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Behaviour/development

Bed-wetting 5 year old DD - tell me I'm not the only one!

16 replies

Issymum · 30/08/2006 10:00

DD1 is 5 and a half and will be going into Y1 next week. We got her out of night-time nappies in early summer last year before she started school. For that first year she was fine, just the odd accident. Then in early summer this year she started quite suddenly to wet the bed more frequently until it was almost every night. It stopped almost as suddenly as it started two or three weeks ago and now it has started again. I know that there will be a chorus of 'don't worry, she'll grow out of it'. But it really bothers me because she wakes up at 3am having wet the bed. That wakes up me and DH; DH finds it very hard to get back to sleep and although I can slip back into a profound sleep I'm just toooo old for broken nights. So even if it's not a problem for her, it is for us.

I've racked my brain trying to pin it down to any psychological cause, but I really don't think there is one. We've had a urine test done ant that showed nothing but we might get another one done. We've put a potty in her bedroom so, if she does wake up, she doesn't have to find her way to the loo in a dark house. She has sometimes used it, but my guess is that she is wetting the bed before she wakes up.

Internet research suggests that taking your child for a pee at your own bedtime is not a good strategy as they don't wake up and it just decreases their bladder capacity. The general consensus seems to be that you should use a bed-wetting alarm. You explain clearly to the child, before they go to sleep, what will happen. You have a baby-monitor in your bedroom so that you can go in and wake the child up fully as soon as the alarm goes off. You then take them to the loo, even if there is little left to pee out. Finally you get the child to help you re-make the bed (not as punishment but just to re-inforce their wakefulness). Has anybody tried this strategy? Did it work? If so, what alarm did you use? Anything else we should try?

I really want to knock this on the head before DH and I get grumpy from lack of sleep and more importantly DD1, who is blissfully unaware now, realises that wetting the bed is something that other children may tease her about.

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Issymum · 30/08/2006 10:38

Bump - please!!

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bundle · 30/08/2006 10:44

I won't bother with an alarm until dd1 (6 and still bedwetting at least a couple of nights a week) is 7, as it's not usually "treated" until they're that age. As well as the bladder "not telling" the child it's full (for which the alarm is apparently v effective), there can be other causes: a lack of a hormone which puts the bladder into night-time (ie less productive) mode and this can be taken in pill form if that's the problem (this can last into the teens, and can run in families, so if you/your partner were bedwetters this increases your child's chances of being one).

In the meantime, we're back to sticker charts (plus hard cash) and trying to increase the amount she drinks during the day (and restricting it after 6pm).

ikwym re: waking, it's a nightmare!

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Itsthawooluff · 30/08/2006 10:45

Hi IM.

My daughter was referred to a clinic at 7 for nighttime wetting. We found a routine of giving her more drinks in the day, to get the bladder used to holding more, + a star chart for the number of drinks she had (at least 6 IKEA plastic cups a day) NOT a star chart for wet / dry nights + a bed wetting alarm sorted the problem in 2 weeks.

You can do what I did, and stick the alarm sensor in a pair of pyjama pants, or, sorry if TMI, in a pair of normal pants + Tena lady inserts. Imagine my joy at buying those in Tesco's!!

Good luck

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Itsthawooluff · 30/08/2006 10:48

Sorry - X posted with bundle. Didn't mean to sound as if I was having a go at the star chart for dry nights .

The eneuresis nurse was very emphatic with dd that the star chart she had was for drinking, which I think took some of the pressure off DD.

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bundle · 30/08/2006 10:51

itsawuluff, i thought of daytime charts for drinking but she's at playcentre/school and it's tricky to monitor...

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juuule · 30/08/2006 10:52

My dd1 was almost 6 before she stopped wetting at night and my ds3 was almost 9 and even then there were 'accidents'. Has anyone else in your family been late at being dry at night? as it can run in families. Sometimes I think it's just a matter of time and there's not much you can do but wait.

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NAB3 · 30/08/2006 10:57

I immediately thought the fact that she is about to start year one is a clue. Is she worried about anything? Year one is a big change from reception. And you are not the only one.

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Judy1234 · 30/08/2006 10:58

All 5 of my children wet the bed until quite late. Earliest was age 4 or 5 I think and I mean every single night. My son now 18 had to go to a bed wetting clinic at 7 or 8 and after a spray didn't work he had an alarmed bed which solved the problem. My twins just managed it in the last year - they are 7 when a school trip away was coming up.

Very interesting radio 4 programme about it which I listened to. There are quite a few different reasons. Some children just have a small bladder which grows as they get older. Others it's genetic the children's father and I both wet the bed until we were 7 or 8. My mother was great about it - and I tried to be the same, no adverse comment, just change the sheets although it's annoying when it's night after night so the twins were in pull up pants until we had our last go at getting them dry which worked. Even so on this summer holiday one of them wet the bed on 3 nights.

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Itsthawooluff · 30/08/2006 11:14

For school I wrote a note to her teacher saying "X has a bladder problem, and needs to drink throughout the day. Would it be OK if she has her sports water bottle with her in the classroom". It happened to conincide with the school putting back drinking fountains for the children and encouraging them to drink at playtime, so there was no problem at all.

I can see with a child who is younger you might have a bit more of a problem getting into a routine, but might be worth asking.

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ishouldbedoingtheironing · 30/08/2006 11:16

Issymum
I had a thread running last week as my 11year old still wets the bed. Ursula the seawitch gave me some great advice and suggested that I look at a website called ERIC ( www.eric.org.uk )
At least you have had a period when she was dry at night so you know that she can do it.
My poor dd has never had more than dry night ever.I am sure from what you say that she will be fine and it is just a "blip"

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Issymum · 30/08/2006 14:30

Thank you everyone for some great advice. I don't know if this is a genetic thing as DD1 is adopted. I like the idea of increasing her water intake during the day and having sticker charts for that. I know it's early days, but I think we'll give the alarm thing a go. If it doesn't work, then maybe she isn't physiologically ready, although I'm not sure about that as she managed a year with very little bedwetting. Has anybody used an alarm that they would recommend?

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Issymum · 30/08/2006 14:31

ishouldbedoingtheironing - can you remember which topic you posted your thread under? It'll make it easier to find. I'll also take a look at the ERIC site.

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bundle · 30/08/2006 14:32

try ERIC

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bundle · 30/08/2006 14:38

xenia, this may have been the programme, here , Sarah Jane Durman, an enuresis nurse, is excellent (near bottom of transcript)

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Issymum · 30/08/2006 14:38

Thanks Bundle. You're right - they sell a couple of alarms themselves.

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ishouldbedoingtheironing · 30/08/2006 15:56

issymum - I posted it under health

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