Bedwetting - Quincy, MI

Hi C..

My stepson is 8 1/2 years old and had/has bedwetting issues. We took him to his pediatrician, which referred us to a urologist. There is not anything wrong with his bladder, but he still has accidents. There are many reasons that children wet. (Examples: stress, producing too much urine during the night, etc...) It is important to eliminate bladder problems and as many triggers as possible. My son is also a sound sleeper, so he usually did not wake up until he had already went in his pants a little bit.

Our plan of attack is the following:
1. He takes DDAVP to decrease urine production at night.
2. We limit his fluid intake 45 minutes to an hour and a half before bedtime.
3. He uses the bathroom right before he gets into bed.
4. If he has had a 'big' day, I snag him out of bed halfway through the night for him to pee. He goes right back to sleep afterward without a problem.
5. If he does wet, he cleans himself up, changes his clothes and has extra sheets and blankets for his bed.
6. Our most important rule: He must take responsibility for getting everything cleaned up. He doesn't like to take the time to do this, so it keeps him from wetting out of laziness or 'being too tired'. If he tries to hide the fact that he wet, then and only then does he get into trouble. We have different colored underwear for him, so we know what color he wore to bed and make sure that is the same pair he has on in the morning We emphasize honesty and accountablilty for consistency, which all kids need.
7. If he is at someone else's home or there is not a plastic cover for the mattress/furniture, he usually will wear a goodnite pull-up. He doesn't even have to tell anyone he has it on, so he doesn't get embarrassed.
8. We try to use positive reinforcement of staying dry, because we don't want to hurt his feelings or damage his self-esteem. But, we tell him it is a better idea to stay dry.

It is very difficult to deal with wetting, because it gets very frustrating, but we have maybe 2 or 3 accidents a month now, instead of 3 or 4 a week!

I hope this helps. Good luck and take care. A.

Bedwetting has been an issue in my husbands family for years. His brother wet the bed till he was 13. My niece (she is 6) currently does that but they put her on a medicine that helps with it. She has only been on it a few months and she is down to take one pill a week. I think it has trained her bladder to hold it till she gets up. It would be something to look into. Also, they do outgrow this but I would check with a urologist just to make sure. If you live in northern Macomb county, Tri Country Urologist on Hall Rd. have great doctors!

My son is six and he has the same problem. Lately I've been waking him up to go to the bathroom right before I got to bed (around 11:30) and he's been able to make it through the night dry.

Some kids just sleep to soundly to get up, and some kids' bladders don't mature as quickly as the rest of their bodies.

I think they will definitely grow out of it; there aren't too many bed-wetting adults walking around out there.

I have a 9 year old son with the same problem. I talked to the pediatrician about it. He did a urinalysis just to make sure there was no infection, which there wasn't. There is medication you can put them on, but the way it works sounds kinda scarey to me, so I opted not to do that. from what I understand the medication slows kidney function at night so there is no urine produced. Anyway, my brother had the same problem when he was little & my mom said he outgrew it. I believe my son is starting to outgrow it also because he has gone about 1 month without wetting the bed. I just buy those Goodnights to give us both some peace of mind. Good Luck!

Hello i have a bed wetter and he would sometimes even pee his pants during the day specially at school so we had to do something a 6 year old cant be wetting his pants in first grade hes gonna be teased to death.I took him to the doctors and they gave him a nose spray he just squirts in his nose and its like a miracle no more accidents he takes it 1 hour before bed. It is awsome he can even have a glass a pop at 7 and go to bed at 8 and no accidents.

My son is in the same boat. He's turning 5 in March, and has only a few times made it through the night dry. It's about a fifty/fifty chance these days. It's so frustrating. But, we found that when we told him that we would buy him this new bed he really likes, when he stops wetting the bed, he was alot more driven to try hard. We told him that we know he would not want to ruin his cool, new bed, so we have to wait until he's done wetting the bed he has. For us, it is extra frustrating, because we cannot use Pull-ups, or Goodnights, for him. He was very difficult to teach to use the toilet for bowel movements, because he knew he would get that diaper at the end of the day. So, he immediately started using the toilet, when we stopped using Pull-ups. But, now, if we try to let him wear a Pull-up to bed only, 9 times out of 10, he'll use it for a bowel movement, too. So, we find the progress comes quicker without that crutch. I suggest fitting the matress with a plastic cover, and continue to just deal with the extra laundry. Find the incentive your child needs to help you. And, avoid allowing drinking for a few hours before bed, each night. If your child is really thirsty, maybe a few sips. But, the less liquid taken in, the less that needs to come out. It also helps to make sure your child is getting enough sleep. If your child is overly tired at bedtime, it will make it harder to wake up to go to the toilet.

I acually had that problem when I was young. Sometimes children are in such a deep sleep that they just don't wake. My mom took me to the doctor, and he did all the tests and nothing was wrong. Basically my mom started getting me up to go to the bathroom before she went to bed. Some nights I did'nt even remember her getting me up but it worked. It's weird I remember having dreams about having to go, dreams that I was in huge bathrooms with huge toilets. lol Anyway I did out grow it and learned to listen to my dreams wake up and go. I think I was around 5 or 6. L. O

Hi C., my son, who is now 22, wet the bed until he was 14. It was hard on both of us, he wouldn't go over to anyones house, and wouldn't let anyone come over here. He wouldn't drink anything after 6 at night, even earlier sometimes, set an alarm to wake him up in the middle of the night, nothing worked for him. Our family doctor kept saying he would outgrow it when he hit his growth spurt. I didn't know what to tell him, he hated it, was overly embarrassed, which I didn't blame him. I just changed his bed non stop, didn't mention it in front of anyone, even his siblings didn't know. I took him to a pediatrician, who was going to do these tests, which sounded awful, give him nose drops that would shut down his system, then he would have to learn to make himself go to the bathroom. He and I both agreed that wasn't something he wanted to go through. So we just dealt with the bed wetting, and sure enough, as soon as he grew, he stopped. He never wet the bed again. So for him, it was just growing. I didn't have this site to find out if anything else could or would help, I tried anything anyone suggested that sounded reasonable. I didn't want to make things worse for him either. Good luck to you and your sons:)Sue

My son has the same problem, and for him it is gnetic, I have had an ultrasound done on his bladder and I have tried every trick I have ever come across, I finally just started putting him in "good nights" for my own piece of mind, you know how frustrating it gets washing sheets every day. If he doesnt grow out of it within the year, I am going to get him put on meds, to help him grow out of it, you may want to talk to your doc about doing the same thing!