My son will be 7 next month and is still bed wetting (he wears goodnights). We had some issues in the fall with occasional daytime accidents. At that point our doctor sent us to a pediatric urologist for further testing. (Busy child/not taking time for potty was daytime diagnosis and has been resolved.) He did note that our sons tonsils were large and asked questions about his sleep patterns. He also stated that approximately 70% of bed wetting children stop wetting completely within 3 weeks of tonsil removal. Has anyone else heard of this? Our son has frequent sore throats so this would be a consideration anyway but don't want to do surgery if not necessary. Any thoughts on this would be helpful.
Thank you.
Hello everyone and thank you for your responses.
I took my son to the doctor this morning and now we are off to the Ear/Nose/Throat doctor on Monday. Our regular doctor also asked about sleep patterns and "hyperactivity" which can stem from poor sleep. (I've always thought he was just a very active boy, but I have sleep problems and I had always been restless with poor concentration until I was diagnosed & treated) I have done a lot of research online and sleep problems are quite often mentioned with bed wetting. Our doctor said that with the information from the urologist, large tonsils, snoring, sore throats and hyperactivity he is recommending a tonsillectomy but sending us to ENT doctor for a second opinion. I will give another posting once we have all the final results and let you know if the bed wetting stops with this.
**Update 5/16/08
We went to the ENT and found out some interesting information. Tonsils are rated 1-4 based on size. (Normal is 1) Nick's left tonsil is a 3 and his right is a 4. Tonsillectomy is highly recommended at 4 because the size can create airway problems. Due to this we have scheduled a tonsillectomy (and possible adenoid removal dependent on what the doctor finds in surgery) for June 18th. It was after this information that I brought up the bed wetting issue. The doctor said he has been looking over some information relating sleep problems (apnea, snoring,etc) and bed wetting but hasn't read enough to give me a firm answer. He did note that some children outgrow sleep issues between 9-12 yrs old and that could be the relation to "outgrowing" the bed wetting. Wow, some of this seems more confusing than the start. I've decided to not worry about the bed wetting at this point and concentrate on the sleep/breathing issues as these are more important.
Hi. My son is 5 1/2. We have occasional accidents. He has a sleep study scheduled tomorrow. If you email me directly I can follow up and tell you what they say. He has HUGE tonsils and serious sleep issues so I am thinking he may need to have his tonsils out. The sleep study will tell me more....
____@____.com
i have not heard of the connection of bedwetting and Tonsils but so far having removed my daughters tonsils has been the best thing we could have done for her. I was told that it is easier on the child to remove them when they are younger my daughter was a bit older 9 yrs and it was emotionally tough on her. I only vagley remember mine being removed at the age of 5. she is 11 now and still remembers it.
I had both of my boy's tonsils removed. It is not bad at all.
I don't have any experience or knowledge of the wetting issue.
But let me tell you I would do it again in a heartbeat.
JKing
PS~ Their wives will that me someday too.
Both of the SNORREDDDD honorably. thats gone now.
I've never heard of the tonsil connection; however, I do have experience with a bedwetting child. First of all, it's more common in boys than in girls as far as continuing to wet the bed for an extended time beyond toilet training. Second, it's not that unusual for a 7 year old to be wetting the bed. Some children are deeper sleepers than others and it takes longer for them to respond to the signals to wake up. One of my brothers was 11 or 12 when he finally stayed dry every night. One of my sons was 12 when he was able to stay dry every night. One time his fifth grade class was going on an overnight field trip so I accompanied them as a chaperone so I could discreetly slip him dry underwear and a dry sleeping bag in case he had an accident. Anyway, it is frustrating and we tried many things such as waking him up a couple hours after he fell asleep, restricting liquids after dinner, using a bedwetting alarm. All of those things were minimally effective. It is of utmost importance not to punish or ridicule a bedwetting child or to make too big a deal of it. They truly cannot help wetting the bed, and punishment, etc. will only serve to make it worse, while of course negatively affecting a child's self-esteem. Placing a rubber sheet under the regular sheet was the biggest lifesaver for us and just remember, he will gradually quit wetting the bed. As frustrating as it is for both you and your son, it really will get better.
Like two others said, try chiropractic. It's much less invasive than surgery on tonsils, and worth trying first! I've worked in chiropractic offices for the last 13 years and have seen many kids stop wetting the bed after a few adjustments. Good luck!
As a child growing up I had night time accidents until I was 12. Of course mine had nothing to do with my tonsils and I have never heard of it. My younger brothers had frequent nighttime accidents until they were 10 or 11 as well. As frustrating as it may be its a matter of the bladder gaining maturity. Of course having your tonsils removed is a fairly simple procedure and if your son keeps getting sore throats then he might be happier after healing. I would be curious to know if you do get the surgery if it helped with the bedwetting.
My son is 8 and is still having the problem. His tonsils were huge so we decided to have them removed and it is a good thing because his adnoids were blocking 90% of his airway. Unfortunately he is still a really deep sleeper and still wets. I read that many kids will grow out of it by 12, but it is still very frustrating and until he stops there will probably be no sleepovers unless we can find someone with the same problem that won't judge.
If you are concerned about the connection, I would ask the doctor that recommended the tonsillectomy to help relieve the bedwetting for the reasearch articles that show the statistics/proof. There are also physical therapists who can treat pediatric incontinence. Sometimes, they have ideas that help, especially with the deep sleepers and such.
The connection may be related to sleep apnea due to the tonsils and leading to disturbed sleep patterns that may be a factor in night time wetting; if you are worried, it is a great idea to ask the doc for articles or references about the connection, or look it up on Google Scholar. If there IS any chance of sleep apnea, I would REALLY recommend going ahead with the surgery... it DOES solve obstructive sleep apnea, which can have some serious effects on the child. My son had the surgery at about 3 years old and it was a HUGE change for him; I also found that I slept better when I was not woken up to try to see if he was breathing!
It sounds like there are a lot of things to check out. The alarm worked for both of my kids within a week!
P.,
I haven't experienced this problem myself (my daughter isn't even two, yet!) but I remember my mother-in-law mentioning a similar situation with her nephew who stayed with them for awhile when he was about your son's age. They were warned that he had a problem with bed wetting but he never had any trouble at their house! But he was always asking for milk since they didn't really drink milk in my husband's family when he was growing up. Finally, my MIL got him some milk - he immediately started wetting the bed, again! So it seemed to be related to drinking milk. I don't know if there's been any research done on this connection - it's just a thought. Also, I've noticed that my daughter seems to wet more frequently during the day when I give her milk. Just something to consider!
Good Luck!
R.
when my kids had that problem I took them to the chiropractor. worked every time. Even for a 12 year old, foster kid, who'd had a abusive history. Actually this was how we discovered that a chiropractor could effect bed wetting. It can be from the nerve innervation in the mid back.
Good luck Ang
Hi P. I have the exact same problem with mie but he dosent have sore throats though. I would be so greatful if you let me know any advise that works this so frustrating for us as well as expensive goodnights are not cheap. I purchased a "potty alarm" and am going to try that but there not cheap either I just got lucky and found one for almost nothing. If this does work I'll pass it your way to try. Please keep in touch and I will send you my email address in a "message" to you and maybe we can find something to beat this battle.
D. ( married sahm of 2 boys 2and6 1/2)
I just wanted to share with you what happened with my sister. She wet the bed until she was 11. When my mom took her to the doctor for this, they said she was missing the hormone that "tells" us to hold it while we are sleeping. She got a prescription nasal spray that she did not have to use for very long and has not had any problems since.
My aunty had the same problem with her son. She just made sure before he went to bed that he went to the bathroom first and she didnt give him anything to drink before going to bed either. Also sometimes if their is a night light in the bathroom then it makes it easier for them to wanna get out of bed. Id also put one in the room as well.
HI, P.,
You may not believe what I am going to ask...do you use fabric softener? If so, try not using it and see if anything changes. That is what happened to us. Our daughter never had any accidents in bed, but then she started having them every single night and the only thing different was that I had used a liquid fabric softener on the sheets. (And, because she was wetting them everynight, I washed them everynight and used more fabric softener!) Once I stopped the fabric softener, she stopped wetting the bed at night.
I probably wouldn't have caught the connection right away, but my daughter has a sensitivity to Blue#1 and from having read about that I had recalled something about fabric softener/bed wetting. Fabric softener is apparently one of the most toxic substances you can bring into the house. Her reaction could have been caused by Blue#1 being in the softener, but I could not confirm if that was in the softener as the company won't release ingredients without a doctor's note. Anyhow, what I read online showed a connection in some cases between bedwetting and fabric softener. Good luck!
Never heard of that, but the bedwetting alarm helped my son very quickly.
I would question the idea that his tonsils are a potential cause of his bed wetting. My five-year-old daughter has always had enlarged tonsils and has not had any trouble with bedwetting. This seems like a radical step. Have you considered seeing a chiropractor? The nerves that control your internal organs flow from your spine and if they are pinched, this can affect how the bodies' systems function. I have had both of my children adjusted since they were infants and they are both extremely healthy. Also, maybe there is a psychological issue? I went through some issues when my daugther was potty training that were purely psychological. Just some thoughts.
Good luck.
Barb
