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Bed-Wetting Blues
Jennifer and her 8-year-old son, Ryan, are pros at middle-of-the-night sheet-and-jammie changes. Ryan mastered daytime dryness when he was 3, but nights have been another story. "At age 6, Ryan was wetting the bed four nights a week," Jennifer says. With mixed results, the Indianapolis mom tried limiting how much water her son drank before bedtime and having him wear disposable undies if he wet three nights in a row. Now Ryan seems to be outgrowing the problem. "He rarely wets anymore," his mom says.
Nighttime accidents—shouldn't they be history by now? For 5 to 7 million children ages 6 and over, the answer is: not necessarily. These kids (including up to 10 percent of children ages 6 to 8) struggle with enuresis, the medical term for bed-wetting. Some studies suggest that bed-wetting affects boys more often than girls, but the reasons aren't entirely clear. It also tends to run in families.
What the Experts Say
Hidden Worry
Nighttime wetting can be a shameful secret. "Bed-wetting was wrecking my 8-year-old daughter's self-esteem and social life," says one mom. "She'd skip sleepovers and then feel excluded because other kids stopped inviting her. Once, she went anyway, and lay awake most of the night, panicking that she'd urinate in bed. She came home in the morning exhausted and miserable."
Unfortunately, many parents mistakenly believe that children could stay dry if they just tried harder. "This is simply not true," says Max Maizels, M.D., a urologist at Children's Memorial Hospital, in Chicago, and coauthor of Getting to Dry: How to Help Your Child Overcome Bedwetting. "Kids aren't responsible for wetting any more than they're at fault for having asthma."
So what is responsible? For 1 percent of kids, the culprit is diabetes or kidney abnormalities, but these possibilities can be ruled out with a complete physical. When wetting is temporary, the cause may be stress-related, such as going to a new school or having a new baby in the house. The reason for chronic bed-wetting, experts say, is an underdeveloped connection between the bladder and the brain. "The full-bladder signal doesn't get through to the brain to wake the child up," explains Lane Tanner, M.D., a developmental-behavioral pediatrician at Children's Hospital Oakland, in California.
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My daughter is almost 8 and still wets. We did the whole limit her drinks before bed, have her pee before bed, wake her up in the middle of the night to pee. She never remembered being woken up to go to the bathroom. She would still wet the bed after that and sleep so deeply she wouldn't wake up until morning or until we went in to wake her for school. She's in pullups now because her sleep was so interrupted whether she remembered it or not that she was tired all the time.
1/25/2011 10:01:18 PM Report Abuseit is frustrating because the dr is like she'll grow out of it and doesn't seem concerned at all. She's almost seven and doesn't wake up at all.
1/20/2011 12:37:48 PM Report AbuseYou missed nothing! Our son doesn't wake up for anything. Not even fire alarms! We burned a grilled cheese while he was sleeping and he didn't budge. We got him a wet stop alarm because of the testimonials on amazon. He broke it in his sleep. He was upset the next morning and felt very bad. We don't know what to do anymore. We got pills from the doctor for sleepovers and the max dose doesn't work for him. He wakes up wet not as he wets....
1/20/2011 11:21:33 AM Report AbuseOur son had both enuresis & encopresis issues. Altho his pediatrician said he'd grow out of it, he was teased at school & had low self-esteem. By chance, I mentioned it to our chiropractor, describing for him the difficult labor and delivery I had had years earlier. After learning this might have been the root cause, we were ALL greatly relieved...and after a few adjustments our son had no more setbacks.
12/19/2010 02:24:04 PM Report AbuseMy 5 year old son is still in pull ups most nights. The problem I have is that when he wets the bed he doesn't wake up - he'll just sleep in it. do other parents have this issue?
11/19/2010 04:31:28 PM Report AbuseApparently everyone missed it because it wasnt helpful the only thing that was was to use vinegar in the laundry to cut the urine smell
6/4/2010 12:03:22 AM Report AbuseMy son is 7 and my husband and I take turns taking him to the bathroom at night. We literally stopped putting him in pull-ups. Since bedtime is at 830pm, we make sure he goes right before getting in his bed. Three-Four hours after he's been sleeping(that puts us at 1100pm-midnight), either of us goes to his room and gets him up to the bathroom. We noticed that he is ready to use the bathroom after every 3-4hrs of sleep. We do put the extra padding on his bed though. So far so good.
5/17/2010 10:34:33 AM Report AbuseYou didn't miss anything.
3/21/2010 01:49:00 AM Report AbuseHere is what we have done with my sons. -No soda after 6p.m. Only small drinks of water in the 2 hrs. before bed. -Bathroom before bed, with a parent to confirm that it happened. -Wake up in the middle of the night (usually around 1:00 a.m.) to go to the bathroom. As they get older, and get it under control, move the time back to parents' bedtime (around 10 p.m.) -If accidents occur after the mid-night bathroom breaks, use pull-ups until those stop. Mine is a success story!
3/20/2010 02:03:42 PM Report AbuseI agree with bacamama2. I want success stories and steps to get there!
3/18/2010 01:50:55 PM Report AbuseThis told me nothing that I didn't already know. I was expecting actual tips on stopping the nighttime bed wetting. Did I miss something?
3/15/2010 07:27:46 PM Report Abuse