8 Yr Old Bed Wetting

No advice, just letting you know you are not the only one out there. My daughter is almost 6 and still wets the bed almost every night lately...she just sleeps so hard,she doesnt wake up to go. If we take her potty around 11 or 12, she is fine, but we are rarely up at that time anymore...

I wish you luck in finding the cause and a solution that works for you!

Okay, first of all, no 8 year old child would "choose" to pee in their pull-ups. Please don't be offended. It just makes me sad that people out there think a child pees the bed because they are lazy or don't care. I speak from experience. I wet the bed til I was about 9. I did not wake when I had the urge to go. I would even dream I was peeing in the toilet but would wake in the morning to a wet bed. It was horrible. Fortunately, my parents NEVER made me feel guilty or ashamed and I did grow out of it like most kids do. My oldest son also had the problem. He is 15 now and hasn't had a problem for about 3 years now. He too was an extremely heavy sleeper. Our pediatrician explained some of the causes of bed-wetting, one being a hormone that kicks in, usually during the potty training age that reduces the amount of urine produced at night. Sometimes it doesn't kick in. We used meds when he was about 11 and they worked until eventually he grew out of it. In the meantime, please support your son and understand his issue. Use a rubber mattress pad under his sheet and let him wear the pull-ups at night. Trust me, it will get better. By the way, it is more common in boys.

My son turned 8 in July, and he still wets. We tried the alarm, and the best thing I can say about it is that it allowed me to pinpoint WHEN he was actually going pee during the night.

Now, I get him out of bed (he never wakes up) and take him to the bathroom at 10:45 EVERY night. It's a pain, because sometimes I'd like to go to bed earlier, but so worth it. He rarely pees again during the night. I can tell the second he's up in the morning because I can hear him run into the bathroom to pee.

When he does have an accident, the water proof allergy pad I got for his mattress has been great. I can wash it quickly, then hang it over the shower rod to dry while he's at school and I am at work. It's dry when we get home and then I can wash his sheets. (It also helps to have a spare set in case he pees during the night.

It takes patience, and more patience, and eventually he'll grow out of it. It just takes some kids longer to develop those bladder muscles and longer for the brain to realize that the bladder is full.

I'm going to try the alarm on my 5 year old daughter over Thanksgiving break to see when she pees. Hopefully it won't be at 3:00 in the morning! Hang in there!

You need to expose the matress to sun light to get rid of the smell. Haul it outside with the stinky side toward the sun. Make sure that automatic sprinklers don't get it. You might also use some of that pet enzyme cleaner for urine on the matress, THEN let it dry in the sun. DON'T pour the enzyme cleaner on the matress. Get a rag and wipe it on. My 5 year old still wets if I don't wake her up to pee too. Good luck to every one.

K.

My kids are younger, so I don't have advice on what to do, but I did see a mattress cover in the One Step Ahead catalog that tucks in over the sheets. I think they are $30 for the twin/full, and they also come in a larger size. Here's the site address: www.onestepahead.com If they do what they say (absorb all the pee), then you shouldn't have to do the sheets every time. Borax is also a good odor remover for the carpet and mattress. Find it in the laundry section with the laundry boosters (like oxyclean). Hang in there!!

Hi- Sorry about the situation, I know it's hard as my daughter wet the bed until about your sons age. We tried everything short of the really drastic stuff (like drugs or alarms) with no results. We'd get her up, half asleep in the middle of the night, she wouldn't be able to go and then in the morning she'd be wet, very frustrating! Slowly she just started doing it less and less until she got over it completely at a little past 8 years. Please be very careful with the drug solution. I never really looked into it as when you google the drug named below there are some scary warnings. Also, the child has to remain on the drug in order for it to be effective, it is not a "cure". It doesn't seem worth having your child on a drug unless there is a medical reason for it. I know the bed cleaning is a real pain. When she was older, I would have my daughter strip her sheets in the morning and take to laundry room. We tried to NEVER make it a negative big deal as it is just totally out of their control, I'm sure anyone would stop if they could. I don't think wearing a pullup will make him feel it's OK as I'm sure he is totally unconscious when it happens. My doctor said "heavy sleeper, small bladder and genetics" he also said most kids will stop on their own around 8-10 years. Do whatever makes it easiest on you. I say thank God for pullups as in the old days the mess and embarrassment had to have been awful. Good luck and remember this too shall pass!

My oldest son wet until recently actually ... and he's 15. We tried all the other "solutions" out there too. No drinking after 4pm, waking him up before we went to bed to go to the bathroom, etc etc etc. NOTHING stopped the wetting.

I had a brother who wet until he was around 10 or so and an uncle who still wet occassionally into his early 20's. So I knew it was a genetic thing and would clear up on it's own.

We went with the pull ups and a plastic sheet on his bed under the regular sheets, that way the mattress didn't get wet, for a little while. Then we eventually ended up going with medication, DDAVP, and it worked FANTASTICALLY.

One of the main questions our pediatrician asked when we talked about solutions was "has he ever been dry at night?" and for us the answer was No. Which let him know that it wasn't something emotional that was causing it, but rather physical. My son's body was bigger than the glands that control all that, he was the size of the average 12 year old at 8.

If there have been extended periods of dryness at night then it's more likely some sort of emotional upheaval causing the wetting. And talking to the child to find what's upsetting them would probably work.

My pediatrician told me to not worry about it too much(and to NOT blame my son), he had never known anyone who graduated from high school still wetting the bed every night and my son wouldn't either.