6 Year Old Who Still Wet Him Self

Can I ask how much caffeiene he has? Caffeiene weakens the bladder. Its in Chocolate Tea and Soda. I am not kidding here, I wet the bed until I was 18. When I stopped intkaing caffeiene it stopped.

Hi S.,

I am a Chiropractor and I have successfully treated many children for bedwetting. The nerves for the bladder originate from the spine. When the spine is out of place it puts pressure on the nerves and does not allow them to function properly. It does not send the correct messages to the brain when the child is asleep. By getting the spine adjusted, you remove the nerve interference and allow the nerve to function properly. It can make a big difference in your childs life - and in yours! If you have any questions or would like more information, please don't hesitate to call me at ###-###-####. Thanks!
Dr. Sandra S.

Hi S.,

My son, who is 7 still wets the bed, too. He wears Good-Nites. That helps with the laundry, but a lot of the time he still wets through or out of them. I asked the doctor about it this summer. One doctor said that an alarm system worked the best. We tried waking him up a few times a night and making him go to the restroom. It really did not help much. The next time we went to the doctor, we got a different doctor. She said that we should bring him back in December if he had not made any progress. She said there was a medication that could help. I haven't taken him back yet, partially because there is no gaurantee that we will get the more helpful doctor. My son is pretty self-conscious about the whole thing. He really gets frustrated. Anyway, I don't know how helpful this whole story has been to you, but I just wanted you to know that you are not alone. Oh, I also had problems with wetting the bed until I was at least 7, probably older. I would have loved to have something to help - or even pull-ups or something to help if I stayed at someone else's house.

I wouldn't worry too much about it, some kids just take longer. My oldest daughter did it until she was 8 years old. I know it is a hassle to have to do the laundry every day and the humiliation I'm sure your son feels. You should just tell him that some people take longer than others and for him not to worry about it. Until his body matures he'll wear a pullup so he can sleep and not get all wet in the middle of the night. You should talk with him about things in general, find out if something is stressing him out, sometimes that can cause the delay in stopping the wetting. Likely, his body is just not ready yet. So don't make a big deal about it, be understanding, and help him try to manage it like drinking less and going right before bedtime, and in the meantime, minimize damage by using the pullup. Good luck!

It takes some kids a really long time for that muscle to develop and when they are asleep they just can't control it sometimes. My sis wet the bed until middle school. My parents did everything for her (bells, plastic sheets, diapers, cutting down on liquids before bed, caffeine free diet, medications) and nothing helped. I believe my aunt did this too. Anyway, she just grew out of it one day! I know you want a quick fix now but just be patient esp. with him because he doesn't want to wet the bed. My sister never went to slumber parties because she was afraid of wetting.

Overnites - they're by the pull ups.

It is actually not that unusual for boys, in particular, to not be able to stay dry at nite. If the doctor doesn't think drugs are necessary, then I would just recommend, you get some of the bigger kid "pullups" to avoid the issue with the bedding. There is a drug available - DDAVP, that is a synthetic of the hormone that your body produces that will help your son not have to pee at nite, BUT there are side effects and it should be used as a last resort - i.e., if he were over 10 and still wetting the bed. I wet my bed until I was almost 10 because i was a very, very sound sleeper and just didn't wake up. That's likely the issue with your son and he will very likely outgrow this. If you make a big deal about it, that is not good for his self esteem. The pediatrician should be able to provide the appropriate message that some kids bodies just don't tell them to wake up at nite to pee and that's okay - it's not his fault.

We have one of our twins in a pull up still because, just like you, no matter what we did, she still couldn't hold it - she's almost 6. The pediatrician told us there is a hormone that needs to still develop in order to have that bladder control so there is really nothing we can do at this point. It's not worth stressing about - if he can't hold it he can't. We stopped our daughters fluid intake at 5 p.m. AND got her up at 10 p.m. when we went to bed and 95% of the time that week, she still had an accident.

I can sympathize but that is about all since I am dealing with the same situation.

There are a bunch of websites you can check out. One is bedwettingstore.com. I just googled "bedwetting alarm" to find alarms. I knew someone who used an alarm on their then 6yo and it worked well to get him used to waking up when he started urinating.

Bedwetting can also be associated with ADHD. Our daughter with ADHD wet her bed nightly well past age 8. She wore pull ups like the previous poster suggested.

In order to help her get over it, we restricted liquids near bed time and also started setting an alarm to get up in the middle of the night to take her to the bathroom. As she got older she could sleep for longer and longer periods of time until now I am happy to report that she has been accident free for over a year (she's turning 10 in a few weeks).

Good luck, I know this is a very frustrating problem and the answer is very individual for different kids. But you should definitely use pull-ups as an immediate cure for your laundry problems!