One of my children (I won’t give his name because my children do read my posts from time to time) is a chronic bedwetter and has shown no signs of stopping.
At first I thought it was due to anxiety as it really escalated when he started school, and from then on it just continued. At first he didn’t mind because he was still young and so wearing pull ups wasn’t all that bad. But as he got older it became more difficult. He is very sociable and was always being invited over to friends houses for sleepovers and such. Whwn he reached grade 3 it started to become problematic.
We tried many things such as no eating / drinking 2 hrs prior to bedtime, waking him up once he had been sleeping for a few hours, pull ups, then no pull ups, relaxation exercises – nothing. It really started to bother him as he felt as though there was something wrong with him, and that he was doomed to be a bedwetter forever.
We went to the Doctors and ruled out anything medical causing it. The Doctor suggested a medication called DDAVP Melts. Finally. Something worked. He has to be on a relatively high dose of 3 pills a night but so far it has worked. He is able to sleep over at friends houses without any added stress of being afraid that he will wet the bed, or embarassed by having to wear special big boy pull ups.
He has been on the medication for almost a year and we have at times tried without but the bedwetting was still strongly present, so we have decided to stay on the medication for as long as needed.
When I look back to my childhood I don’t recall being a bedwetter and neither was my husband. None of the other children experience this so it makes me wonder what exactly causes it. I suppose the whole issue of having a smaller bladder, being a deep sleeper and such takes place but it is interesting.
Do you have children who are bedwetters? What did you do to help it? Where you or your husband bedwetters?
Until next time
Chantel, momof8crazymonkeys
My oldest until he was 12 and a half. Daily. Changing sheets daily made me feel like an underpaid hotel maid.
It just became part of the routines…. wake kids up, strip beds, get kid in shower. etc. We tried it all…alarm, meds briefly but hated idea of it so stopped.)and he had a bad reaction to one med) ..And then we listened to the doctor’s advice that he would outgrow it eventually. He became quite skilled at hiding pull ups at sleep overs. I am sure it was hard on his self-confidence and he surely picked up on our frustrations at times. But we always said that he really isn’t to blame for things that happen while sleeping. (Usually to blame for everything while awake however!! 🙂 ) Then one day, magically, it was like a fountain was turned off. It just stopped.
Second son stopped at age 2 and never does it . Kids three and four still bed wet and they are now 6 and 8. I am more relaxed about it knowing it will go away eventually and because I now have a washer and dryer upstairs so stripping beds is easier on me. I swear by the mattress protectors I got at Sleep Country.
Good luck!
My second has just stopped bedwetting (save the odd accident) at age 7. She is a very deep sleeper and if she forgot her pullup at night I would often find her fast asleep in a wet bed. Can’t say for sure exactly what helped; she kind of decided that was that. For a little while we got her to the bathroom in the middle of the night but now she is either holding it or is getting up on her own. Apparently my husband was on the later side too.
Chantal – my son is in the exact same situation. My husband was a bed wetter, my sister too.
We thought it might be anxiety tied to his LD’s and things like that but as he has come to terms with some of those issues (thank you Dr Loren) it still prevails. In Gr 3 many of his friends were heading off to overnight camp and he was torn. He really wanted to go. But he really didn’t want to wear underjams (he insists we not call them pullups, those are for ‘babies’). DDAVP certainly helped. He does need more than one melt, we tend to give him two and sometimes thats not enough. But its enough that he is calm, and keen, and enjoyed a week of overnight camp this last summer. He can’t wait to go back.
Thankfully his best buddy’s mom is incredibly supportive and helpful at overnights and is one of his Cub Scout leaders so quietly escorts him into the staff washroom to put on the underjam, and then take it off in the morning when they go to weekend camps.
The interesting thing is that in the last few months we’ve had more dry underjams than wet. His confidence is growing as he wakes dry and I think that dry nights help create more dry nights. He knows he can do it. I’m not saying its all in his head. I know its not. But the confidence is helping with body awareness I think and I’ve even seen him get himself up around midnight, go to the washroom and head back to bed. I have spent many an evening and many mornings calming him down and explaining that its okay, its not his fault, and it will end at some point. I’ve heard him defend the bedwetting to friends now too “hey, I can’t control it, its not something I do on purpose guys”.
As Kath said it does end. His pediatrician swears she’s never sent a kid off to university still wetting the bed. But the angst and stress before you get there can be tough.
I have a bed wetter. Bed wetting is extremely common but most people don’t share it so kids feel isolated. I’ve seen the doctor about it for my son too but will not medicate for it. I know he will outgrow it. He wets because he sleeps so heavy. The doctor helped him feel better about it by talking to him straight about it. We’ve tried a lot but really all it will take is time.
Chantal, I was a chronic older bed wetter myself. I wet the bed regularly until I was ten years old. Family legend has it that my dad and one aunt were well into their teens (like, 17 or 18) before they stopped. I remember the pain of not going to sleepovers, or worse: wetting the bed at a sleepover. We didn’t have pullups or meds in my day, and even if my mom or dad woke me to pee in the night, I often would still manage to wet the bed.
The good news is: it does stop. Even if it takes a few more years for him, he will EVENTUALLY grow out of it. The best thing for me was that my parents (and indeed the parents of friends whose sheets I peed all over at sleepovers from time-to-time) were understanding and never made me feel like I was lazy or childish for being a bedwetter.
Best of luck to your little guy!