s/o Older kids and Bedwetting

[funschooler5]

I was relieved to see some of the replies to the previous thread about bedwetting. All this time I thought my son was the only one. My ds is 10 now, and has had only two dry nights his entire life. He is a very hard sleeper and I can't even think of one instance where he's gotten up out of bed after falling asleep. He wears Good Nights at night, but I still have to wash his sheets and blankets a lot of the time. We tried going without the Good Nights for awhile, thinking that maybe being wet would wake him up, but that didn't work, so we switched back so he would be more comfortable.

 

My question to those of you who have been through this....did you interfere in any way? I know this is something he can't control, but I was just wondering if we should wait for him to grow out of it, or try some sort of technique. When my oldest DD was 3 and wetting the bed, we had a sticker chart for her with rewards and she was "trained" within a couple of weeks. We did the same thing for younger DD. We've tried this with my son a few times, but it's never worked for him.

 

I'm just wondering if this is something that will go away once he gets to a certain age.

[Angie in VA]

One word for ya: magnesium. It changed my life! Now, check w/ your doctor and all that, or add foods rich in magnesium to your dc's diet, or research which foods may inhibit absorption of magnesium and eliminate those.

 

It was on a thread here (the old version of the boards) that someone mentioned it, and it worked for us. Within a week.

 

LIFE CHANGED is what I'm talking about, got it? :)

Edited April 21, 2010 by Angie in VA
typo!

[Pamela H in Texas]

Andrea, We tried EVERYTHING.

 

We finally called the Eneuresis Treatment Center.

 

I wish I had YEARS ago (I didn't call til DS was 14).

 

It's expensive but it could have saved us (and has saved us, I'm sure) YEARS of heartache. This child has been SEVERELY affected by bedwetting. I really consider US negligent by NOT doing it sooner. After you've played with everything else, it's worth it!

[Retired]

we tried the alarm, with holding drinks, etc. my dh and I got him up at twice a night for 4 years

 

none of it worked, so I finally just let it go and my goal was for him to be comfortable and not embarrassed

 

we stopped using the good nights around age 8 or 9 because of the cost and went with the pads

 

he wanted to join boy scouts last summer and I finally decided to get a prescription med so he could be dry for the camp outs

 

well we never used the stuff, he was so against taking meds ( he is almost 13 and still takes liquid meds only by force)

 

so he just told me I am not going to wet the bed anymore, that was in September, he has only had 2 wet nights since (oh and he was 12 1/2 at the time)

 

I read enough stuff about bed wetting, so I was pretty sure he would probably stop with onset of puberty, so that and his own will power gave him dry nights and yeah, a lot less laundry for me

Edited April 21, 2010 by Cafelattee

[Pamela H in Texas]

Whatever any of you do, do not WITHHOLD DRINKS. It is counterproductive. And seriously, is there ANY amount of liquid that YOU could possibly drink that would cause YOU to wet the bed? No. So THAT isn't the issue.

[AK_Homesteaders]

One word for ya: magnesium. It changed my life! Now, check w/ your doctor and all that, or add foods rich in magnesium to your dc's diet, or research which foods may inhibit absorption of magnesium and eliminate those.

 

It was on a thread here (the old version of the boards) that someone mentioned it, and it worked for us. Within a week.

 

LIFE CHANGED is what I'm talking about, got it? :)

How much magnesium do you give? I'd like to try it.

[Angie in VA]

How much magnesium do you give? I'd like to try it.

 

I sent you a private message. :)

[ProudGrandma]

How much magnesium do you give? I'd like to try it.

I would like to know this too. And what foods are rich in magnesium?

 

Kathy

[lighthouseacademy]

A few things...

To Pamela, what types of therapies did the ETC use?

 

To those who withhold drinks- I have found that for my son, I have mild success at INCREASING fluids during the day SIGNIFICANTLY... and that night drinks don't increase bed wetting

[littlebug42]

I was a bedwetter late into childhood and my mother tried everything. I was medicated, I had surgery to enlarge my bladder, withheld drinks, withheld dairy, everything. Nothing worked. All my mother's constant attempts to "help" did was cause me more anxiety over the whole issue. I outgrew it. My daughter is now 6 and shows no signs of being dry at night. I refuse to make her anxiety ridden over it as I was. I may try the magnesium thing and see if that helps though.

 

I spoke to my daughter's nephrologist about it just last week and he said to me that it is a social problem and a laundry problem but not a medical one (at least for her). I know she will outgrow it in time. I do know how frustrating it can be for mama though :grouphug:.

[Cinder]

We had success with a bedwetting alarm when ds was 10. I wish we'd tried it sooner but I kept thinking he'd outgrow it. Ds is also a heavy sleeper so at first the alarm was waking everyone else up, then dh or I had to go wake ds. It wasn't too long afterward that he was able to get himself up to go. Can't remember how long we needed the alarm. I don't think it was very long, though. A couple months maybe.

 

The big difference for ds was that the alarm helped him understand his body better. He's a control person, so he'd hold it all the time. All that holding made him "forget" what it felt like when his body really needed to go. He was very excited when he noticed a difference during the day--that he could recognize his body's signals.

 

 

Cinder

[charlotteb]

For ds, we tried medication and waking him up at night. Neither one did a thing. He just eventually outgrew it. We made sure not to make a big deal of it, so I don't think he was humiliated by it at all. Right after he turned 11, he stopped.

[Cynful]

Mine didn't stop until just last year. We didn't do any intervention at all; we just provided Goodnites. He didn't necessarily like it, but definitely wasn't stressed out over it, nor were we, thank goodness.

 

Good luck,

[Pamela H in Texas]

Marisa,

 

The plan is tailored to the child. You have a counselor that goes over what happened during the 2 weeks between each call and adjusts the plan accordingly. There is an alarm. There are exercises and challenges for both daytime and nighttime. There is measuring. They don't throw it all at you at once though. You just incorporate the next step in so it becomes a rhythm and not as disruptive.

[funschooler5]

Thanks everyone for sharing your stories. It's so nice to know that we are not alone in dealing with this!

[Sunshine State Sue]

Ds wanted to go to overnight camp last summer. So, dh took ds to dr just after he turned 13 for medication. He was on 1 pill/day for 6 weeks, then 1/2 pill per day for 6 wks. Then, he no longer needed them. He had 1 accident in that time (he was sick) and none since then.

 

Part of me wonders what would have happened had we just let it go. I would have preferred trying a chiropractor first, but I was outnumbered.

 

Ds was an extremely heavy sleeeper. Not so much anymore. Dh had same problem and outgrew it without help in his teens. It was a huge source of shame for dh, so we never made a big deal out of it. Just used Good Nites.

[Allearia]

My ds8 desperately wanted to be dry at night. He and his younger brother have always been in pull-ups and we have never made a big deal out of it, but this was his own thing. When he brought it up with the doc she said they wouldn't do the medicine until he had tried an alarm. A friend loaned us an underwear type alarm so just a tiny bit of urine set it off. It just took four nights, and even when I attempted to get up and help him he didn't want it. He will still wear it every night for another week and then every other day for a month.

 

I didn't do much research on alarms since this was offered to us by a friend but different types might be more responsive. This one had a sensor on the underwear, then the alarm that went off was suppose to be across the room so they are forced to get up and turn it off.

[BritAnnia]

We tried a variety of things, none worked. GP's and pediatric specialists all said the same thing, "He'll grow out of it." and he did. Puberty kicked in and no more problems since.

[s0nicfreak]

Have you talked to doctors about it? Usually 10 is the age they stop looking at it as something the kid will just grow out of...

[Guest janainaz]

I really don't understand the training technique. It has never made sense why you would give a child a reward for not wetting the bed. As far as I know, it can't be helped and most children won't wet the bed on purpose.

 

My son is 10 and I think he's grown out of it, but it's only been about six months of continued dry nights. He's always been a deep sleeper, but he has started to finally wake up on his own to go.

 

If he was still having a problem at this age, I would have taken him in just to see what we could do. I would have tried the alarm because I've heard some good things about it.