Bed-Wetting?
Saturday, July 24th, 2010 at
7:51 pm
Sir J asked:
Hey we have a 6 year old son. Does anybody know a good solution to get him to stop wetting the bed at night. We’ve tried everything in the freakin book. Help us please lol thanks
Hey we have a 6 year old son. Does anybody know a good solution to get him to stop wetting the bed at night. We’ve tried everything in the freakin book. Help us please lol thanks
Tagged with: Bed Wetting • Freakin Book • Good Solution
Filed under: Bed Wetting
Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!
Well, time to get yourself a new book.
Well it would help if you gave him nothing to drink for the last one or two hours before he goes to bed.
You should have the doctor check him out to rule out any underlining kidney bladder problems and if all is well,,,,,,
Wait it out. Sometimes, children (puppies too) just do not have control. Best thing to do is to put a cheap shower curtain on bed then put sheets. His kidneys will grow as he does and he will outgrow this.
This is totally NORMAL. It is normal for some kids to wet the bed up to age 9-10 years. Their body and bladder are growing at different rates and sometimes accidents happen. If mom or dad were bedwetters, it makes it more likely for the child to have the problem too.
If you haven’t done so yet, get a referal to a urologist. Get a urinalysis done and get an ultrasound done to make sure all the plumbing is in working order.
Consider seeing a chiropractor and staring DHA supplements. (More on this below.) These things REALLY helped my son, until we ran out of money for chiropractic treatments. (Insurance stinks!)
I have an 8 year old bedwetter.
My son’s story: Our stuggle with enuresis
Keithen turned 8 years in February and he still wets the bed at night and sometimes has accidents during the day. Here is a little about our journey with enuresis.
When my son turned 5 he was bedwetting every night and having at least one, usually more, accidents each day. Our family doctor did a urinalysis to make sure he didn’t have any infections or anything and that came back normal. He referred us to a urologist. The urologist put him on Ditropan. He also ordered an u/s. I filled the perscription and waited a bit, unsure if I wanted to give it to him. We decided to wait on the u/s, feeling pretty sure that this was not physical but instead a discipline one. (Didn’t care if he was wet…wouldn’t stop what he was doing to go…engrossed in play…we saw a pattern to when accidents happened…etc.)
That wasn’t working so we tried the meds – I think we did a total of 3 doses of Ditropan. He HATED it. There was no pretty color or flavoring to it to make it palatable to kids. It smelled very strong and tasted nasty. The side effects were horrible. He would get dizzy and he fell asleep in the middle of the day. With the start of Kindergarten coming up soon, I felt the side effects were unacceptable. I didn’t want him getting sleepy like that when he was in school and he was simply not himself on the medication. We stopped them – like I said I think we tried 3 doses. We struggled through the rest of the year on our own.
Around his 6th birthday, someone on the Mothering boards suggested chiropractic to me as a treatment for enuresis. We were open to the idea and decided it was worth a try. Through a network of local mothers, we found a chiropractor with special training in treating kids.
We started treatments 3 times per week. This did seem to help. The first time that he woke up dry, I honestly cried. I was so happy for him to see that he was making progress. And I was so relieved that maybe we had found an answer. At our next appointment I had to choke back tears of joy and relief as I told our chiropractor our good news. I even asked to give him a hug because I was so deeply grateful for the help he had given my son.
Shortly after staring treatment, he was waking up dry about once every two weeks – a huge accomplishment compared to how things had been! And his number of daytime accidents decreased. Around this same time we had a checkup with our family doc and with his urologist. We refused to try the meds again because of the side effects. We reported that the chiropractic treatment was helping and agreed to do an ultrasound. The ultrasound came back normal.
As his chiropractic scans got better and his accidents decreased, his visit frequency decreased. After a couple of months of chiropractic treatment, our chiropractor suggested that we try DHA supplements. These made a HUGE difference for us. This was probably the point that nighttime accidents went down to once a week or so. Daytime accidents at this point were reduced to ones that seemed undeniably behavioral (only wetting while playing on the computer). We were doing so much better!
You may wonder why the DHA supplements were recommended and how they help. Children with enuresis have increased levels of prostaglandin E2 and nitric oxide. Omega-3 fatty acids are known to inhibit the synthesis of prostaglandin E2 and renal nitric oxide. Bed-wetting children have an underdeveloped region of the brain that controles nighttime micturition (as noted by their inappropriate startle response). Omega-3 fatty acids play a critical role in the development of and function of the CNS including micturition control and startle response. Nations with the lowest prevalence of bed-wetting children consume more than double the fish/seafood as compared to the nations with the highest prevalence of bedwetting children.
A week before his 7th birthday, I was frustrated once again. He had backslid. He was no longer cooperating with taking his DHA and he was wetting the bed almost every night. (He still wears pullups to bed.) He had been having a daytime accident several days per week again. I still think those are mostly behavoral – tied in to computer/gameboy/etc. – activities where he is super focused. Chiropractic visits are now only once every 2 weeks as his body looks good, so I don’t think the increase in accidents was due to a physical problem.
We have gone through periods of taking his Gameboy away waiting for him to go a week with no daytime accidents. A month after he turned 7, things seemed to be looking up. He was having occasional dry nights and was having more dry days than wet ones.
I think I do need to get him back on the DHA on a regular basis as the drop in the DHA levels in his body may be creating some of our problems. I may have to find ways to sneak it into his food because he has been avoiding taking the pills for a while now. I also saw a DHA chew that looks kind of like a Starburst candty at Meijer. I was thinking about trying those, but it’s $15 for the package and what if he hates them?!
Anyway…we had to stop seeing the chiropractor a year ago in April because we couldn’t afford it anymore. He has definately regressed BIG TIME since then.
I wish we could afford to go back to regular adjustments because I know he would improve. But the insurance pays very little for it. I get sad every time I think about the fact that we can’t afford this anymore and I know how much it helped him.
In Kindergarten he only had 2 or 3 accidents at school all year long. Then, in first grade, I think he had 2 or 3 accidents at school which were “giggle pees” when he was laughing too hard with a friend in gym class and at a class party. He’s had a couple of accidents this year in 2nd grade as well. Basically just on the bus…..poor kid has nearly an hour bus ride so if he forgets to go before he gets on the bus, he’s hosed! Anyway, I’m relieved that it hasn’t been a BIG problem for him at school. I remember that my cousin was “that kid” in grade school who was always being sent to the class for clean clothes. I remember the stigma that it can carry to be the “stinky kid” who wets his pants. I am thankful that he doesn’t seem to be dealing with that at school.
Since we can no longer afford regular chiropractic treatments, we have recently put him on Desmopressin. It seems to be helping with our nighttime wetting incidents. He has had 2 dry nights this past week. The Desmopressin does not have the bad side effects that the Ditropan had. I wish we had not been able to resort to meds, but our medical insurance only pays for a limited number of chiropractic visits while our drug plan gives us $10 prescriptions.
Most kids will out grow it on their own. Try to remember it’s not the kids fault. Usually it’s because the body has grown faster than the bladder. It simply can’t hold it. Your son is probably close to out growing it now. My daughter had the same problem and she finally quit around 6 or 7.
Usually this is a physical issue. His bladder is either small or his bladder sphincter is. not developed enough. Time will resolve this.
The absolute worst thing you can do is to shame or punish the boy. The effects of this could hurt him and your relationship for a very long time. Accept that you need to invest in a couple of mattress covers and may be washing sheets daily for awhile.
It’s always a good idea to discuss this with his pediatrician to rule out any underlying problems that may be contributing to this.
Dont let him drink fluids at least 2 hours before bed and try to get some diapers cuz that could take a while, my uncle had the same problem until he was 15, i know that buyin diapers doesnt help but better than buying a new mattress
The best thing for your son is for you to focus on protecting his delicate self-esteem and NOT the bedding (they can be washed…again and again and again.) Try Pull-ups overnight for older children. We also tried bed wetting monitors that beep and vibrate at the first signs of dampness (Malena). Short of trying everything in the book, your son may need more time to develop physiologically to sleep through the night without wetting. I would encourage you to check with your pediatrician to make sure that there is no biological cause; but, my 21 yr old daughter bed wet until she was 12 yr old because she simply had a weak bladder. I did so much damage in those early years disciplining something that she could not control. When I finally grew up a little, I was better able to help her deal with her own insecurities about her bed wetting (this was long before Pull-ups were an option). By the way, she has not had an accident in 9 years.
some times boy bladders are just small for their age my brother wetted the bed for a long time (10 or 11) the only solution we found was that when my dad woke up he usually did in the middle of the nite he would wake him up and take him to the bathroom it stopped him from wetting and no need for the pull ups or whatever hopeflly he’ll get in the habit
First of all… welcome to the club! This is one you probably never thought you’d join, but at least you can know you’re not alone.
As the “Queen of Pee” – I’m in this with you! I’ve got a 10 year old who’s struggled with this his whole life.
A couple of questions -
1. Has it been his whole life, or is it a recent problem? Because there are two different types of enuresis (primary and secondary). The treatments are different, and so are the causes.
2. Have you spoken with his pediatrician? Especially if it’s a recent problem, you’d want to run some simple tests to rule out a UTI or bladder infection. The doctor might prescribe some nasal spray or other meds… but we’ve had poor results, and that seems to be the case with many of the moms I know who are in this, too.
Basically, we try everything… and then try it again. Alarms, homeopathic tablets, waking in the middle of the night, lots of fluids, limited fluids, no caffeine… it’s kind of a rotating door of remedies!
The good news is that each year, he’s more likely to outgrow this problem. It’s generally a hereditary thing, passed down like an ugly punchbowl! But chances are good that he’ll be dry before high school. I know that sounds like a loooooonnnng way off!
In the meantime, get the support, encouragement, and tips that’ll help you cope in a way that protects his self-respect and your sanity.
I’ve started a blog on this, if you’d like to get some more tips – hope this helps!
Sue
We had this problem with our son and we stopped him from drinking after dinner was done. We reminded him to use the bathroom several times throughout the evening and then when he was thirsty or needed a drink with snack it was a small amount of water. You have to train them to not drink so much that their bladder can’t empty prior to going to sleep. My son sleeps so hard that he didn’t know he had to go. This worked for us so far.