Bed wetting 7 yo-- HELP.

[LAmom]

I am embarrassed to say that I have put very little effort into getting my dd to stop bedwetting. She wears a big kid pull-up every night. Every morning it is wet. Really wet. :glare: I tried to eliminate drinking after 7 PM (she goes to bed at 8 PM) but sometimes she begs for that sip of water....

 

I thought of asking for help here tonight because she just realized she ran out of Pull-ups and is trying to be sneaky (from her 3 brothers) to get a diaper on. She is embarrassed, too.

 

Any ideas? I may try to wake her up at 11 PM or midnight and take her to the bathroom. Other than that ????

 

THANKS for any help. I was a late bed wetter, too. Guess I could ask my mom what she did. :001_huh:

[gracesteacher]

Send her for a sleep test

Have her ck for kidney reflux or bladder infection

[Mamabug]

My 9 y/o boy is just starting to stay dry at night a lot more. We switched him to underwear, woke him up when we went to bed and made sure he went, and we triple layered his bed. That seems to help but my personal opinion is that they will grow out of it. We use 2 or 3 layers of vinyl shower curtain liner, towel, sheet and just blankets so he can change his bed whenever he notices he is wet. He is such a heavy sleeper that he doesn't remember going to the bathroom when we get him up. And often he would sleep wet. Some people swear by the getting them up but I think it doesn't always help but I would start there.

 

In your opinion, why do you think she wets?

 

Kimberly

[LAmom]

 

In your opinion, why do you think she wets?

 

Kimberly

 

 

I really just think she sleeps "hard" and doesn't wake with the urge to go. :confused: She has always wet at night, so it is not something new and not something I would link to a UTI or anything.

Edited April 20, 2011 by LAmom

[Jumping In Puddles]

Get him a magnesium supplement ASAP! I swear by this because my 2 kids wet the bed almost every single night and I started them both on Magnesium and they both STOPPED wetting the bed at the same time.

 

Prior to this, I use to limit drinks and wake them up in the middle of the night and nothing worked. The magnesium supp. worked quickly on both kids and I could not believe it! :w00t:

[gracesteacher]

Doess she snore? Move a lot or seem restless in her sleep?

[soonermomma]

We recently took my 8 year old daughter to a pediatric urologist at Children's Hospital. They did do some tests to make sure everything was okay structurally, which it was. They said there are medications they can use, but our ped had already tried those and they didn't help, plus I don't like medication unless necessary. They said it is hereditary, and that she will eventually outgrow it. My daughter is a very heavy sleeper. She goes to bed at 8 and we get her up when we go to bed usually between and midnight, and she still wakes up wet everyday. (We use goodnites) It is frustrating/embarrassing to her because her 5 year old sister does not have that problem. I'm hoping we are nearing the age when she will outgrow it. I feel your pain!:grouphug:

[EppieJ]

Just a word of comfort. If you had a similar challenge as a child it could very well be a heredity issue.

 

My ds wasn't dry at night consistently till he was 8. His brain just wouldn't wake him up. I tried not to make a big deal of it - he felt bad enough about it as it was. After some more growing he became more consistent. We tried leaving him in underwear at night in hopes that he would be a little more aware of those sensations as he slept. It seemed to help, but not consistently. We also took him to the bathroom before we went to bed (about 3-4 hrs after he was down). That probably helped keep sheets dry more than anything. Really, I think it was just a matter of his body maturing.

 

I would just try to comfort your daughter and let her know that lots of kids struggle with this - she's not a "baby". I always told ds that his body didn't know how to wake him up yet, but it soon would. I tried not to pressure him or allow him to pressure himself ("it'll happen when you're [physically] ready"). I kept it just "matter of fact" in the way I dealt with it - no shame.

 

Sorry I can't offer more advice, but hopefully it gives you a little encouragement. Good luck!

[LAmom]

Doess she snore? Move a lot or seem restless in her sleep?

 

 

She doesn't snore. She does seem to toss and turn a lot....as do I.

[LAmom]

Thanks for the support and encouragement. I definitely don't make her feel babyish and just let her know that we should try to work on it. (She also has a 5yo brother that has been dry since like 3!!!) I need to consistently be waking her up at night, etc. I was hoping she would just out grow it...when she was six. Maybe 8 is the magic year.:D

 

I will look into magnesium, though I'd hate to spend money on that unless it is short-term.

[blondeviolin]

There's not a huge amount you CAN do. You can try medications or alarms (talk with your pedi about that). TBH, it's very much a hereditary thing and if you had issues, it's likely stemming from those genes. I wet the bed till I was 10. There is no way I'm even attempting to night train anyone at my house.

[gracesteacher]

That is a sign that your body is not getting the air it needss soyou wake up and turn to get air.

Have the ped do a look at her airway and ask the grade (1 to 4) and if she needs to see an ent.

I see kids like her all the time. The outgrowing is the larger bladder but the problem is still there

[RanchGirl]

magnesium helped both of my children with this issue as well.

[Mamabug]

We've watched our DS' level of alertness improve over months as we got him up to go around 10-1130 at night. He seems to either wet before midnight or right around 5 or 6am. But in the last few months he has had a stretch of totally dry or just underwear wet without us getting him up.

 

Give her some time and keep waking her up. The laundry is a pain but the wetness eventually will sink in to her subconscious awareness. Teach her to change her sheets and throw them in the tub till morning so she doesn't have to wake you in the middle of the night.

 

My pediatrician explained that your body produces a hormone that decreases urine production at night. I don't know the name of the hormone but supposedly you can supplement it if you think that is the issue.

 

BTW, you are not alone. I posted last year on a HS support yahoo group in my area about this subject. I got a plethora of emails from moms of kids both male and female up to age 10 or more that were still struggling.

 

Kimberly

[Rosy]

My son just stopped wearing pull-ups about a month ago. We didn't do anything to address the issue, we just started noticing a few months ago that occasionally he would wake up with a dry pull-up. After a while we noticed them more frequently, and when he ran out of pull-ups a few weeks ago we decided to see if he could go without them. He has only had 2 accidents during that time, interestingly they happened the 2 times he slept in his sister's bed (she just got a new mattress and we let him sleep there when she was gone...guess that won't happen again!). My guess is that he slept harder in her bed since it's more comfortable. Anyway, we were planning on eventually getting the alarm but it turned out we didn't have to. :)

 

I really just think she sleeps "hard" and doesn't wake with the urge to go.

That's exactly how my son is. He is by far the hardest to wake, and we couldn't wake him to use the bathroom--we tried a couple times and it did *not* work. Anyway, my advice would be to just be patient, and maybe revisit the issue when she's 10 or so? I never thought we'd see the day when we were completely done with diapers and pull-ups, but it's finally here!

[oldskool]

My 7 year old still wears a pull-up at night and on the occasional night when we don't have one my dh just gets her up an hour after she goes to bed and then a couple hours after that. I really have no problem in just letting this problem work its way out over how ever many years it takes. I also wet the bed until I was 10 and so did my brother. We felt so embarrassed, but it was something we just grew out and my parents tried to down play it. (it was the grandparents who really made us embarrassed) I have heard that it is a hormonal change that triggers the ability for bed wetters to start staying dry around the age of 10 or 11. For my daughter I am supportive and don't make her feel self-conscious. She doesn't feel bad because neither I, dh, or her older siblings a big deal of it. I am glad though that our family does not do sleep overs. That was really hard on me as a kid. My overall advice is not to worry. By the way, I did try the magnesium and dd hated taking it so we dropped it. Again, it was making more of a problem then the actual bed wetting.

 

Lesley

[silliness7]

I am embarrassed to say that I have put very little effort into getting my dd to stop bedwetting. She wears a big kid pull-up every night. Every morning it is wet. Really wet. :glare: I tried to eliminate drinking after 7 PM (she goes to bed at 8 PM) but sometimes she begs for that sip of water....

 

I thought of asking for help here tonight because she just realized she ran out of Pull-ups and is trying to be sneaky (from her 3 brothers) to get a diaper on. She is embarrassed, too.

 

Any ideas? I may try to wake her up at 11 PM or midnight and take her to the bathroom. Other than that ????

 

THANKS for any help. I was a late bed wetter, too. Guess I could ask my mom what she did. :001_huh:

 

 

Two of mine were like this. With the first one I tried every trick I came across: limiting drinks, waking up for a potty time about 11pm right before *I* went to bed, cutting dairy, pep talks, rewards, punishments, library books. We did not use pull-ups so that accidents would be uncomfortable and motivation to get control would be higher. About age 5 or 6 I made the child responsible for changing the bedding every.time. After more than one sibling passed by this one in night-time dryness, I scheduled a trip to the dr...about age 5. A quick pee in the cup showed blood in the urine which apparently then warranted an entire work-up by specialists at a children's hospital. It was scary and uncomfortable for my child but poor thing was so excited because "they were going to CURE the problem." Sitting in the hospital listening to these chatterings confirmed for me that this was not a laziness or rebellious thing. This child struggled and nobody knew why. All of the tests showed a perfectly normally functioning urinary system.

 

What finally worked? Probably puberty. I had read that many late bed-wetters suddently stopped at the onset of puberty. Anyway it stopped of its own accord at age 11. I had already purchased a bed-wetting alarm, and had my plan in place to use it according to a book I found at the library. I was just waiting on the current newborn to start sleeping through the night as the process would require more sleepless nights on my part. But before that happened it just stopped. Praise God!

 

When I had a 2nd child begin to struggle in this area I slapped on pull-ups immediately...I was so tired of going through the sheets and the smelliness. If we ran out, we slapped on a diaper til I could get some more. This one outgrew the problem at the tail end of 6 or beginning of age 7. It was so much easier to handle the second time around. The 2nd one did not go through the wringer, did not have nearly the same experience as the 1st one. I was calm and matter-of-fact. Yes, it was still hard when younger siblings would make it to the dry-night milestone first. But I was able to be very supportive and explain what was going on instead of getting frustrated myself and wondering what the deal was.

 

Eventually I got to the point where we were buying pull-ups at Sam's. When the box ran out I would give it about 3 days with nothing to see if we were making progress. Then back to Sam's I would go, until the magical time came when it was just happening. Now there will be an accident every once in a great while....every 4 months or so. No big deal.

 

So my advice is to just hang in there. She is embarrassed and wants to stop. Keep buying those pull-ups. Read up on the subject at the library. Knowledge is power. It's calming too. Talk about it with the doctor at the next check-up if you think about it. There is always the chance that there is a physical abnormality in the pipes though that was not the case with either of my 2.

Good Luck!

[Jumping In Puddles]

 

I will look into magnesium, though I'd hate to spend money on that unless it is short-term.

 

It's not as expensive as pull-ups!

 

My kids took the magnesium every day for about 6 weeks, then I went with a multi vitamin that had magnesium in it, and they still didn't wet the bed! I hope you try it because it is such an easy fix and let's face it, if there is a magnesium deficiency, then bed-wetting is the side effect, so if nothing else, their little bodies need the magnesium!

[snickelfritz]

Our pediatrician uses 9 as the age when things need to be checked more. She said the bed alarms can be helpful, if the child is staying dry some nights. She doesn't prescribe medication long term, but will prescribe it for camp. She says it's a temporary fix.

 

Basically, we did what a previous poster did. Leave them in pull-ups. Every few months, try a few nights without them. We found that waiting for a dry pull-up wasn't a good predictor. She knew she had it and wasn't good about getting out of bed to go to the bathroom.

 

When she made it 2 out of 3 nights, we didn't buy more pull-ups. That wasn't a rule, it just finally happened We layer several mattress pads, so she can easily strip them and put wet things in the hamper without needing to wake us or make a big production of changing her bed. The first few weeks, we woke her right as we went to bed. Now, she does well, unless she is overly tired. She wants to do a sleep-away camp, so I'm considering asking the ped for the medication.

[Amy+2]

Would you consider a Chiropractor?

 

My youngest was receiving chiropractic care for issues related to his ear infections. (After 3 visits, no more illness and after a few months of care, not only no more illness, but no need for tubes which had been the pediatricians recommendation.) Anyhow, while I was taking my youngest in for a monthly alignment, for some reason I mentioned my almost 5 year old was still having night time accidents (wearing pull-ups) and my youngest was completely potty trained at 2 and a half and had never wet the bed once. NOT ONCE! Anyhow, she said "Let's align your oldest and see what happens.". She did that on a Monday, his pull-up was dry Monday night and Tuesday night and by Wednesday, he was sleeping in underwear with no accidents. Never had one after that either.;)

 

I recommended this to my cousin whose daughter was still wetting the bed at age 9, almost 10. They took her and she became accident free that week! She even wrote me a thank you for the suggestion.:001_smile:

 

eta: My cousins daughter had been on meds for her issue and they were not working for her.

[Rosie_0801]

My pediatrician explained that your body produces a hormone that decreases urine production at night.

 

 

Would you consider a Chiropractor?

 

:iagree: If the nerves to whichever part of the body (I could look it up, eh?) that creates that hormone are being squashed, it won't do a proper job. If the nerves to the bladder are being squashed, signals won't get through.

 

The oldest child my chiro ever treated for bedwetting was 16. Don't wait that long to try it! If it is going to work, it will work straight away. Unless your kiddo knocks their back out between the adjustment and bed time. No trampoline and no jumping off the couch ;)

 

:)

Rosie

[Pink and Green Mom]

My now 6.5 year old son had the same problem until right before he turned 6. We would wake him up at 11 (always dry) and again at 4 (usually dry), but come 7am he'd be soaked. Every.single.day. Never a dry morning. Ever. And he day-trained easily at 3 so that wasn't the issue. He is such a sound sleeper and just would not wake up. We went away with 2 other families for a weekend and both kids his age were out of pullups and he was mortified when he found out he was the only one.

 

We got an alarm from Amazon (about $80) last September. Best money we ever spent. The alarm went off the first five or so nights and after that nothing. It was amazing. We kept the alarm for a few more months and it never buzzed ever again. Another friend of mine used it for her 2nd grader and had the same results - no more night wetting after less than 5 nights. My son now gets up to go to the bathroom a few times in the middle of the night by himself. And he's never had an accident since.

 

I did have to sleep on the floor in his room the first night because once the alarm beeps (loudly) you have to race them to the bathroom. And it did startle him the first night, but by the second night he'd wake up and make it to the bathroom with just a few drops in his pajamas. I cannot recommend it enough.

 

Good luck to you. I wet the bed till I was 10 (my son is adopted so it isn't a biological issue) so I know how that is.

[2squared]

My just-turned-7yo wets about 50% of the time. I feel so badly for him. He asks me when his body will grow up enough to be dry every morning, but we don't make a big deal out of it. He sleeps like a dead man so I expect he won't be ready for a while.

 

He stopped wearing pull-ups at 4yo and now uses a waterproof pad on his bed. He brings down his pad and blanket every morning. I wash and he returns them to his bed. He doesn't have any sheets on his bed, just a mattress protector, so making the bed is easy.

[amo_mea_filiis.]

Unless you think something medical is going on, don't worry about it. I can't imagine trying to wake my ds, and if I did I'd probably get peed on while taking him to the bathroom anyway!

 

My ds has had a sleep study, which did not show significant drops in o2, and he's on magnesium. He's also had his blood sugar tested. He's had maybe 6 random dry nights, about 1 per year. He usually leaks through diapers and boosters too. He also will not wake if his bed is wet, with or without diapers.

 

I asked ds when he plans on getting out of diapers and his response is "when I'm big like you, mom." So his goal is to stop wetting when he's 26. When he 18, he has to buy the diapers!

[clearycrew]

My son is about to turn 9 and still wets most nights. He never even knows when it happens-- just doesn't wake up. Nothing has helped thus far, but I am definitely going to try the magnesium! I'm also going to talk to our chiro about it now. I'm so thankful for this thread!

[Kipling]

The OP's situation sounds very similar to what we have gone through. My oldest wet the bed every night. We tried limiting drinks. We woke her up to go to the bathroom at 10pm and 3am, and she still would wet the bed. She was a very heavy sleeper and tossed and turned all night. We did take her for a sleep test, but everything was normal. Also, I was a bed-wetter until late.

We bought an alarm that buzzes when it gets wet (attaches to the underpants). Best $60 we have ever spent. It went off a few times in the first week, and then maybe again once a month for a couple of months. She hasn't used the alarm in over a year, and there has been one wet night during that whole time.

If you choose to go that route, make sure she understands the buzzer and tries it out before she goes to sleep. Also, we ended up putting tape over the speaker because it was SO loud (didn't sound too loud when we tried it out, but it could wake the dead at 2 in the morning).

 

This is the kind we got:

http://sleepdryalarm.com/See-How-The-Alarm-Works.html

[KellyGirl]

My ped said that a urologist won't even look at a kid until age 7, and even then sometimes they will say that is too young to really worry about it. But then he suggested an alarm. If I had known about magnisium and chiropractic adjustment I might have tried those first, but I bought an alarm on ebay (it was new). Like a pp said, my son (who was almost NEVER dry) was accident free and has been for 5 years now. So, while it may not be anything to worry about medically, if it is bothering you and your child, you do have a couple of different routes you could try. Good luck!

[DawnM]

My oldest wet the bed until around age 10 or 11. We just didn't make a big deal out of it. We had plastic under his regular sheet and just washed daily.

 

We tried the alarm thing and we tried no drinking, etc....nothing worked. He just finally outgrew it.

 

Dawn

[sarahbobeara]

For those who used magnesium, do you have a recommendation about amounts or brand name of vitamin you used? My son turns 7 in July and he has a dry night about once a month. He sleeps so deeply, even trying to wake him up to use the toilet in the middle of the night is a challenge. I'm trying to avoid an alarm if possible.

Thanks :)

[Trish]

She doesn't do it on purpose.

[KrissiK]

My 5 year old dd still wets every night. She's a hard sleeper, she snores, the whole shot. Our ped isn't that concerned, though DD is going to an ENT on Monday because of a variety of other issues, but hopefully if these are addressed, the bedwetting my be addressed, too. I've tried getting her up in the middle of the night to pee, but she literally fights me. She's half asleep, but she becomes combative, refuses to go potty and I just gave up. It was kind of funny, my mother was getting very self-righteous about DD still wearing pull-ups. She gave me lectures and all kinds of advice. Until we spent the night there once and we'd forgotten a pull-up, so I did get dd up before I went to bed and my mom actually saw what went on. She's kept her mouth shut from then on.:D

[Paige]

I would try an alarm. It worked for my DS very quickly. I tried it with my girls and they were not ready for it. (at 5 and 6) With the alarm, however, we found they were getting up to pee 5-6 times a night and it was not just a little bit. They did not drink much before bed and I really don't think it has much to do with that. No matter how much I drink before bed, I won't wet the bed and I probably won't getup more than twice. It must be something else going on. The doctor said it was hormonal and until the hormones that are supposed to reduce urine output at night kicked in, we were in a for a real battle. She said she could prescribe meds to reduce their urine output at night but it wouldn't really help them learn to wake up on their own. We backed off on the alarms because they were not getting enough sleep waking up that often. All of the kids in DHs family including his mother were very late bedwetters so I am sure it is something hereditary. The older ones have all outgrown it with no health problems, but without the alarm, they outgrew it much later than I would be willing to wait. We tried magnesium and it did not help.

[Sun]

My now 6.5 year old son had the same problem until right before he turned 6. We would wake him up at 11 (always dry) and again at 4 (usually dry), but come 7am he'd be soaked. Every.single.day. Never a dry morning. Ever. And he day-trained easily at 3 so that wasn't the issue. He is such a sound sleeper and just would not wake up. We went away with 2 other families for a weekend and both kids his age were out of pullups and he was mortified when he found out he was the only one.

 

We got an alarm from Amazon (about $80) last September. Best money we ever spent. The alarm went off the first five or so nights and after that nothing. It was amazing. We kept the alarm for a few more months and it never buzzed ever again. Another friend of mine used it for her 2nd grader and had the same results - no more night wetting after less than 5 nights. My son now gets up to go to the bathroom a few times in the middle of the night by himself. And he's never had an accident since.

 

I did have to sleep on the floor in his room the first night because once the alarm beeps (loudly) you have to race them to the bathroom. And it did startle him the first night, but by the second night he'd wake up and make it to the bathroom with just a few drops in his pajamas. I cannot recommend it enough.

 

Good luck to you. I wet the bed till I was 10 (my son is adopted so it isn't a biological issue) so I know how that is.

 

:iagree: We also did an alarm with our 6 yo. He slept like the dead and nothing was working to get him to stay dry. We'd tried rewards, supplements, scheduled wakings, and probably some other things. Nothing had worked, and he wet two or three times a night and didn't wake for it even when he was in soaking wet, freezing cold sheets (cool bedroom in middle of winter = wet, cold sheets if the child doesn't wake up when he pees). He also comes from a family with a history of extended bedwetting. He has several close relatives who wet the bed until 12, 13, or even older. He desperately wanted to be dry, but he couldn't do it on his own. We finally decided to try an alarm. It was a miracle worker.

 

We used the alarm but didn't sleep on the floor of his room, so he didn't get to the bathroom right away. It still worked. We put a night pull-up on top of his underwear during this time to minimize clean-up. The first week or two, he would be totally soaked and still asleep even with the alarm blaring and vibrating on his shoulder. We'd drag him to the bathroom, and have him use the toilet. New underwear, reposition alarm, new pull-up and back to bed. We repeated this two or three times a night those first two weeks. We really thought it wasn't going to work because he'd be completely empty when we put him on the toilet because he'd soaked his underwear and pull up before we got there.

 

After a couple of weeks, we noticed that he wasn't totally soaked anymore when the alarm went off. He still had some urine left to pee in the toilet, so we felt like he was making progress. He was starting to wake up on his own to the alarm too.

 

After a couple more weeks, he was waking up on his own to the alarm, but there were just tiny spots of pee in his underwear - maybe quarter-sized. The alarm had stopped him from fully emptying his bladder, and he'd make the rest in the toilet.

 

It took two or three months before he was completely dry at night, but he got there. He went from peeing large amounts two or three times a night and sleeping through it to sleeping through the night dry most nights and occasionally waking up on his own to use the bathroom in the middle of the night. He's always dry now.

 

This was a child with an extensive family history of bedwetting who showed no signs of being ready to be dry at night other than wanting to be dry. He couldn't do it on his own, but with the alarm he got there. He was incredibly proud of himself the first time he could sleep over at a friend's house without a pull-up.

 

The alarm wasn't cheap at about $80, but it was a lot cheaper than continuing to buy pull-ups.

[LAmom]

Thank you everyone! I have a lot of options to look into...or just wait it out. :001_smile:

[kilo90]

Glad to find this thread..

My son quit wearing pull-ups about 6 months ago. He was 4yrs at the time and is now 5. He only wet the bed 3 times over the course of 5 months. The last month or so, he has been wetting the bed 3-4 times a week. Any thoughts on why this might be happening after several months of no issues?

 

Gloria

[Rosie_0801]

Glad to find this thread..

My son quit wearing pull-ups about 6 months ago. He was 4yrs at the time and is now 5. He only wet the bed 3 times over the course of 5 months. The last month or so, he has been wetting the bed 3-4 times a week. Any thoughts on why this might be happening after several months of no issues?

 

Gloria

 

He's probably taken a tumble and put his lower back out of alignment. A chiro will fix that.

 

Rosie

[AngieW in Texas]

We tried every suggestion that we read about and tried as many of them as possible in combination (some were mutually exclusive). We also tried medication. Nothing had the least effect. My dd was dry maybe 4-5x/year her whole life up to 8yo. She desperately wanted to not be wet at night anymore.

 

I finally got the SleepDry alarm from Starchild labs. It was pretty eye-opening.

 

The first week with the alarm, it went off 2-3x/night, every night and my dd slept through it every time. I had to wake her up to go to the bathroom and change the sheets.

 

The second week, she was wet 1-2x/night (which is better than 2-3x/night) and was actually waking up for the alarm. I met her in the bathroom each time instead of having to wake her to get her to go to the bathroom.

 

The third week, she had one dry night and was wet just 1x/night the other nights.

 

The fourth week was complete dry.

 

There was one wet night the fifth week.

 

In the following year she was wet only twice. Once was after staying up all night the night before to watch a foal being born and the other was when she was miserably sick and running a fever over 102 all day and night despite round-the-clock advil.

 

I highly recommend trying an alarm. I do wish that we had tried it earlier. All the different tricks for dry nights did nothing for my dd. The medication did nothing either.

[KrissiK]

Have you visited an ENT? I know I posted previously in this thread, but we recently saw an ENT and DD's adenoids are huge. The dr. said she wasn't getting restful sleep (she'll literally fall asleep on the couch for an hour or so some afternoons, she's so exhausted) and this is causing her bedwetting. She's getting her adenoids out in a couple of weeks and we're hoping this helps.