I read an artical about a month ago about the link between bed wetting and constipation, they found that children that go bm even regularly still have full bowels and they suggested upping the fiber intake and a fiber chew. I thought I'd give it a try with my 2.5yo and lo and behold its working. She was a regular pooper but they were on the small side not rabbit size but not a full... (well you get where I'm going), so I increased her veggies and fruit and gave her a chew and talk about a dramatic difference it has taken about 2 weeks and she has stopped having wet pull ups after sleeping 10hrs. I knew she was wanting to be dry bc she would wake when she wet her pull up so please dont think I did this to rush her bc I know you cant "train" for nighttime dryness.
The link between the two is the bowel being full is putting presure on the bladder hence the peeing when relaxed. So who know it would make such a difference?? I'm sure you can google the artical. Just wanted to share a bit of good info.
This is the first thing a pediatric urologist checks for. Then they look to see if there are any physical causes.
It is still more often than not a brain issue of the urine production not shutting off when the child goes to sleep.
I am very glad this is working for you, it doesn't work for many.
i have a good friend who is a nurse practitioner for a pediatric urologist, speciality is bed wetting. she told me the first hing they do is send kids for xrays to rule out constipation, in about 60% of the cases the kids are constipsted. they put those kids on miralax, usually takes 3-6 months but most of them stop wetting the bed after they get regular. It makes sense; full colon pushes on bladder so there is less room for the bladder to fill, bladder fils sooner, child wets bed. In addition a full colon will push on the bladder desensitizing it so the "full" signal doesn't get recognized and sent to the brain, child wets the bed. If you are struggling with bedwetting it's certainly worth ruling out constipation.
Great info. That could also explain our nighttime dryness, too. Hmmmm. We just gave up pull-ups about 2 weeks ago after her going dry for almost 2 weeks.....the same time she has started becoming more regular. She has dealt with constipation since she was 2 (and now is 4). I do supplement her with fiber gummies and have upped her greens (now that she will actually eat them!). Hmmmm. Interesting. :)
This is something I suspected with my daughter, but hadn't seen an article on it. She is dry at night now, but had occasional wet nights until she was 8. I did notice a connection between lack of BMs and wet nights. I do give her a fiber suplement now if I don't think she's gotten enough in her diet.
I'm not sure that I agree with this, or at least it hasn't been our experience. My daughter is super regular and didn't attain night time dryness until she was around 7. She's a super heavy sleeper and never woke up to pee. My son, also very regular, was night trained at 2 1/2, but would wake to pee and then go back to sleep.
Constipation may be a factor for some, but I also think that their bodies just have to be ready.
