any tried and true methods for ending night-time wetting?

[jenniferlee]

My first three (g,b,g) stopped wetting at night right when the day trained, around 2-2.5 years old. My last two, both boys, day trained the same ages as the others, but they both still wet at night almost every night. They are now 3.5 and 5yo.

I am getting very tired of buying pull up diapers for them (expensive!) And I would just like to be done with this phase. I know some kids just wet for a long time, but I don't know how long to wait for them to grow out of it or is there something more proactive we can try?

BTW, we have never made them feel badly over it or compared them to older siblings, etc. They just accept it as totally normal that they still wear "diapers" to bed.

 

Thanks!

Jen

[3lilreds in NC]

Both my girls took until they were older to train through the night. I think Emma was nearly 5, and Abbie was 6, I'm sure. We just waited it out. I didn't have the heart to try some of the things you can try, like having them sleep in just underwear under a single sheet so they get really cold, etc.

 

I seem to recall people recommending honey before bedtime as gently dehydrating so they don't need to go.

 

Cut off liquids a couple of hours before bedtime, make sure everyone goes before bed, take them each once more before you go to bed... I don't know, really, what to suggest except waiting it out. Believe me, I have BTDT with night time pullups!

[Sputterduck]

Have you tried eliminating dairy in the second half of the day? It worked for us, but I sure didn't think it would. I kept seeing that suggestion while researching this problem and finally tried it.

[mom2att]

Some kids just take longer. My oldest was 8, my middle is just now there at 9, and my youngest, well, he'll be awhile yet.

[runamuk]

My youngest is still in pull-ups at night and he's 5 1/2. I'm just waiting it out.

[Starr]

We stopped the pull ups and just changed sheets when needed.

[LittleIzumi]

We stopped the pull ups and just changed sheets when needed.

 

We tried that for a month or two. The Sponge didn't care if she was wet. :glare: But we use cloth diapers so they feel wet anyway and it's not so $$. I might try that method on the Drama though. She doesn't like being wet....

[AngieW in Texas]

I have a 5-year age-span across my 3 kids, but they all became dry at night over a 6-month period and my oldest was the last. My middle dd was dry at night about half the time by her 5th birthday and was dry at night all the time by 5y3m. My youngest dd was dry at night about half the time by 2.5yo and was dry at night all the time by 3yo.

 

We tried everything for the oldest (8yo at this point). We tried everything and every combination of things that didn't result in a contradiction - no dairy, no juice, no liquids after 6pm, using the bathroom every 4 hours around the clock (to stretch the blader), using the bathroom ever 2 hours around the clock (to get the bladder used to feeling empty), ... The doctor had us try DDAVP. We got all the way up to the maximum safe dose and she was still wet nearly every night. At 8yo, my dd had never been dry at night more than 1x/month.

 

I finally decided to try a bed-wetting alarm. The first week was awful. That alarm went off 2-3x every night. The 2nd week it went off 1-2x every night. The 3rd week she had a couple of dry nights. The 4th week was completely dry. She was wet one night the 5th week. After that, she was wet at night just 3 more times in her life and those were nights when she was extremely sick.

 

We used the Sleep-Dry alarm from Starchild Labs.

[lynn]

HAve you been to the dr to be sure there is not a medical reason that needs to be addressed? Sometimes it's one of those things that the child has to outgrow in time for they cannot control it. We have tried everything from alarms, to letting ds get his sheets to the laundry in the morning, to waking him up before we went to bed, to cutting down on dairy and peanutbutter. Eventually around 8 or 9 he just stopped. Have patience and just be prepared to wash sheets in the morning. We did use goodnights although they do get expensive.

[dirty ethel rackham]

DD was the only night wetter in the family. We had her in washable training pants at night with a waterproof overlayer. I made sure that she was well hydrated during the day, made sure she went potty before bed. Then I would stay up until midnight and get her up to go potty before I went to bed. On nights that I did this, she stayed dry. When I forgot, she didn't. I did this for about 6 months before she was consistently dry. She was going on 5 when she finally kicked it.

 

This is probably only one of many possible strategies. YMMV.

[lovetobehome]

Malem bedwetting alarm! Worth its weight in gold!!!!!!!!! They resell really well, too, try ebay

[newlifemom]

So I am taking ds (7 1/2) to follow up for his physical tomorrow. [They are checking his eyes b/c veins around them have recently become really pronounced and she couldn't see the back of his eye last time] I forgot to mention that he still wets the bed regularly. (have to look into the dairy thing) Should I bring it up? I don't really know what she would do. We allow very little juice in the morning, no sugary drinks after 5pm. (Don't usually do them at all) Limit water after 5 (one cup) Goes twice before bed, once before devotions and once after, right before he gets into bed, and still . . .

 

I keep him in pull-ups b/c quite frankly, the laundry was killing me. Plus, at least once every 2 weeks he pees through anyway.

[Rosie_0801]

Have you tried a chiropractor?

 

Rosie

[Once]

We wake up our four year old to go before we go to sleep around 12am. He is use to it so he falls back to sleep right away Our budget does not include night time diapers and he is dry all day. Additionally, my time budget does not include extra laundry. We found this solution. We have a dog so we laugh about who gets "the pee job" at the end of the day.

 

Take heart, they grow out of it eventually.

[LizzyBee]

We stopped the pull ups and just changed sheets when needed.

 

We tried that but I got tired of washing sheets and making the bed daily.

[LizzyBee]

We wake up our four year old to go before we go to sleep around 12am.

 

We tried that too. Didn't work. :glare:

 

(I'm not the OP. Just another mom who's looking forward to being done with Goodnites.)

[razorbackmama]

Were either you or your dh bedwetters? If so, then your children have a 50% chance of being bedwetters too, and if they are boys then the chances are even greater.

 

When I have discussed it with my doctor, he said they don't even blink an eye until the child is 8-9.

[melmichigan]

My DH wet the bed until her was around 9. They tried everything but he is just a deep sleeper and grew very fast. He's 6'8". I have one DD who is also having this problem at 6, soon to be 7. Doc said with family history they won't address it until they are 9-10 and still doing it consistantly. If you have an FSA account you can get a statement of medical necessity for Goodnights to use those funds. We are also looking for cloth. My DS4 is dry most night so he wear cloth and my youngest wears cloth diapers so it isn't any more wash.

[JustGin]

My first three (g,b,g) stopped wetting at night right when the day trained, around 2-2.5 years old. My last two, both boys, day trained the same ages as the others, but they both still wet at night almost every night. They are now 3.5 and 5yo.

I am getting very tired of buying pull up diapers for them (expensive!) And I would just like to be done with this phase. I know some kids just wet for a long time, but I don't know how long to wait for them to grow out of it or is there something more proactive we can try?

BTW, we have never made them feel badly over it or compared them to older siblings, etc. They just accept it as totally normal that they still wear "diapers" to bed.

 

Thanks!

Jen

 

Time. Two of my dc, my oldest dd and my ds both were not totally night dry until around age 9. When my oldest was still having trouble with this at age 7 I asked the doctor about it. After doing a test to make sure she was all healthy in those parts, and after explaining to me that it's perfectly normal for some kids to not be night dry until early teens, he turned to dd and asked "does it embarrass you?" She answered a confident no. Then he asked me if I was bothered by it and I said no, not really, we had learned to cope. In his opinion then, he recommended waiting it out. So we did.

I did go to an online place called Drymids, and ordered washable boxer brief pullups, which dd loved. http://pottytrainingsolutions.com/product_info.php?products_id=432.

 

Dd is now 14 and ds is almost 12 and they have no problems with this and no leftover emotional issues from it taking so long. I always told them, your body will grow up and in time take care of this for you. No Big Deal.

:)

Hope that helps.

[gfam]

Malem bedwetting alarm! Worth its weight in gold!!!!!!!!! They resell really well, too, try ebay

 

Did you use this for someone as young as 3 though? As a mom to a 12 year old who has used the malem & would highly recommend them I'm not sure I'd suggest a Malem for a 3 year old. Even 5 would be pushing it I think. The thing about the Malem is it is a lot of work initially and the child has to be bothered enough by bet wetting to WANT to use it. At least that is my experience. We have used the Malem on two seperate occasions with my 12 year old & it worked with in a week both times. He did relapse well over a year later each time though so I had to rebuy the alarm. So if you do decide to go the route of the alarm I suggest hanging on to it for well over a year. ;)

[MyThreeSons]

One ds wet regularly well into the double-digit years. He finally outgrew it, seemingly overnight. Dh has at least one brother who wet well into his teen years; the guys in my side of the family (including my sons) are sleepwalkers and sleeptalkers. All of this to say that my ds came by it naturally, and just had to mature beyond it. We had tried alarms, waking him when we went to bed, medications, etc. Yes, I got very tired of doing laundry and / or buying pullups.

[jenniferlee]

wow-

thanks for all the replies. I will check into the alarm thing, I hadn't thought about something like that. And I'll keep in mind that they might be a little young for that still.

I never have tried restricting fluids - it just seems too mean to tell them no water when they are thirsty right before bed...

 

The dairy connection seems really odd, but I'd be willing to try it for sure!

 

I guess maybe just being patient is going to be what it takes, though?

I do remember my little brother night wetting until 10 or 11, but my parents finally got some kind of medication for him that cleared it up, so I always assumed that it was a medical issue but maybe it was just time for him as well.

 

thanks again,

Jen

[Frontier Mom]

For me, the only solution was time. Though I was convinced with some they would be doing this into college, one day they just stopped. It was different with each one though.

[Jkodman]

My youngest is still in pull-ups at night and he's 5 1/2. I'm just waiting it out.

 

 

Me too - Mine just turned 5, he is the youngest. I will just "go with the flow" (lol) till he gets older. :lol:

[Guest janainaz]

My ds is almost 10 and still has the occasional problem. He is such a deep sleeper and if he's overtired, it seems to be more of an issue. Bed-wetting got much better as soon as he turned 8 (it went from EVERY night to few times a month). I do think they grow out of it in time. I stopped buying pull-ups when ds was 7. It just felt very humiliating to me. Now I just protect the mattress and make everything easy to do a quick-change on the sheets if need be. It has never been an issue, my ds knows it's not his fault. I wake up a lot at night and try to wake him at least once to go to the bathroom. He is nearly impossible to wake up. It often takes me a good 5 to 10 minutes to get him from the bed to the bathroom.

 

My MIL got a nasal spray for one of her later adopted children. My FIL is trying a pill on the youngest adopted little girl (she's 9). So far, I don't think it has worked. Medication would be a very last resort for me.

 

 

 

.

[IsabelC]

We are working through a program with my 6yo, and the health professional who mentors us specifically said that it is no longer advised to avoid drinks in the evening. Apparently that advice is out of date, and we should never refuse a child a drink. What we were instructed to do instead was to really encourage drinking earlier in the day. Ds has 500mls of drink by breakfast time, and at least a litre by the middle of the day, which means that he isn't asking for drinks before bed. We are working with an alarm system, and they do not (here, could be different elsewhere) recommend it for children younger than 5, preferably 6.

[IsabelC]

We are working through a program with my 6yo, and the health professional who mentors us specifically said that it is no longer advised to cut of drinks in the evening. Apparently that advice is out of date, and we should never refuse a child a drink. What we were instructed to do instead was to really encourage drinking earlier in the day. Ds has 500mls of drink by breakfast time, and at least a litre by the middle of the day, which means that he isn't asking for drinks before bed. We are working with an alarm system, and they do not (here, could be different elsewhere) recommend it for children younger than 5, preferably 6. As for the 3yo, that is so normal that I doubt you'd find anyone willing to offer treatment or another couple of years.

 

ETA - it does run in families, so if your brother was late, your 5yo son could be taking after him.

[Cindy in C-ville]

I read through all of this with a lot of curiosity. Sweet Katya (with whom I fly home from Kiev TOMORROW - WOO-HOO!) definitely has an issue with this. She also still has "accidents" during the day and we think this is one of the reasons she had such a hard time at the orphanage. The other kids picked on her. She's 8 1/2 and we're thinking that we just need to keep with the pull-ups at night, encouraging regular potty visits during the day, and give it a couple of months of consistent love, acceptance, encouragement b/f we look into anything medical. What do you think? If it's something medical, what could it be? We'll we need to have a doctor who speaks Russian to figure it out, or are there just regular medical things that our WONDERFUL family doctor can do? TIA!

[2squared]

We bought this and waited it out. Men on both sides of our families were late bedwetters, so we didn't stress about it. We knew they would outgrow it. My 5yo only wets once or twice a week now, a huge improvement from only a few months ago.

[Dawn in OH]

We stopped the pull ups and just changed sheets when needed.

 

We got tired of that routine FAST. I felt as though I was constantly washing sheets. He was tired of changing sheets daily.

 

We went back to Pull-Ups, Underjams, at night. It has been far less stressful and aggravating for both of us.

 

Not to mention, his pajamas and underwear suffered a lot of wear and tear without the Pull Up. The pajamas and underwear were falling apart from the acid exposure.

[Luanne]

My daughter was 8 before she slowed down on the bed wetting and 9 before it completely stopped. She did have daytime accidents sometimes until she was 5 and had to have the opening to her bladder widened. After the surgery she soon stopped the daytime accidents. It cut back a little the night-time ones, but didn't totally eliminate them. I was just glad she wasn't like my brother who didn't stop wetting the bed until he was about 11 or so.

[Cindy in C-ville]

My daughter was 8 before she slowed down on the bed wetting and 9 before it completely stopped. She did have daytime accidents sometimes until she was 5 and had to have the opening to her bladder widened. After the surgery she soon stopped the daytime accidents. It cut back a little the night-time ones, but didn't totally eliminate them. I was just glad she wasn't like my brother who didn't stop wetting the bed until he was about 11 or so.

 

So, how did they know she needed to have the opening to her bladder widened?

[Scarlett]

My daughter was 8 before she slowed down on the bed wetting and 9 before it completely stopped. She did have daytime accidents sometimes until she was 5 and had to have the opening to her bladder widened. After the surgery she soon stopped the daytime accidents. It cut back a little the night-time ones, but didn't totally eliminate them. I was just glad she wasn't like my brother who didn't stop wetting the bed until he was about 11 or so.

 

I was talking to a friend of mine just this morning about this. He wet the bed until he was 12! He is convinced he was cured of it on a trip to visit relatives when the auntie gave him a cinnamon stick to suck on before bed. He never wet the bed again. I'm betting he was 12 and just happened to be at the stage where he outgrew it...but if I had a bedwetter I'd try anything.

[Luanne]

So, how did they know she needed to have the opening to her bladder widened?

 

... right before she started Kindergarten. They found traces of blood in her urine (which obviously is not normal for a 5 year old girl).

[Lisa in Jax]

I read through all of this with a lot of curiosity. Sweet Katya (with whom I fly home from Kiev TOMORROW - WOO-HOO!) definitely has an issue with this. She also still has "accidents" during the day and we think this is one of the reasons she had such a hard time at the orphanage. The other kids picked on her. She's 8 1/2 and we're thinking that we just need to keep with the pull-ups at night, encouraging regular potty visits during the day, and give it a couple of months of consistent love, acceptance, encouragement b/f we look into anything medical. What do you think? If it's something medical, what could it be? We'll we need to have a doctor who speaks Russian to figure it out, or are there just regular medical things that our WONDERFUL family doctor can do? TIA!

 

You might try minimizing or eliminating dairy.

 

Other ideas: calcium/magnesium supplement, or digestive enzymes ("Digest" from Enzymedica, for example), extra zinc, etc.

 

Kids with Katya's (and my son's) background are very often low in minerals, b/c stress depletes minerals. If you get her zinc, calcium, magnesium levels up to more normal, she'll do better overall and may stop wetting.

 

HIH,

 

Lisa

[sheryl]

My dd who turned 10 recently showed little enthusiasm for stopping. She is slightly special needs.

 

I was pulling my hair out and not handling well. A friend suggested the alarm. We tried it over the summer. We went to the beach and did not let her wear pull ups. She was dry for the whole week and the first 3 days after we got home. Then she wet. That's when we started the alarm. It worked but it took a few trials and errors. The program calls wearing it for 30 days pee-free. She wore it 2 week, pee. So, we started over. She went 2 wents, then pee. Started over. 3 weeks...pee. Started over and she made it 30 days and beyond now to 2 months! She is excited now "knowing" she IS capable. She need the stimuli to "train the brain" and that's exactly what it does. During this whole time we did not put sheets on her bed...time consuming to wash. We have several mattress pads, so I used that and her comforter.

 

Her reward was a choice b/t pierced ears and mp3. She earned and rec'd the mp3.

 

HTH.

 

BTW,,,,,The alarm itself only went off maybe twice and that was in the beginning of this whole process.

 

SHE JUST NEEDED AN APPARATUS THAT TRAINED HER BRAIN TO **PROVE*** SHE COULD "DO IT"!! YEA FOR HER!!!!!

[Barb_]

Nothing worked for us until she magically stopped wetting every night at age 8 or 9. We've since found out that it was likely related to sleep apnea that was (based on symptom descriptions) much worse when she was younger.

 

Barb