Bedwetting?

My daughter did the same thing, and I, like you, starting thinking of ways to help her out. We started out waking her up to take her potty, the urologist said to quit, as we were not allowing her bladder to fill up, therefore causing more trouble. Also, cut out the liquids. Didn't help and wouldn't help according to another specialist. They don't wet because they drink too much. We have a wonderful, loving, happy home life, so that wasn't it either. Pediatrician tried her on meds, didn't stop her from wetting at all (and after researching the meds, I would not let her continue to take them-most are types of anti-depressants!) A lot of specialists say it is a sleep disorder that causes this and I believe them, just don't have a way of getting treatment for it in the rural location I live in. I do what the experts tell me, wait it out. They say she will outgrow it, in time....She is 7 now, wears pull-ups nightly and sometimes goes weeks without an accident, other times it is every night for a week. Oh, I also tried a reward chart (sticker for every dry night, after 7 stickers-get a prize, make it to 10, get a better prize, 20-even better, etc. This was also the "wrong" thing to do. I have found that my daughter wants to quit even more than I want her to quit. We don't pressure her is any way, we help her clean up if she wets her pullups and we treat her no differently than if she didn't wet overnight. When she goes to bed, she falls asleep hard and fast and sleeps very deeply. My sister is a sleep and respiratory therapist and states that my daughter does not go through the normal sleep patterns that she should. Neither do I and guess what. . . I wet the bed when I was little, too. She had her first sleep over and guess how surprised I was to find myself being pulled aside by two other moms to explain to me that their daughter's wear pullups and asked if I could help them change privately, etc. I took those two and my daughter to change for bed in a room away from the others (we had 11 girls there) and they were so relieved and happy to know they weren't alone! They have nothing to be ashamed of, this is not controlled by them, it is out of their control (literally). I am being patient. I can't honestly say that I will wait until she is 10 years old before trying another remedy or med, as I know it is her greatest desire to be normal, but for now I wait....Good Luck, you will find many, many, many more people out there are facing the same problem.

In your case (all of a sudden being wet) I would say to call your pedi. My son has been a bedwetter since day one, and can tell you that with him the only thing anyone wants to do is give him one of those alarms you wear on your underwear. I had one as a child and my problem got worse so I do not reccomend them at all.

Anyway, bedwetting can be caused by numerous things. Not enough of the hormone that "shuts down" urine production at night, too small of a bladder, an over-active bladder, and on and on. Do understand though that typical bedwetting is not considered a problem until children are about 8 years old (and even then, not a big deal until after puberty)!

The urologist we saw said to cut way back on caffine, chocolate and citrus...cut out liquids after 4pm and only small amounts with dinner...make sure he uses the bathroom EVERY 2 hours and sits/stands for at least 2 minutes every time (to make sure the bladder is completly empty), and most importantly that the problem would not change if the child did not think it was a problem. My son is 9 and wets the bed nearly every night. I have a waterproof protector on his bed and I wash sheets daily (as goodnights are WAY TOO expensive to use every night). My son does not feel his bedwetting is a problem so he is not ready to make an effort to change. So as much as I push, he will not use the restroom every 2 hours, he will not stay in there for 2 minutes, he sneaks drinks well into the evening...so I have stopped fighting. I figure as long as nothing is medically wrong (and we have had many tests), and he is OK with it...eventually he will decide that this is not what big boys do. Until then, I have choosen not to fight this battle.

That is probably more information than you needed, but I also thought it might be helpful to hear what multiple doctors have told us.

Hope you get some answers.

Any change that dramatic should be reported to the pediatrician, in my opinion. I know kids have accidents, but not usually on a nightly basis after being completely potty trained. Does he have any other symptoms? Drinking a lot more, losing weight, seem more tired, or just doesn't act like he feels good? Maybe calling his pedi and talking to him/her would be a good idea.
K.

My son is 4 (almost5). He has been potty trained since 2 1/2. He is in the 95% for height, etc... He has until recently wet the bed at night. We stopped liquids, woke him up, etc... I finally asked the pediatrician. He said that often boys will have issues at night until they are 6 or 7. So, we purchased good nights and all got a good nights sleep. About a month ago, he stopped wetting the good nights...we started a sticker system and he is staying dry. This was all right after a growth spurt.

I would talk to your pediatrician to rule other things out, but it is not unusual to have a 4-5 year old wet the bed at night. Mine is also a very heavy sleeper.

Good Luck!

My DH had this problem growing up and the dr. told my MIL that it was caused by his bladder not growing as quickly as his body. At that time, they had him hold his urine longer during the day before he went potty to help make more room. I don't know that it is advisable to do that now, I think it could cause bladdar infections. I would speak to your son's pedi before you try anything. You might want to try some of them GoodNites sleeping underware for the time being to prevent wet sheets and having to wake both yourself and your son for a late night potty run.

Good luck!

HI!

Normal, yes. I think it is most definitely due to the growth spurt. My 7 year old has had the same difficulty on a few occasions. She'll go for months without wetting the bed, then all of a sudden we'll have a week or more where she wets every night.

Frustrating! But we must always remember not to make her feel bad about it. We wrangled with the whys. Am I giving her too much fluid at night? Am I doing something else wrong? Is it her? Is something wrong emotionally? Is she being lazy? resistant? careless? To all of those we decided that no, that wasn't the problem.

She is a very deep sleeper, though. We were thinking that maybe she sleeps so deeply she cannot wake up enough to get out of the bed by the time she started wetting. Should there be consequences for deep sleeping? Well of course not, but it doesn't mean we have to be happy about it...

She's seven, so it's different than your 5 yo, but we were experiencing this before too. And if the analogy continues, you might be in for some more surprises in the future. Instead of consequences, we have her pull all the sheets and stuff off the bed, change her panties, and sleep the rest of the night in the guest room. It doesn't bother her nearly as much as it does me! But that's just because I have to wash her stuff...

I am certain these spells coincide with growth. I am also certain that in our case, limiting fluids is of almost no help, if it's going to happen, it's going to happen. It's just her bladder is too small for her growing body. It self-resolves fairly quickly (sometimes days, sometimes weeks, and rarely a month or more).

We do talk about it with her some, and we decided together the last time that we'd put a soft beach towel (doubled for extra absorbancy) under her, and we said that she must try and wake herself up the minute she suspects wetting has started (she feels wetness in her panties). And she does try, and we've averted total 'elimination' several times that way. She likes it because it's easier than having to pull all the sheets off, she just pulls the towel and changes panties and goes back to bed. And I like it because it's so much easier than washing the entire bed. (We've always kept the waterproof matress pads on our girls' beds, so that's recommended.)

We're not always successful that way. But we start this process the first night she accidentally wets, and it continues until her body has caught up and she no longer is wetting the towel. She feels a lot more dignified with this plan in place. It's all about having a plan to avoid annoyance (she'll pick up on it if we're annoyed, so I don't want to give that away, don't want her thinking I'm mad at her, or that she's done something wrong.)

One other note: I have a 5 year old who has never once wet the bed since potty training. Each child is different.

Best of luck! I hope this is of some help!
J.

My son had this problem. We stopped giving him milk to drink after about 4 or 5 PM each day and the bedwetting stopped. I heard about this after doing much research on the problem. It was the only thing I had not tried and it worked! Something to do with how your body processes the milk. He can drink several glasses of water right before bed, no problem, but one glass of milk causes the wetting every time.
C

Take him to see his Dr. to rule out infections. These can cause him to wet the bed and have nothing to do with his ability to make it all night. If that checks out then I would consider other things but sounds like a possible medical issue to me.

good luck!
S.

I recently became worried about my 5yo daughter. She has never wet the bed since becoming fully potty trained and she's wet it twice in the past couple weeks. So I called my best friend...

My best friend's stepson had an incontinence problem (something to do with his bladder not going "dormant" as it's supposed to when sleeping) when he was younger, and so I called her. I asked how often constituted incontinence and she said their doctor told them twice a week or more was considered incontinent. So my advice would be, either call your doctor's nurse and ask if they feel it warrants a dr's visit and if not, could they give you some insight as to why this could be happening, or just go ahead and schedule a visit to make sure things are ok.

I am going through the same thing with my four year old. She was completely trained during the day for about a year before we tried training her at night. Now she has accidents throughout the day and at night as well. I have followed the same procedure you have as far as limiting intake of liquid at night and getting her to go the the bathroom before going to bed. I have tried reminding her throughout the day to go to the bathroom, but it appears to be getting progressively worse. I am told that it is normal for children to have accidents at night up to the age of 6. I wonder if she is just not ready to be trained at night.

Like the other poster said, sometimes bedwetting is caused by the bladder not going dormant or shutting off at night. This is caused by a lack of a particular hormone. Yep, there's a hormone for that too! Some kids just don't make enough from the beginning, but usually do with time.

Maybe your sons growth spurt is causing him not to make enough of the hormone right now, so his kidneys don't tell the body to stop making urine and thus the bladder is filled etc.

It could be alot of things and it's probably just a phase but you should see his doctor about it.

If it turns into a long phase there are sites to help you... try the bedwettingstore.com for info and tools.