Bed Wetting - Millville,PA

i don't really have any advice, but i just wanted to say that my son is five and going through the same thing. i never thought we would have this problem. my daughter learned to use the potty during the day and night over one month. my son took longer to stay dry during the day but has never been able to stay dry during the night. we too use pull ups they don't do the job. the doctor and my friend with five children told me this is normal, though very frustrating. for over a year i took him to the bathroom about 4 hours after bedtime. however this never prevented the bed wetting. he would use the potty and then still wet the bed. my only suggestions for you, though it has not made a difference for us many have said to try this, is to allow him to drink before bed time. if the body becomes dehydrated the kidneys can work harder to make urine. i have read a few alternative doctors recommend those who wake frequently to urinate drink a few ounes of water before bed to prevent this from happening.

all i can say is good luck. i sympathize with all the sheet washing you must be doing. i keep reminding myself and him that this will end one day- everyone learns to be dry at night.

Hi C.,
I'm sure this is frustrating for you AND your son. I would continue to not make a big deal about it when it happens. He probably will grow into dry nights. He's maybe just a really sound sleeper and the urge to pee may not wake him up. I know there are alarm-type things that can be worn in the underwear to wake up the child at the first sign of moisture but I have not had experience with them.
Would he wear a Good Nights pants to bed for easy changing? They are in larger sizes for older kids. My friend had a son who would not wake up to pee either and he wore them and eventually just didn't need them anymore.
Hang in there and good luck!
Denise

I would have said it is a maturational thing until my last child came along. She's had chronic bladder infections which caused her not just to wet the bed, but to went her pants on a regular basis -- sometimes daily. It's been awful for her.

But one of the issues was that her bladder didn't empty itself completely. The doctor told us to have her go at bedtime, and then go again in 30 minutes -- that way it would help the bladder to fully empty. It didn't work for us, because she was so embarrassed that she wasn't normal, that any procedure that she had to do and her sisters didn't, just didn't work emotionally. However, it might be worth a try --esp if your son wants to have the problem corrected. The only other thing I can think of is that we learned that soda can accentuate the problem, so we tried to drop that and increase the water intake -- which, quite honestly does work for her condition. The more she drinks, the more she actually cleans her bladder and it keeps her from getting infections which result in bed and clothing wetting.

Your son doesn't sound like he has bladder infections, but doing the "double void" thing might help his bladder to fully empty at bedtime. If it works, great. If not, you haven't lost much except a little time.

the rest of me sits pretty much in the camp that it'll change as he grows. If he's thin enough, he could wear xlarge pull-ups at night -- which our daughter did until she was 8 or 9. It helps to keep the problem out of everyone else's eyesight, because then the bed is dry. :-)

barb