Bed wetting help

shazrobo

my twin boys regularly wet the bed til they were 13 years, they are now 14, and been dry over a year. both my sons have adhd, and on autistic spectrum. if they went on camps with cubs, and had an accident they were told to tell an adult who dealt with wet sleeping bags discreetly, apparantly my two were not the only ones with the problem.
i never punished my lads for wet beds, but did encourage them to help change bedding.

chloe99_2

we have been through this with my son and look set to repeat with 2nd son.

I wanted to repeat what some have already said, lifting children in the night does not help them to train their bladders. restricting fluids does not help them to train their bladders.

Personally, having looked at the medications availalble, there is no way I would be giving any fo them to my children without an absolute need. They all appeared (3 yrs ago) to be heavy duty drugs for some other problem, which had a side effect of reducing urine production (eg one is an antidepressant).

I wouldnt bother with any other medical referrals etc etc unless you have absolutely completely exhausted the alarm route. Apparently, if you admninister the alarm correctly, it has a 90% success rate (compared with only 10% of bedwetters from age 7yrs and up spontaneously becoming dry during the course of any year - and bearing in mind that medical drug solutions do not actually "cure" the problem they just remove the symptom)

The alarm is small and fairly discreet, about the size of a small matchbox, not some huge hospital contraption. You can buy it privately without medical referrrals. Costs around £50 (make sure you get one that changes the alarm tone each time it goes off)/ If youre going to use an alarm please please follow the instructions carefully or it wont work. Google malem medical for alarms and more info.

One of the key points is that the parent AND child have to want it to work. MOST of the hard and knackering night work is done by the parents. You have to continue to use the alarm for quite a long time after it appears to have been effective otherwise you will have a temporary rather than a permanent solution. It can take a fairly long time to be fully effective eg 6 months, but worth it when compared with another 6 years.

dizzyb99_2

My youngest DS was wet most nights until he was 11 and wore the Huggies pull up shorts until then. He only began to get really concerned about it when he was going to go on a school holiday in year 7. We had already tried the nasal spray but he didn't like it and in all honesty it didn't seem to make a great deal of difference. The school nurse suggested that because he wore the pull ups and I dealt with the wet bedding that he had no responsibility in the matter. She suggested that he stopped wearing the pull ups and whenever he was wet he had to strip the bed the following morning and put the wet bedding in the washing machine. He hated having to touch the wet sheets but after ten days we had two dry nights on the run. We monitored his success on a chart and over a period of three months we had longer and longer periods of continuous dry nights until he was completely dry nd has been for almost two years.

karen24_2

I've decided to just give him a bit more time as during the Christmas holiday he managed to stay dry for three nights in a row. I told him how pleased I was and he was very happy, he explained that he got up to have a poo and had a wee at the same time so that's why he had a dry nappy. I said that was great that he'd managed to stay dry and that if he kept his nappy dry the next night he could try not wearing one if he wanted, which he was happy to do. He was soaking wet the next morning so we just said never mind, and we agreed to try again another time. He's happy with that, so I'm happy too. The school nurse still hasn't contacted me so I think we'll just stick with the doing what suits us approach. Thank you all for taking the time to give your advice and share your experiences.

chloe99_2

dizzy - I like your solution also if parents can pull it off

dizzyb99_2

chloe99 wrote: »

dizzy - I like your solution also if parents can pull it off

Thanks Chloe. It worked well for us but does take a bit of perseverence and a lot of washing :rotfl:

clairehi

just to say my DS2 was not dry at night until he was 6 1/2. we never made an issue of it but I was beginning to worry.. then it just happened on its own.

go to the GP if you want to get him checked out for peace of mind but it is totally normal at this age. I dont think the doctor will suggest any treatment til at least age 7 because of this. they can give you a leaflet which explains that in many kids it is a physical thing they just are a little later in growing out of than others.

the official advice is that "lifting" them ie waking them in the night for a wee is pointless and will not teach them bladder control.

edit to say that others posts re alarms, clinics and changing sheets refer to older children - OPs DS is 6 I think so AFAIK this would not be appropriate unless he was still not dry at 7+.

Mado

We went for for our first enuretic clinic appointment.
The nurse was lovely and talked to my son rather than me.
She thinks he is dehydrated and his bladder is too small. So our mission has been to make him drink loads during the day over the last few weeks.
Easier said than done trying to reach the 2L a day mark.
She said we should have a jug in the toilet to measure his bladder capacity from times to times (monitor progress). I have to admit I am shocked at how much hurry he seems to be sometimes to wee just a little!

So far no progress, in fact we have had a wet bed (with a dry nite) far more often than we used to, but she said it could take up to 3 months to "stretch" the bladder.
So wish us luck...:whistle: and I'll let you know!

portsmouthali

Just read through this thread and wondered how your boy is getting on Mado?

My son has just turned 8, and has always been a bedwetter - it is better than it used to be (twice a night, most nights ) but we wake him most nights for a wee, most times he won't wet again but still happens maybe once or twice a week. Also, we know that by lifting him we're only cutting down on washing, not actually solving the problem . So we're stopping, as of tonight!!

Fingers crossed!

Mado

portsmouthali wrote: »

Just read through this thread and wondered how your boy is getting on Mado?

My son has just turned 8, and has always been a bedwetter - it is better than it used to be (twice a night, most nights ) but we wake him most nights for a wee, most times he won't wet again but still happens maybe once or twice a week. Also, we know that by lifting him we're only cutting down on washing, not actually solving the problem . So we're stopping, as of tonight!!

Fingers crossed!

Not great actually!
We've had more wet beds (with drynites) than ever before.
His bladder is far too small for his age, but the extra drinks aren't doing miracles just yet!