Name: Margo
From: Willow Creek, CA
Number of kid: 2
Ages of kids: 2 and 6
Problem: I have a six year old boy who wets the bed. Limiting fluids does not help and waking him up does not work either. He wears a diaper at night which gets so full it leaks.
Solution posted by DALady: My son was a bedwetter until he was 8 years old and no amount of testing, limiting fluids, limiting caffeine, waking him up in the middle of the night....none of it worked. At ages over 4 or 5, your child may show signs of being an eneuretic. That means that their sleep patterns are just the opposite from the rest of us. When we go into a deep sleep and the level off to REM sleep, the eneuretic has a very short REM sleep period, followed by a LONG deep sleep period. Can you child "sleep through a hurricane"? Does he/she sleepwalk? Grind the teeth? There are other clues to this. I found a solution through a company called Pacific International which was VERY expensive but it worked within a month. Here is what they do:
First of all, they draw the child into the program from the very beginning and they make the child responsible for his or her own problem by gently involving them in the process. The main problem is that kids don't get that "my bladder is full" signal because they are so deeply asleep. So, right away, the kid is told to drink as much water as he/she can before bed to let them see what it "feels" like when they really have to pee! They sleep on a 2x3 foot (or so) screen/rubber mat from the waste down, with no underpants on. The screen/rubber mat is covered with a pillowcase and is not uncomfortable at all. The mat setup is then wired to an alarm...a LOUD alarm. When the child wets, the urine goes onto the screen, making a connection with the lines from the alarm (there is NO electrical shock problem) and that alarm goes off LOUD. This is where the child comes in. You must get up with the child and make sure he/she is awake...Even if you have to go into the bathroom and splash a little water on her/his face. The child will NOT be happy about this but you've got to get them awake. Make sure they urinate if they still have to. Then take them back to the bedroom. This is where they begin to participate (they have already agreed to do this with the counselor but it's hard to get them to do it in the beginning). They must remove the wet pillowcase, wipe off the pad with a towel, put a new pillowcase on, reset the alarm and then they can go back to bed. There is a counselor who works with you, and with the child, from the beginning. The counselor calls the child on a weekly basis to give him/her moral support. Believe me, the first week I never thought I would sleep through another night again in my life! But within one month, ONE MONTH, my son had stopped wetting the bed. The system is guaranteed for two years and he did have a relapse about a year later. We did the program for 2 weeks and he's been fine ever since and dry for over 3 years.
Bedwetting IS something that should be worried about, because it kills the child's self-esteem. It is very embarrassing to them but, by taking an active part in their own recovery, the kids really seem to get into this type of program. I'm not saying this is the way for everyone to go because it is quite expensive but it is guaranteed. As Bahama said, (below) you have to have patience. That's the other key. This is all IMHO and based on my son's real experience.
Another solution posted by Bev: I have been reading on this subject for a friend of mine who has the same problem. Try not giving the child any caffeine as this makes the urge to urinate much stronger, and if your child is a deep sleeper he or she will not wake up. So try no soda and no chocolate about 4 hours before bed time. If this works, please let me know.
Another solution posted by Dawn: I have a 6 year old boy who is a bedwetter who I brought to his doctor, and they are suppose to be giving me an alarm in the beginning of April. What she says is that he cannot hear the little sound in his head that is telling him that he needs to go to the bathroom. So I have been waking up 2 and 3 times a night, and his bladder has been really full. I really don't worry about it, because all of my family were big bedwetters. I will see in April how the alarm works on him. (When I hear the alarm, which means that he is wet, I have to wake him up and take him to the bathroom, this is suppose to get him into the habit of waking up by himself). I'll let you know if it works. Good Luck.
Another solution posted by Poncho:Oh, donīt worry about bed-wetting problems that much, I wouldnīt worry ītill about 7 and a half. I know this because I myself was a bed-wetter ītill age 7 and I eventually outgrew my problem. (I didnīt have any bladder problems or anything else). Iīd go check with your doctor though, because it might help.
Another solution posted by "Bev":If I were you I would have my son taken to a doctor and have a songram done on his kidneys. Sometimes these things are medical and can be very serious! I wish you the very best and good luck!
Another solution posted by "Deborah": From my experience, it would depend mostly, at what age you began waking up at night and how often. What worked for me by age six was starting at 30 months and getting up at least twice at night. He may also have a small bladder. If they go often in the day, they would require close to the same frequency at night. My five year old has a small bladder like his Dad. I read a suggestion recently that telling the child at bed time to say, "I won't wet my bed" can help. Being consistent is critical.
Good sleeping!
Another Solution posted by "Bahama": Boy, this is a tough one, but one I had dealt with for years. I would first suggest to get your child checked out by an urologist to make sure there is no medical problem involved. Sometimes the urethra needs to be stretched. The urethra is the tube that urine comes out of. Sometimes this isn't big enough and the child can not empty their bladder all the way. (Even though they think they do) My child had to have this operation twice. It sometimes shrinks back after the first try.
A lot of people don't know that there is a gland in your neck that is involved in the control of the bladder. Sometimes this does not mature enough and causes bed wetting. Most children that have this problem usually outgrow it by the time they reach 12 years of age. This is due to the fact that they hit puberty and this gland matures.
The doctor can prescribe a drug that helps control this gland until it matures. This medicine really works. I believe the name of this medicine is tofinol. Ask your doctor about this.
Most important throughout all of this is your childs self esteem. Most children don't wet the bed because they want to. They don't like it any more than you do. I couldn't put diapers on mine. It would have destroyed her self esteem. I put a plastic sheet (under $5.00) on her bed underneath her regular sheet and washed her bedding & pajamas every morning. I never once rubbed it in to try to shame her. She was ashamed enough just doing it.
Throughout it all, just have patience and understanding. Believe it or not, he/she will outgrow it.
Please submit any more solutions.