Bed wetting

[junglewonderland]

Koala was dry at night for a good few months. I thought there might be a few hiccups when he started school, with maybe the odd wet bed. He is 6 weeks into school now, and has wet the bed every night, often twice a night for the last 2 weeks.

Has anyone had something similar? When will it end? Yawn. I'd just starting getting some sleep with junglebaby sleeping through. Should have known it wouldn't last.

[StJuniper]

P did this when we made the transition from Canada to Georgia last month. We started lifting him at 11, and using a sticker chart-- every night he stayed dry he got a sticker, and after a week of stickers he got to pick a treat at the grocery store. When he's tired for other reasons, I think he can't muster the willpower to get up and pee.

[junglewonderland]

How long did it last, STJ? Is he dry now? We have offered a reward, but it has had no effect so far.

[elaruu]

Much sympathy from here. We took A out of night nappies at about age 4 + 10 myths or so, thinking he was just being lazy and using the nappies. He was wet every night, often 2-3 times until he suddenly inexplicably became dry at about 5.5. That lasted about 3 months with maybe only 3-4 accidents. Then suddenly started wetting the bed again every night. This was coming up to the end of term 3 of his first year of school so I thought maybe tiredness was getting to him. I was hopeful that the school holidays would "fix" him but no, it continued.
We started using a bed wetting alarm at the end of last year, at about age 6 + 10 months. At first it was going off 2-3 times a night (we had been lifting him at 10pm before, but this is not advised with the alarm). We had some success with the alarm, but very few dry nights. It went down to once a night after a couple of months and this was always at about 10pm so I gave up and just started lifting again. So has been mostly dry for a few months.

He's now 7 and we lift him still at 10pm. He's guaranteed to be wet if we don't do that or if we're a bit late. Despite this he's also wet in the morning approximately once or twice a week. This has been increasing lately. I'm thinking I might try the alarm for him again soon.

If it continues for you I would look into trying a bed wetting alarm. Apparently they work for most people, and really quickly too. Recommended only from about 6yrs old though, but some people seem to have had success younger than that. I think the fact that he's been dry before might mean that it would be quite likely to work well for him. I'd probably give him until the end of this term though first to see if he stops on his own.

Good luck!

[junglewonderland]

Thanks elaruu. You deserve a medal! That is a long road you are travelling. He has only just turned 4 so I don't think anyone will be offering an alarm yet.

[ches]

[StJuniper]

[busmother]

Following with interest! Sounds almost exactly like P. She potty trained during the day at 2, and achieved three months of pretty much full dryness at about 2 1/2. Because of that, I thought we were basically there, so we had about a year of wet beds more often than not. I thought it was starting nursery that had tired her out and started the night wetting. We tried lifting which worked for a while until she started semi-waking up and really fighting it. I kept thinking it was just a phase, but we finally officially went back into nappies at night when she was about 4 and we were doing a lot of travelling. What a relief! And she managed 16 dry nights in a row about 3 months ago, and I thought we were there at last. But no. So two days ago I bought some big washable nappies, as it's breaking my heart all these disposables we've been using, and now they often can't contain it all. She'll be 6 next month, so I think we will need to start looking into an alarm.
Sorry - bit of a hijack, and probably not what you want to hear. But we basically haven't done anything proactive up until now, reckoning she'll just be dry when she's ready. I'm not sure how a sticker chart would work, as she's asleep. She does get up and pee in the night, but there always seems to be one just before she wakes up in the morning.

[DandelionFrosting]

Can he take off a diaper to use the toilet if he does wake up before he goes? If he can, I'd be tempted for the sake of sanity to put a diaper on him for the mean time, until you figure out what's going on. All the times my kids have wet the bed, it's been because they were too tired to get up, and/or had too much to drink before bed. (Usually when we've had dinner at DH's parents'house because MIL lets Zilla have half the bottle of soy milk and call it her dinner.) Has he changed his drinking habits lately? I suddenly realize that this sounds like I'm talking about a drunkard . . . .

[StJuniper]

^Or a pull-up. We'd been using those with P while he was iffy on night dryness, and giving him a chocolate chip if it was dry in the morning.

[junglewonderland]

Since I last wrote, he has had several nights of wetting the bed every two hours, some nights of wetting it once or twice, and two nights of being dry. A real mixed bag! I've offered a nappy but he is not keen, and I can't bring myself to force him just yet. When he was in night nappies he would often take them off anyway.

[elaruu]

UTI? Maybe? My doctor once suggested that maybe A's bed wetting was caused by one. It wasn't, but you could get him tested? I was thinking with A that if it was a UTI then surely he would have been sicker or in pain or something, but the dr said no, not always.

[Raktajino]

Could he be constipated? If his bowel is full it'll be pressing on his bladder.

Also have you heard of the eric website, I can't remember the url but do a google search- it's a uk charity or nhs based or something with an evidence base behind it and is really usefull for information and help with kids wee and poo issues!

[Raktajino]

http://www.eric.org.uk/Parents/info_bed ... ssbcukoth1


Here you go ^^^

[TravellingMum]

JM - I came back on here to ask a question about bed wetting and saw your post! What a relief others are in the same boat!
And also that there are people around I still recognise their name