8 Year Old Boy Still Wets Bed

My oldest girl went through something similar. My solution isn't much fun for you, but it works. Get him up in the middle of the night....say midnight...and have him go to the bathroom. He'll probably be really out of it, and you'll have to guide him to the bathroom and talk him through it...constantly reminding him since if he's anything like my daughter he'll fall asleep every 15 seconds or so. Eventually she got to where she'd get up on her own or be able to go all night without having to use the bathroom. Good luck!

I saw something at New Seasons Super market in the childrens isle but I can't remember what it was called something to do with bed wetting though. I was looking for cold stuff. Hope this helps.

My pediatrcian told me that boys will sometimes wet the bed up to age 10 or 12. If you are worred about it, talk to his doctor but my guess is he is not abnormal and he will eventually outgrow it.

Hello! I have in a way been where you are. Except with my brother. My mom also did all of those things you have done. Finally going to the dr. and getting a special med for it. From what I remember it was supposed to help his body not sleep so soundly (not in a bad way though) so that he woke to use the bathroom at night. It worked. It took my mom until he was almost 13 to take him in. I have heard all the time how common this is with boys. Its not just your son. There are hundreds of moms going through the same thing! Good luck!

The other moms are correct. I would rule out any physical cause first. If you find out that everything is ok there than you would need to rule out a mental or emotional cause. I worked with children with disabilities and mental/emotional/behavioral issues and this was almost always a symptom. Does he have any other issues or is it just wetting the bed? I wouldn't be able to narrow down a disorder but it can be signs of many different things. I know it has to be worriesome when you don't know whats going on. I would rule out whatever you can and go from there. Let us know what you find out.

I took my son to a cranio-sacral therapist for another reason, and mentioned his chronic bed wetting problem, and what do you know about one month later, we no longer wake him up and he no longer wets the bed. i highly reccommend it. there is also a homeopathic remedy for bedwetting which I was giving to him, it may have helped as well.
best of luck.

This is a very specific condition in which your son sleeps so deeply, he cannot actually feel the need to pee. There is a scientific/medical name for it, which I cannot now recall, but your pediatrician will surely know it.
My daughter had the same thing and we were able to get her over it around age 5 and half, but some kids don't outgrow it until even age 12. Our method to help her was tiring but it worked. We set our own alarm for around 12 midnight and got up and took her to pee every night. We did this for about six months and finally she was able to get through the night by either getting up on her own or not needing to. It wasn't as bad as it sounds though, because I was getting up with another baby too, so often I just took her to pee whenever the baby got up. But if it was after 1 am, it was usually too late and she had an accident.
We used pull ups the whole time we did this to reduce laundry hassle and our own potential for frustration. It is not your kid's fault!
Cutting liquids also helps as you mentioned, but she was too thirsty so we didn't really do this much.
Good luck!

our doctor said to wake our son up 2 hours after he had gone to sleep and "sleep-walk" him to the bathroom and try to get him to go. He didn't go every night but sometimes he did. We did this for about 2-3 weeks and it worked! you need to continue to limit evening liquids and always try to go just before bedtime but something about getting him up even if he didn't completely wake up worked - good luck! C. G.

Since studying to become an herbalist, I've found that many "older" children who wet either may have parasites (oh, so very common in EVERY human on earth) or be lacking in nutrients (vitamins or minerals). There are homeopathics in the nutrition section of your grocery store than are inexpensive, tiny little tablets that dissolve immediately and have no flavor. Ask the nutritionist in your grocery. Give them a try! Best regards, Zo

take him to his physician.. and see what he recommends.

I have a 6 year old who still does occasionally. At about 11:00 pm when I go to bed, I get her up, put her on the potty and - no wet bed! The other option, is to set an alarm for yourself to get up and get the child to the potty. Now, she's gotten it, and she's started to run to the bathroom by herself at night. That was just recently. Yay! It worked. They just sleep so soundly that they even dream that they are going to the bathroom.

ALL 4 of my brothers struggled with this. They also have ADD in varied degrees, both of which, in alot of cases are due to brain development. My mom tried everything from pills to that alarm, to waking them in the middle of the night but it just didnt work until their body caught up. It runs in our family and often continues into the teens. While I think going to the doctor and talking to him/her about it is a good idea I also know for a fact that often this sorts itself out. Just invest in some goodnight pullups to avoid extra cleanup and embarressment. Have sleep overs at your house for easier concealment (ie changing and disposing of pullup in your bathroom) and dont make a big deal out of it. No blaming, yelling, or showing frustration. Remember its hard on him as it is, no 8 yr old WANTS to wet the bed. He will grow out of it if he is like my brothers, and almost all of the boys in my extended family. Good Luck, Jen

Check with the doctor to see if there's anything wrong with his bladder system. Also check to see if there are particular events that cause him problems - for instance, too much excitement during the evening, someone he is uncomfortable with comes to your house, has he ever been molested; ie. make a list of the things done the night before he wets the bed to try to eliminate factors. Otherwise, you may have to diligently wake him up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom until his little bladder gets bigger. And always make sure he urinates before bedtime.

There are so many reason that some children still wet the bed at that age. SOme are physical and some are psycological. If you can identify the reason it will help with the out come. Have you spoken to his Dr. about his problem? SOmetimes the child sleeps so deep they just can't wake up. SOmetimes its a bladder control issue. SOmetimes it is a deep seeded problem that the child has not yet talked about. If it is a physical problem then your Dr.should be able to help. If it is psycological a counsler should be able to help him. I know it is a hard and very trying issue, but try not to get mad at him, I'm sure its just as inbarassing to him.

This is a common sign of tethered cord syndrome. It can be corrected with surgery, which in most cases is easy. My daughter, who is now 9yrs, had a severe case of this and had surgery when she was just over 2yrs. You can find out if your son has this by taking him to a neurologist. Some of the muscles being weak in the bladder can also cause this. There are medications that can help with this and are usually used for a short time. I would suggest a visit to the urologist as well as the neurologist. It has got to be hard on your son as well as yourself. I hope everything works out for you.

I would suggest you research food allergies.

Bed wetting at this age is completely normal for boys. My son is almost 12 and still wetting. There is medication that will help. My son takes a pill before going to bed and it helps alot. Most boys outgrow it by seven or eight but many will go until their teens.

You are not alone. My son finally stopped wetting his bed when he was roughly about 9 years old. But he does have occasional accidents however they have become rare now (he's 13 now).
I do have a friend in MD whose son still has bed wetting problems when I last talked to her (about two years ago) and he was 13 at the time. She has tried the same thing you have with the alarm. If I remember right, her doctor said he will learn...but like your son, he's a heavy sleeper. I'm not sure what else she has done if he has finally stopped. Would you like to me ask her again and see if he has stopped and what method finally worked? I'll be happy to do that for you.
D.

My 7 1/2 year old son wet the bed until just before his 7th birthday, after 6 months of counseling, alarms, and food restricitons. Many of the responses that have come in for you already address some of the things our counseling service also addressed: food allergies (they have you try restricing certain foods for a period of time then gradually adding them back in to see if they are problematic), using an alarm(the key being that the PARENTS must be responding to wake the child up as soon as the child sounds the alarm, as the child will sleep too deeply and not wake up!), and various exercises to strengthen muscles and hold more urine. Also, interestingly, they had us load him up with 32 oz. of water/night, rather than restricting liquids, so that he learned to feel the full feeling during the night. There are lots of places we found online, most very pricey (in the thousands of dollars), and we found a non-profit organization who did counseling on-line rather than over the phone and cost about 1/4 or less of the other places and seemed to have a more thorough approach. It was still in the hundreds of dollars and lots of work, but the stress we were dealing with made it worthwhile for us; that's something every family needs to decide for itself. They claim to work for well over 90%of clients, and you have counseling available for a lifetime. After being wet probably 29 days out of a month until this time last year, he now only wets about once every 4-5 months, and only if he's either so exhausted he can't wake up or if he's getting sick. And usually it's not a soaker, but he'll wake up as soon as his underwear gets wet. Lots of people do say it's normal, and I'm sure for some people it is, but if you can't wait any longer, I highly recommend this route. The company we used was Hargitt House Foundation, and you can find them on the web. We were very happy with them. Best wishes, and I hope something works for you!

Hi E.. I don't have any evidence to prove this, but I heard this from another mommy group that I participate in over the internet. It was suggested that eliminating wheat from the diet (or doing the gluten-free) thing seems to really help with the nighttime incontinence. This particular mom said that her son is fine most nights but if he eats wheat that day, he always wets the bed at night. Interesting. I know switching to a gluten-free diet is a HUGE change but it might be worth exploring. Maybe just try it for a couple of days and see it if makes any difference. If it does, you may be on to something.

-B. S.
Mom to 2 year old twin boys.

One easy thing you can try is to have your son start and stop the flow of urine whenever he pees. It will help to strengthen the muscles that will keep him from wetting the bed. This is what my husband's dr told him to do when he was having bedwetting problems as a child, and it helped. The problem went away soon thereafter. It's worth a try.

E., I had this problem with my first child. We tried everything. We limithed liquids, tried getting her up in the night, alarm in the underpants and then Childrens Hospital for a complete exam. It came down to letting her outgrow it. She was about 9 when she outgrew it. Not my 7 year old son has the same problem. He wears Goodnites pants. After trying to wake him and limiting liquids he still wakes up soaking wet. The Dr. said he would outgrow it so we are waiting. The urologist says there is not anything they can do for him at this age as he is still developing. I am not sure this will help. I would say just wait it out.

Our son (almost 7yrs) has had the same problem. What we've found to work is setting an alarm that we can hear and helping him to get up and go once in the night. It isn't a fun process but now that he is in the habit of waking once and getting up, he does it on his own. We did this off and on for a couple years. We kept thinking he was ready to do it himself, but he wasn't. This last time, we stayed consistant with it and eventually he began getting up just a bit befor the alarm so his body definately adjusted to the schedule. I know it's not what you want to do, getting up in the middle of the night... but that's what we want them to do to use the bathroom so it's worth it and I much prefer doing this for a short time, over all the added bedding to wash. He has now gone a few months without wetting the bed and he's doing it on his own!! I sincerely hope this is helpful to you. I'm sure your son will feel much better and more confident when he gets this down.

Dear E.
Bed wetting can be linked to a sleep pattern that is not the clilds fault. I am lucky even though I had a sleep pattern that left me wetting the bed until I was 14 my boys both make it though most nights dry. They are 7 and 5. I have a cousin that never outgrew it though and she is 10 years older then I. J.

Try to observe how the day before was like for him on the nights he wets the bed. When I did this I found out if my son had a day that had nay type of stress whether it was a test at school or a field trip he would wet the bed. Once I got him to write in a journal his bed wetting stopped.

Bedwetting is more common than most people think. My oldest son, 12 still wets the bed about twice a month. The every night wetting stopped when he was 9-10. My daughter wet until she was 6, and my youngest son is almost 8 and still wets the bed. They've all used pullups, then GoodNites as they've grown. My youngest wets beyond the "pullup". We call it "pullup failure". We've tried restricting liquids too, to no avail. Of all the research I've done, some kids continue to 16 years of age. I found out that out of my children's neighborhood friends (all of us only living in this neighborhood a few years at most), a 11 year old girl and a 9 year old girl still wet the bed and wear pullups. What I understand is that the bladder's control is not mature yet, and that most of the time it is hereditary. My husband is one of 8 children and he said that at least half of his siblings wet the bed for awhile. So take heart, don't get discouraged. Your child is disappointed enough for himself. It puts a crimp on sleepovers unless you and your child can get creative, but don't be angry with your child.

My sister struggled w/this herself. The alarm didn't work. Some nights she would wake up wet and take all her wet sheets to the tub. It wasn't until she was in college and came home for Christmas that we discovered the real cause. she told mom how she had not been able to stay awake for an entire class all semester. Well, that got mom's attention....after all if she was paying $$$$$ for an education, her dtr best be awake for it. Well, at that time I was dating an MD...he suggested testing her for narcolepsy. Before the subjective part of the eval was over and before he could order much less get the test results back he KNEW she had narcolepsy. my date gave her some studies to read, and just reading how other folks like her were treated and looked at, she identified herself. As a teen she seemed nomal enough....alert w/friends and nothing left for family.....even falling asleep at the table...complete w/nose in the mashed potatos one night!
Having watched her live like this....I would suggest researching this.

Sometimes there's a food allergy that can contribute to this. The most common one is wheat. You might try just swapping out spelt products for wheat products for a week or two and see what happens. The second most common one is cow dairy - again, you can try substituting goat dairy. But with urinary issues, the most likely culprit is wheat.

E. Mendenhall, ND

Has he been checked by a pediatric urologist? That might be a good idea, just to rule out any sort of physical issues.

We went through the same thing with our son. We tried EVERYTHING from restricting liquids in the evening after 6pm to an alarm especially for bed wetting, to counseling, to me and my husband waking him up several times a night. Nothing worked! It was so stressful until we saw a pediatrician who specialized in bed wetting. He promised us that he would outgrow it at some point. And he did. When he reached puberty. It was a long haul but the minute his voice started changing he never wet the bed again. So have hope. The hardest part for me was that our family felt very alone in this problem the older he got. It's not something you can talk about very easily. I'm glad you were able to ask on this wonderful source!