Need Help with 8 Year Old Wetter (Day and Night)

Put him on a timed schedule to go to the bathroom. Every 90 - 120 mins. You can work that out with the teacher. I am a teacher and would work that out with you. Give him a little watch to help him remember. You use one with an alarm, but that's very public, unless there was a vibrating alarm.

Get him on a pee schedule.

As for night, buy Pull-up, Underjams (expensive!), etc. I buy what is on sale and in the right size. Mine is 7 and nothing physically wrong. She drinks nothing all day long for some weird reason and then pounds liquid from 5:00-7:00. Nothing we can do. We send water, Gatorade, etc. She just "isn't thirsty." We tell her to drink even if not thirsty, but little goes in. We've started rewarding for drinking her water at lunch. If she drinks her water, I put in a sweet snack the next day. She's honest. Once she didn't have a water bottle and I asked about it. She said it spilled, so she threw it in recycling. I put in a tiny treat w/ a tag that said, "Honesty gets rewarded too."

Stephanie

I would suggest not having consequences, since this is most likely not something the child can control. Since there is nothing medically wrong, it is probably something that he will grow out of. My stepson wet the bed at night on and off until he was about 10. He still has the occasional incident even at 12. My nephew is still in a pullup at night at 7, which his father says runs in their family. I am not sure about the daytime incidents. That may be something you want to continue to discuss with your doctor.

Huggies has a website that addresses this issue. My 9 yr old son has not had accidents during the day, but didn't stay dry at night until about four months ago. Check out www.goodnights.com.

Has he seen a pediatric urologist? If not, you should make an appointment right away.

A friends' daughter has this problem. What they do every afternoon is a "fluid challenge". She has to drink 17 ounces of liquid, then wait for an hour doing something low-key. The purpose of this is for her to learn what a full bladder feels like.

There is more to this, but you should consult with another doctor. Obviously this isn't somethig he chooses to do. Therefor it is a physiological problem that needs to be taken care of.

I was also address this with a specialist, especially for his day problem. It's not as big a deal if he wets at night because he's a real heavy sleeper, but he may have some other physical problem if he cannot hold urine when awake. I would check this out immediately, as you can only imagine how difficult it may be for your child.

Hi, I would go to a different doctor or specialist, demand it if you need a referral from your doctor. I was a bed wetter when I was a child but I think it was nerves, but it's embarrasing for the child.
Good Luck

I would tke him back to the doctor again to make sure there is not a problem a specialiat . some times the can miss a urinary tract infection that makes urine leak . now days with the special unerwaear he is does not feel bad about him self in front of his friends. good luck S..

i recently read a VERY interesting article about all the different consequences of a child having yeast overgrowth in the digestive system. so fascinating i read it several times. all sorts of side effects from mental to physical because the nasty yeast butts out the good bacteria that help the body to absorb nutrients. so, this homeopathic DR who wrote the article has found that often a child who is still bed wetting when they are older have this yeast overgrowth. it causes the urine to be very toxic, which in turns causes the tissue of the bladder to be sore and it then empties out with no warning to the owner. many cases of the yeast overgrowth go unnoticed in relation to bedwetting because in our society DR are so specialized. if you have not already, i suggest going to see a homeopathic DR and talking with him/her about it. a round of probiotics and a diet change might do the trick??

i read about this in the Wise Traditions Journal which is a publication from the Westin A Price Foundation and they have a really great website online.

good luck!

J., I used to work for a Chiropractor who is highly eduicated in College with a degree and is not a quack (I know some people do not think Chiropractor's are liget) I have heard many stories from different parents who were patients of my previous employer who state that the Chiropractor helped their child to stop wetting by adjusting their back. It turns out that in each case the childs lower back was out of alighnment and pinching on the nerve that sends the sinsaton to have to go pee to the brain. As I do not know where you live I can not recamend a Dr. for you. If you do not already see a Chiropractor I would ask around for a recomendation. If you live in the Roseville, California area then I highly recamend Dr. Gary C. Kelley, D.C.

Hi, I would try a B6+ a multi vitamin. I know it sounds funny - but sometimes it makes a huge difference. In our family this has helped with 3 different kids, and it takes about 2 weeks to know - neither of them are hard to use or find, and it makes a huge difference in how the child feels. It takes the problem out of the range of he is not choosing to do it to - his system is not processing the vitamins quite right (or he is not getting enough of those in his diet - which is very common) and he will feel better about himself.
D.

Hi J.,
Find yourself a competent hypnotherapist and take your son there. Hypnosis works very well for this kind of situation, just make sure you explain what you want from the therapy before you even go.

All my best, S. in Bakersfield
BakersfieldHypnoBirthing.com

i have that problem with my 5 year old girl. i ask my doctor and she told me that maybe they just forget to go. so what i have to do its remaind her every cople hours to go to th betterom even if she says she dasint wonna go i stil drag her down to tha betterom and she gouse.. that helps them trine them self not to hold for to long and not to wet them self .. so try it maybe its gonna work foryou.. if not go o a doctor maybe your boy has some kine of biger problem... good luck

I wish I had suggestions. My nine year old does ok during the day but after about 4-5mos of being potty trained when I was pregnant with my 3rd child he regressed to consistent night time wetting. We have never punished him and just call his pullups - "Nite time underwear". So far he doesn't seem very bothered about it. The doctors say don't worry and both my husband and I had siblings with issues like this too. I still worry. My mom would take my sisters to the bathroom before she went to bed every night for years. If Ben wasn't on the top bunk it would be easier for me to do the same. I have tried several times - sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't. What I have thought about doing is to have him keep a log of when he is wet/dry. Maybe we can notice some consistencies in when its happening. Please share any good advice you get with me. My email is: ____@____.com. Thank you!
S.

A woman recently told me that she used something that she put in her daughters underwear that sensed the first sign of wetness and in turn made a little buzzer buzz that was attached to her shoulder. I have never heard of such thing. But she made it seem like it was miraculous and told me to see if they sell them at the drug store for my daughter. She said the little buzz was just enough to wake her daughter to use the bathroom and in a few days it had trained her to wake up to go.Her daughter is grown now, so it makes me wonder if the device is still available. But it might be worth looking in to. Good luck!

I had a bad problem at night until I was fourteen or fifteen. During the day, if I didn't remember to go to the bathroom, I would sometimes also have accidents. The Dr. said I had a small bladder. I don't know if that was true or not, but I do know I was a very sound sleeper which caused the nighttime problem, and tended to (and still do) get busy with a lot of different things and just forget to go to the bathroom. As an adult, I've learned to exercise control. It may just take him more time to get to that point. I would check all possible avenues of medical problems out anyway, because Drs. don't always figure it out the first, second, or even third time. I realize this is a big inconvenience for you as well as for your boy... and possibly an embarassment for him as well. You do need to be on his side in all of it... no punitive actions, and lots of support. Use whatever you can to minimize the mess for both of you. If you think using some sort of protective underwear is in order, be sure he agrees with it and won't be embarrassed by the fact that he's wearing it. Teach him to do as much of the cleaning up after himself as he can. That is a step in taking responsibility and may even help him learn to control his bladder better. Also, try to find out some sort of exercise he can do to strenghten his muscles so he can gain better control.

I agree with Beth...he probably has no control over what's going on. My 8-year-old still has accidents at night and I can directly trace it to how much liquid he drank in the hour before bed. Like you said, your boy is an extremely bright kid--this is not an area he's failing in. It's probably not a medical problem. It's a childhood "thing" and it will pass.

I know I don't have any expert advice, but I think the rewards thing is not the answer.

My daughter had the same problem. I took her to an urologist and she got oxybutynin. From the first dose she's been completely dry. It is som amazing - we have a new life! This medicin doesn't interfere with the body's development to eventually be able to handle it without medicin. It's worth a try.
C.

Without more detail about how much medical assessment has been done, I'm not sure if this is relevant - but I agree with the suggestion to see a pediatric urologist and ask that person if it is possible anything is going on with his spinal cord (e.g., tethered cord). It is very unlikely, as it is quite rare, but potentially worth checking out (via MRI). Hopefully it is nothing medical and just something he'll outgrow! Best wishes.

Does having him checked medically include seeing a pediatric urologist?

bed wetting can be a sign of magnesium deficiency. or even too much dairy.

I would have your pedi check his vitamin levels with a blood test.

Hi J.,

I have the same problem with my son...except now he is 11. He does not wet during the night; just during the day. He has been to several different doctors and none of them can find anything wrong with him. Sad thing is he doesn't care that he has wet pants or that he may smell because of the urine. I recently heard (a few days ago) that a chiropractor can help with this sort of problem...I have not tried it just yet and cannot offer any relief to the problem, but it may be worth a try. Good Luck!