Nearly 7 year old bedwetting

[pandv]

Our DS will be 7 next week and he cannot stop wetting the bed. We ended up putting him in pull ups for bed as he can wet 2-3 times per night. I took him to the doctor who referred him to a bedwetting clinic and they have ordered an alarm for us but we are waiting for this to come in. In the meantime I have taken him out of the pull ups in an attempt to get him to go to the toilet but it is just not working.

He goes to the toilet when he goes to bed and DH or I take him to the toilet around 10:30-11pm. Then I usually wake up at some point in the night needing the toilet myself so I take him then. We have been doing this for 2 weeks and we have only had 3 dry nights. He is often wet when I take him in the middle of the night. DS is such a heavy sleeper. He doesn't even remember us waking him to take him to the toilet in the middle of the night.

I used to wet the bed myself as a child and I always remember my mother yelling at me for it so I am being very patient with him and trying to encourage him as much as possible. He tells me he can't do it and I keep telling him of course he can otherwise we wouldn't have had those 3 dry nights.

Any suggestions as the washing is killing me and it's going to get so much worse with a baby in the house!

 

[joeyjo]

Sorry no suggestions on how to deal with the bedwetting but a suggestion for the bed changing - make the bed and then put absorbant mat in it and put a fresh sheet on top so you only have to take off the wet sheet & mat and the bed is still made underneath.

Hope you get it sorted soon

 

[DottyLottie]

There isn't aways a specific cure for bedwetting, nor a specific reason why some children do it.
I was a bed wetter until the age of 14 or so, though less frequent from age 11. My parents took me to clinics, we tried alarms etc, nothing worked, I eventually grew out of it.

My daughter is nearly 11 and bed wets too, she wears night drys, so the sheets stay dry and she cleans herself up in the morning. It is embarrassing for her and makes schooltrips and overnight stays with frinds awkward for her, but I trust she WILL grow out of it, just like I did.

Try not to get stressed about it, I genuinely believe some children are just very heavy sleepers and take longer to gain nightime bladder control. It very rarely persists into the teens and as I said, there seems to be no guaranteed reason or cure for it.

You don't mention if your son has always wet the bed, or if he has just started. I would be more concerned if he has just started as it would indicate something has happenned to make him anxious. I would be more inclined to seek medical help if that were the case.

 

[pandv]

Thanks DottieLottie. He has always done it and I did it myself until I was 8 so it's never really worried me too much. DH was more worried about it than I was. I'm reluctant to go back to pyjama pants for bed as I feel that now we've taken him out of them it's a backwards step (not that we are making much progress). We are getting an alarm for him but tbh I don't see how this will work. He could sleep through anything!

 

[samsugar7]

My sis wet till she was 13 (not very encouraging i know ) we went through hell with her and even now at 20 she has the odd accident.

As far as the alarm goes it did sometimes wake her but it also woke mum up who could get her up but also to note times and see any patterns.

https://www.cqout.com/item.asp?id=8958608

these saved a lot of washing and im sure you will be able to find them cheaper.

 

[louise1302]

my ds still does it and hes almost 12, its not every night and sometimes he can go 5 or 6 days without , my brother did it until he was 16 so im not too worried

 

[kiwimama]

I wet the bed until I was quite old as well. I can still remember the alarm going off and my reward charts. I think I just grew out of it eventually.
It can be genetic, so if you ended up growing out of it too, then it may be the same for your son.

 

[suzib76]

leah wet the bed until she was almost 8 - i never actively tried to change it i just kept her in pull ups, never made an issue out of it and she stopped by herself when she was ready

 

[trumpetbum]

My dd did this until very recently. She's 8 1/2. We didn't make a big deal of it, put her in dry nites to make sure she woke up dry and talked to her about little things she could do like avoiding fizzy juice (we don't give her it but when she's at friends or mils it's usually available to her), and dark juice, keeping hydrated with water during the day and stopping drinking after dinner just for the sake of it (ie: just when she's thirsty). We also stopped waking her during the night to go to the loo to let her get used to her bladder filling. It all seems to have paid off which is great and she's very proud of herself. I had a small/weak bladder too and remember having accidents when I was a wee girl but now I can hold it for Britain

 

[pandv]

Thanks for all of the advice. We seem to have cracked it a little and he has been dry for a week now. He is out of pull ups but we are taking him to the toilet 2-3 times per night (depending how often I need to pee lol). When I take him to the toilet his bladder is always really full. I'd be reluctant to put him back in pull ups as it has taken us a while to get this far. I'll just keep doing this until we get the alarm which will hopefully get him used to waking up himself.

 

[Sophie1205]

Someone I am close to wet the bed until they were 14, they used the alarm too. They just grew out of it at 14 xxx

 

[KandyKinz]

My son is a chronic bedwetter too. He's 8 years old. I have talked to him about it and the different treatment options available and he decided that for now he's just gonna wait awhile longer to see if he outgrows it. My biggest fear for him is any psychological harm it may cause... I don't want him to feel ashamed or unable to do "normal" kid things.

This week's he's gone to camp so I'm hoping it'll go well. We were slightly concerned that some of the other campers may "find out" but I discussed it with the camp prior to him being enrolled and they said that the frequently have bedwetting campers and it's always handled confidentially. And my son wears good nights training pants so he rarely gets the bedding wet anyways.... So it's just a matter of him disposing the good nites in the morning without anyone seeing, but apparently the camp counsellors are going to help him with that.

 

[Dinoslass]

We had some foster girls doing this and I can sympathise with the washing.
We didn't give them any drinks for quite a while before going to bed and as you do going to toilet before bed and around 11. That did help a bit but not all the times, Not too much drink before did help the best I think.

Good luck!