My Soon to Be Eight Year Old Son

Do fret overly much over this problem as he will grow out of what parents consider a problem on his own. He is most likely a very sound sleeper and signals from bladder to brain are sluggish and slow. I had same problem with my child and this is what I was told to do and,you know it worked. It's kinda' like when they go days without eating, doctor told me that was okay that she would grow (and eat at her own pace.....not at mine)-lol pinkylois

That's really normal. Sometimes kids bladders don't keep up, and that can often cause accidents. Going before bed is a good idea, and limiting the amount he drinks at night.

I have a 7 year old boy and we had the same problem. I finally just said, nothing else to drink after dinner. If he needs to rinse his mouth after he brushes his teeth he's allowed to swish some water and then swallow a few sips.

It could also be that your son sleeps so heavily that he doesn't know that he has to go. Have you had him checked for any sleep disorders?

Hi-

I've recently read that even grinding teeth can cause accidents for kids. I'd check with your doc. You probably already know this, but I just saw a commercial about these new overnight "underwear" for older kids. Just a thought.

J.

I don't think you should stress about it. I think that bedwetting is sometimes inherited. I was 15 before I outgrew it and one of my sons was 16 before he outgrew it. Be understanding, make sure you have two sets of sheets for his bed all the time, and make it your fault that he can't sleep over. Let him go to have fun during the evening, but then around 10 or so, go pick him up and let him come home. My son was so stressed out over wetting the bed on a boy scout outing that he purposefully got hypothermia so that he had to come home.
Sometimes there are medical reasons for it, but the procedures to find out can be more uncomfortable than just dealing with the bedwetting. If you decide that you want to know for sure, make sure you talk to your son about the procedures with the doctor and let him make the final decision since it will affect him more than you. Boys are more sensitive about their bodies and privacy than girls even.
Whatever happens, don't allow any child to humiliate him or make him feel bad about it, because he really doesn't choose to wet the bed - it happens because he can't wake up or because his bladder isn't matured enough. This really is a common problem.

Buy Pull Ups and a really great set of PJs. The kind of PJ that he will be glad to show off to his friends. Take the stress out of the issue. Restricking a childs water intake sets them up to not want to drink water and we all know how important watrer is. Worring about wetting the bed can cause a child serious anxiety about going to sleep. There is nothing to worry about. We are not all made exactly the same. A childs bladder does not keep pace with the growth of the rest of the boddy. Take is easy and it willbe okay.

I would bring up your concern with his pediatrician. My son's doctor had to rule out infection first and then we sought other answers.

I would speak to his pediatrician about it. There are several options you might have. There is a drug called DDAVP that he can take before bed when going to friends' houses and for home there are bedwetting alarms that wake them up when they start to wet the bed. Let me know if this helps you at all. Good luck.

Treatment

Most children outgrow bed-wetting on their own. If there's a family history of bed-wetting, the child likely will stop at the age the parent did.

Limiting fluids before bedtime and double voiding — urinating at the beginning of the bedtime routine and then again just before falling asleep — may help.

You may want to encourage your child to delay daytime urination as well. If the bladder isn't completely full, the urge to urinate may fade within a few minutes. With practice, this simple "stretching exercise" may help your child's bladder hold more urine at night.

If your child is still wetting the bed by age 7 — and is motivated to stop — a doctor may recommend more aggressive treatment.

Moisture alarms
These small, battery-operated devices — available without a prescription at most pharmacies — connect to a moisture-sensitive pad on your child's pajamas or bedding. When the pad senses wetness, the alarm goes off. Ideally, the moisture alarm sounds just as your child begins to urinate — in time to help your child wake, stop the urine stream and get to the toilet. If your child is a heavy sleeper, another person may need to listen for the alarm.

If you try a moisture alarm, give it plenty of time. It often takes two weeks to see any type of response and up to 12 weeks to enjoy dry nights. Moisture alarms are highly effective, and they may provide a better long-term solution than medication does.

Medication
If all else fails, your child's doctor may prescribe medication to stop bed-wetting. Various types of medication can:

* Slow nighttime urine production. The drug desmopressin acetate (DDAVP) boosts levels of a natural hormone (anti-diuretic hormone, or ADH) that forces the body to make less urine at night. The medication is available as a pill or nasal spray. DDAVP has few side effects. The most serious is a seizure if the medication is accompanied by too many fluids.
* Change a child's sleeping and waking pattern. The antidepressant imipramine (Tofranil) may provide bed-wetting relief by changing a child's sleeping and waking pattern. The medication may also increase the amount of time a child can hold urine or reduce the amount of urine produced. Imipramine has few side effects for bed-wetters. Caution is essential, however. An overdose could be fatal.
* Calm the bladder. If your child has a small bladder, an anticholinergic drug such as oxybutynin (Ditropan) or hyoscyamine (Levsin, Levsinex) may help reduce bladder contractions and increase bladder capacity. Side effects may include dry mouth and facial flushing.

My sister-in-law used these methods with my nephew. He finally stopped bed wetting at age 12. He did use the nasal spray when he spent the night with friends and it worked. It is only for occasional use though.

If you have spoken to your pediatrician and/or a urologist and he is healthy, I might would look into why he doesn't get up and go to the bathroom during the night when needed. We have lots of nightlights in our house and there is not a dark spot. If that's not a problem, I hope it is something that he will grow out of. There might be pullup type of underpants even sized for smaller adults that would work and you could pack him a large baggie to put it in after the night has passed if he is spending the night with family/friends. That way the others wouldn't know and this might help the embarrasment. He would just go to the bathroom to put on other clothes and put the baggie in his overnight bag with his pajamas.

This is not an issue I have had to deal with, but someone very close to me has gone through it, only her son was 11. It took a lot of persistence on her part (with the pediatrician) but after some test were done, they fond out his bladder was smaller than normal. He did have to be placed on a Rx. that has helped a lot. But the Dr. said in time his bladder would grow to be a normal size.
They have the "diapers" for older kids if you wanted to get him some of those while you figure out what to do. But I would at least talk to the pediatrician about it. Maybe you could chart his accidents for a while and take that, along with some other research when you go to the Dr. (The internet would be my first place to gather information)

Hi A.,

I'm an expert on this subject.

My daughter started wetting the bed, every night, from the very beginning. I would put her in plastic panties and put several pair of training pants on her and she would wet them every night. She wouldn't wear a diaper. When she was five years old, I took her to a urologist. She had a bad bladder infection and it had back up all the way to her kidneys. He gave her medication and cleared it up, but she would still wet the bed. Then he gave her come nose spray....DDAVP nose spray. I would spray her nose, on each side, and then she would go to sleep. The next morning she was dry, and from then on, she was dry. She had to stay on the nose spray until she was ll years old.

The pituitary gland is the gland that tells the kidneys to stop making urine while you are sleeping. In my daughters case, and maybe your son, the pituitary wasn't signaling the kidneys to slow down at night, so she would wet the bed. The spray, is the same hormone that the pituitary sends out, when it is working right, and the brain is told to slow down on urine output.

She got to come off of the drops when she was 11 years old. The doctor said when she went through puberty, the pituitary would start working right and it did. She stopped the spray at 11 and she didn't wet the bed anymore.

K.

Hi A., My son still has this problem and he is 14! I took him to a urologist and they put him on a medicine that he takes an hour before bedtime. He is not allowed to drink at least 2 hours before bedtime and he is not allowed to have caffeinated drinks. He also "goes" right before bed. Lastly, I wake him up every morning around 6:30 and tell him to go to the bathroom.

If we follow the process, he's dry. So now we are following the process and I'm hoping he grows out of it soon!

Good luck.

I would suggest to take him to the doctor it could be medical disorder.

Hi A., my son used to this also at around age 5 I started noticing alot of urine in his underwear. I took him to the doctor and they ran some tests and found out he had a urethral reflux. When he goes to the bathroom his bladder does not completly empty. They put him on meds for a while. He is 12 now and occasionally has problems holding it, but they said in time he will out grow it. Maybe you need to talk with his doctor.

Hello A.. I have a 9 year old, almost 10, who sometimes still wets his bed. Normally if he is very tired or if he stays up late drinking more than normal. He has always been a bed wetter, but it is slowing down. So, just do what I do...get a cover for his mattress and just cut off the drinking at night. He will soon out grow it, I am sure.
K.