Imipramine for bed wetting?

[Mama Lynx]

Any experiences?

 

No, not for me, silly. I've been dry for years, now. :D

[Pamela H in Texas]

Worked for 2 days then nothing...that has been our experience on everything we've tried though <sigh>

[Mama Lynx]

Hmmm, lovely.

 

Any side effects? Concerns?

[swellmomma]

I used Desopressin (not sure if that is just generic imipramine or not) for when my son goes to camps. It works well, but I don't like to add anything to his med regime unless absolutely necessary, so at home we don't use anything. It is great to have for camps etc because at 10 yrs old the stigma of showing up with pullups or wetting your sleeping bag is far worse than adding a med to his regime for a night or two. Our ped recommends not using a med unless you have no other choice or the bed wetting is severely affecting the child negatively. He also admits he was a bed wetter until 14, so he knows from experience. Both of my boys wet the bed, my 10 year old mainly if he has sugary drinks like koolaid or even just regular juice at some point in the day, so I have mostly tried to eliminate those but sometimes someone still gives him some. My 5 yr old simply has an immature bladder, he still wears pullups, I he is still wetting at 10 and he is headed of to camps I will get the Rx for him like I have done for ds10

[Mama Lynx]

My son is 8, but wets the bed pretty much every night. And yes, he now goes to camps, and sleepovers. So it's becoming an issue.

[JudoMom]

My son is 8, but wets the bed pretty much every night. And yes, he now goes to camps, and sleepovers. So it's becoming an issue.

 

I've got a slew of bedwetters and recently talked to our pediatrician about it.

 

He said he's seen limited success with the meds for bedwetting, but they normally help for a bit and then quit working and it's really more of a bladder maturity issue. He said we could try them if we wanted and that they were safe, alleviating that concern for me. We chose against them for now because my boys are fine with pullups and don't go to sleepovers/camps yet.

[MommyX8]

We use the Desmopressin but in the nasal spray. It works like a charm. The pills do not work for us at all.

 

I have my 8yog and 6yob on it. We periodically wean off and my 8yog just cannot stay dry yet without it.

 

We did do the ultrasound and labwork and came up clean. So it is just the hormone issue, which this takes care of.

 

My 5yob is too young for Desmo, so I use Hyland's Bedwetting tablets and he has had maybe one accident in the past 6 weeks.

[Ria]

We used it and it worked wonderfully. Our son was off it in 30 days and never had another problem. I think, though, that he was just about ready in terms of bladder maturity (he was 10). We did not even consider the nasal spray because it is a synthetic hormone...I had too many concerns about its effect on the body. Our pediatric urologist said he didn't like to use it and only prescribed it as a last resort. He recommended we try the imipramine.

 

Ria

Edited November 7, 2008 by Ria

[swellmomma]

My son is 8, but wets the bed pretty much every night. And yes, he now goes to camps, and sleepovers. So it's becoming an issue.

 

 

Ds10 was wetting nightly sometimes several times a night until about a month ago. So I feel your pain. Washing the bedsheets daily is not my idea of fun. That said it didn't bother him to be doing it so we did not use the meds at home. I would look into the meds for camps/sleepovers but not use them at home unless absolutely necessary, but that is just me. My kids are already on a slew of meds and supplements I don't like adding more to the mix if i can help it.

[charlotteb]

When my son was 6, we tried a bed-wetting medicine. I can't remember the name of it now because it has been several years. He was soaking the bed *every* night. The medicine did nothing. We just had to wait it out, until his body matured. We had some luck with setting an alarm in his room for him to wake up in the middle of the night. And then dh would wake him up before he went to work (5 am). But he still had occasional accidents. About a year ago, he quit having them. We are very thrilled!

[JennifersLost]

That was one of the meds we used with ds and I feel compelled to say that it affected him terribly. I think like all meds there are going to be some people who have a reaction. If you use it and your son complains of "feeling weird", get him off of it right away. We've dealt with years of health problems since then. The doctor swore the meds couldn't have caused it, but the contraindications on the label listed these types of reactions, so I don't believe him.

 

Having said that, the alarm was the thing that solved the problem for us, finally. I resisted using it for years and years and I could kick myself now. We went through so many short-term "fixes" that only turned out to be temporary. We got one called hawk or nighthawk or something like that. It works like a pager set on vibrate, so the alarm doesn't wake the whole house and it certainly woke my heavy, heavy sleeper like a charm. He would get up, get changed, put his wet stuff in the laundry and re-make his bed. He hated it, but it did what he needed: created the neural pathways between his urge to go to the bathroom and the need to WAKE UP. He only had to use it a few weeks and then once or twice when his body slipped back into old habits, and that was the end of it.

[Mesa]

This post was for me lol.

My 8 yr old wets every.single.night. I'm tired of wet sheets. He has an alarm that goes off when he wets and that has helped him stay dry but here lately he's been taking it off and soaking his bed again. We are on the 3rd new mattress for him. I just cant see buying him another new mattress until he stops wetting the bed. We use mattress covers but the pee still makes it through to his mattress somehow. I guess we need a plastic cover on his bed. I'd love to have him try Pull ups again but they cant contain everything he puts put either... because once he goes he GOES.

This is so frustrating.

[SheilaZ]

We had the same experience as Pam.

He tried Desmopressin first. The we did an elimination diet and then finally the imipramine.

It worked for about a month and then nothing. He didn'thave any side effects but he did have an EKG before starting it just to be sure he didn't have any heart problems that could be exacerbated.

 

Same thing every time. A month of improvement then never worked again.

Now we don't even worry about it. He wears the absorbant underwear if he's away from home and he doesn't care one iota. The urologist said that he will outgrow it when his body is ready.

[athena1277]

For those of you who used alarms, what age did they start using them? My dd is almost 6 and still using a pullup at night.