, because she undermines everything that comes from our house. It has to be taken on a consistent daily basis, so that was out for us. It may work for you though. The second thing we tried was a prescription nasal spray from the pediatrician, taken each night before bed. That works great. I just dont love the idea of giving her meds every night. I am more of a holisitic person, but we are hoping the problem will resolve itself soon, as she is 12 years old now. Some other things we did..... she slept on an air mattress on her bed frame for a while so the regular mattress wouldnt get ruined. No drinking after dinner. We also reassured her that she would not ever get in trouble for bed wetting and that it was ok because she didnt have control over it. It has been tough, but hopefully the end is in sight. Best of luck to you!

Have you checked this issue out with your pediatrician. I went through the same thing with my son when he was 6 years old. He had just started first grade and my pediatrician said sometimes they can be stressed about starting something new even if they don't show it outwardly. Sometimes it shows up in bedwetting. It sounds like you are doing all the right things. I realized my son would wet his bed sometime around midnight, so I would wake him up around 11:30 P.M. every night after the news and take him to the bathroom. This worked for him. I also didn't give him anything to drink past 7:00 p.m. If he was thirsty past 7:00 p.m. I would just give him a mouthful of water and this usually satisfied him. Good luck.

Hi A.,

I have a boy who just turned 7 and was still wetting the bed every night until a week before his 7th birthday. He is a very sound sleeper and would not wake up to use the bathroom. I discovered a wonderful tool to help him get through the night without wetting the bed. We call it the wee-wee alarm. It is an actual alarm that you hook up to his underwear and if he begins to wet himself an alarm goes off to wake him up. Our bedrooms are close so I can also hear the alarm and get up to help him get to the bathroom. It only took @ 5 nights and he is getting up all by himself to use the bathroom. I've used it for 2 of my boys and I think it is a wonderful invention!
I purchased the alarm @ 5yrs ago but am sure you would be able to find one on line.
It is called the Sleep Dry Alarm from Starchild/labs in Aptos, Ca.
Good luck and know that there is light at the end of the tunnel!
H.

I commend any parent who does not get mad at their child for this! I believe that it can be something as simple as bad dreams, anxieties and such. But first I would recommend taking him to the doctor to rule out any type of bladder or urinary tract infection.

Our daughter started wetting the bed at age 7. Because I have three other children the same age this was embarrasing for her. So we bought her pull ups (cheapest I've found are at a Wallgreens store) and a diaper pail. We put everything in the bottom dresser drawer and allowed her to privately get ready for bed and two years later our other three still have no clue that our daughter wears pull ups to bed.

Since then we have found that with our child it is because of a medical problem called Lichen Sclerosis (sp?). This is very rare but I would strongly recommend having a doctor rule out anything. And after that just be kind. I even went so far as to tell my daughter that I wet the bed until I was almost 12 years old. It was our secret and it seemed to calm her embarrasement.

Good luck!!

You don't want to reward him for not wetting, that will only enforce his fears of it being his fault. Let him know that it happens to a lot of kids, and that the training pant aren't for babies. Just talk to him and let him know that it's ok and you understand. Stress can cause and/or make it worse.

Hi A.,

I know that some children take longer than others in developing that physiological sensor that wakes them up at night to pee. I actually wet the bed until I was about eleven or twelve years old. If you can rule out other possibilities (eg. too much to drink before bed), which it sounds as if you are in the process of doing, then it may just be a matter of time. When I was a child, I learned to just grab a blanket out of the closet and lay it on top of my wet sheets until morning when my mom would help me change my bed. Good luck - some things are just out of our control. :0)

My 11 year old step-son sufferes from the same. He also takes a prescription nasal spray every night before bed. Hope this helps!

Hi A.,
My son just stopped wetting the bed (he's almost 5)...I was told that boys' bladders often don't mature as fast as girls', and it's just a matter of time until it does. My dad wet the bed till he was 9...unfortunately, there's nothing much you can do about it except to explain this to your son (so he knows it's out of his control) and reinforce hi IS a big boy already, not to be ashamed, etc-all the things you're already doing. Give it time-he'll grow out of it :)
H.

This is not a behavioral problem, it is a physical one. The same thing happened to us, and what we ended up having to do was get a Malem Bedwetting alarm. The kids who do this sleep so hard, and their arousal system for getting up to go overnight is undeveloped, that they can't wake up in time.
The alarm gets the kid up when it senses wetness, and it will train the system to get the kid up to go overnight before they wet. We are finally getting there, and it took a few months of alarms going off overnight. Our solution was also wearing the underwear so they could feel the wetness, with a pull-up over top as a back up. He wasn't happy with it, but sees an end in sight when the alarm stops going off for a few months straight. Look in The Bedwetting Store dot com. Hope that helps.

I agree with all the other moms, however, there is on thing that is bothering me. You said he was doing well for a long time. I don't know how long he was doing well for, but it sounds to me like he might be regressing a little for some reason. I think you should try to find out if there is an emotional componet flaring up the condition. Since he was doing well and all of the sudden he is not. What happened at the same time this started. Did he start a new school, get a new friend? Did part of his routine change? I know of a similar situation where they went to doctors and therapists. As it turns out this child was being "bullied" by who the parents thought was a friend. This caused the child to regress emotionally and therefore the problem. It probably is nothing and he probably will outgrow it, but I feel you should do a little investigating on what is going on in his personal life. Good luck

He will grow out of it. Just remind him how much you love him and that nothing he can do will make you 'hate' him. Let him know that he is def not the only child going thru this, even older kids do too, they just don't let it out.

Hi A., I have four children, all grown. My youngest was potty trained before she was two yo. She almost trained herself. she was so easy. During the Christmas break of her kindergarten year at 5 1/2, she started wetting the bed. Before that she never had an 'accident'. She did not like school. So I thought that was her way of handling her anxiety of going back to school. I did all the same thngs, eliminating drinks before bed, getting her up through the night, etc... My father and my sister were also bed wetters and it can be heridity. I took her to several doctors. they treated her with various things from medicine to alarms. She finaly grew out of it when she went off to college.
I say look at family history. It just may be your sons problem.
Good luck. EW

Dear A., My son is now 30 and we went through the same thing. He just played hard and slept hard. His body needed time to grow. Yes, it was a pain, but eventually he outgrew it. Reassure him you love him. Try to get him to wear the nighttime 'diapers' they make now, but don't call them that. Tell him there's nothing wrong with him, but sometimes we work and play so hard that our bodies don't know to wake us up when we have to go to the bathroom. Tell him that wearing the special pants helps to keep his bed clean and dry, as well as allowing him to not have to bother you during the night -- He can be grown up and change himself when it happens and crawl back into a dry bed. Some kids, especially boys, do this kind of thing and believe it or not, it's just a need for some parts of his body to grow and catch up.

I had the same problem with my son. We tried everything and by age 7 I was starting to get a little upset about it. Our Pediatrician recommended a sleep trainer (Sleep Dry) which we had tried in the past without success. We tried again anyhow and it took less than one week for it to work. It snaps onto the front of his underwear and if the underwear got wet an alarm went off. Once he heard the sound he'd stop peeing, get up and finish in the toilet. I really don't know how he went from hearing the alarm and then going to just waking up when he had to go. I guess it somehow made his brain more aware of his need to go to the bathroom. We wore pull ups over the underwear because I cannot handle changing the bed every day.

Good luck.

PS you could get a prescription for DDAVP which will dry him up for the night. It's not really recommended for everynight and won't solve the real problem, but might be worth having for sleep overs and trips to grandma's.

A.-
I had two brothers who had the same problem. We did the same things - limited drinks, and waking them in the middle of the night worked the best. They both eventually did out grow the problem, although it took awhile. It is hard on the child. I would rule out first that nothing has changed in his life to distress him, and you may also speak to your doctor, but love and patience may work the best. Good Luck.

everything already said sounds great. but if he has been dry for more than 6 months and now all of a sudden is wetting the bed, you should just have the pediatrician check and make sure there is not another reason for his bedwetting (diabetes, urinary tract infection, etc).