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Behaviour/development

Bed wetting

8 replies

Missys · 06/09/2003 13:17

My 8 yr old son wets his pull-ups every night without fail. We make him go to the loo about 11.00pm but this still doesn't help.
Please help.

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beetroot · 06/09/2003 14:51

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mariae100606 · 06/09/2003 15:03

Hi there, I had problems with my now 5 year old on 10th Sept{}, when he was 3 and a half. He just didn't want to sit on the potty at all, it was very frustrating, we even gave him incentives if he went to the potty i.e. m&m's etc... when it took a while and it's hard to say this but when he is ready he will go himself, now he does a great job finally. Not too much pressure but keep on sending him to the loo before bed.. Now I have a 3 year old just turned 3 today 6th Sept{} and he does #2's in his pullups without fail.. I let him wear underpants all day as he goes to the potty much better when wearing these. He tells me "no weewee caca in pants go potty". Yeah right little pinnochio!! My whole day can revolve round washing underpants . Underpants are working well for him than pullups so I am letting him wear them for bed with an undersheet on the bed.

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cosmom · 06/09/2003 16:25

Sorry you're having this problem, missys. For what it's worth, there were two or so other threads on bedwetting which occurred in the past months--might be worth a look through the archives.

I'm not sure what the current "treatments" are or how well they work, but I think they were touched upon in those other threads.

I was a bedwetter (inherited from my dad) and the problem did eventually sort itself out. In the 70's it was quite popular to put kids on a low dose of antidepressants to stop bedwetting, because it allowed children to sleep less deeply so they could wake themselves when they had to urinate. These were old-fashioned anti-depressants, not SRI's, and the tablets gave me a very rare side-effect of heart arrhthmia which, in some children, can be fatal (I was lucky). So eventually I used nothing--I just grew out of it by12 or 13, with the bedwetting becoming gradually less frequent until it tapered off completely.

I'm not sure why my parents didn't want to try one of those alarms which sort of "train" the brain to wake up at the first hint of moisture. I wonder if those are still in use and, if so, if they have a good success rate.

I always worried about "accidents" at sleep-overs, but I never had one. I would be extra careful about restricting my fluids, and somehow my brain just knew at some level that I needed to sleep less deeply. (Or maybe it was luck.)

Anyway, these years may seem long, but it should all be OK in the end. Have you seen the gp about this? What do they say? Sorry that I can't give any practical advice.

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judetheobscure · 06/09/2003 20:37

The alarms are still in use - you can get them trhough your local enuresis-clinic (if you have one -ask the gp or hv)or you can hire from astric-medical. www.astric-medical.co.uk. Supposed to be 90% successful. I'm not an agent btw, they just advertise in our local NCT newsletter.

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judetheobscure · 06/09/2003 20:38

PS -for some reason I couldn't get beetroot's link to work. The website is www.enuresis.co.uk

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beetroot · 06/09/2003 22:02

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lou33 · 07/09/2003 13:45

The first thing you should do is get your gp to refer you to a consultant, and have your son checked over. They will firstly eliminate any infections he may have which causes him to wet himself, and also follow up with ultrasounds and possibly xrays of the bladder area to rule out any physical abnormalities. You can get many different types of drugs which help either reduce urine production during the night, or teach the brain and the bladder to recognise it is full. It may take a while to get the right combination though. There are also bedwetting alarms available, which are not at all conspicuous as in the past. Nowadays they are tiny , clip to the child's pyjamas at one end, and a small sensor goes into the pant area. The alarm will either vibrate or make a noise as soon as it gets wet.

It might be helpful to know that 1 in 10 children still wet the bed regularly at this age, and that you should be able to get incontinence pads from your hv if you ask.

Hth, good luck.

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cj74 · 17/10/2006 05:16

Hi All,

I have similar issues with my 8yr old son. He is wet every night almost without fail. I tried an alarm but he would get very distressed - didn't seem to be able to wake up properly and would be really disorientated. The next night he would not want to go to sleep because he would worry about the alarm going off. Wondering about other strategies that people have had success with (don't want to medicate).
Cheers!

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