bedwetting at 6.

[sethjarum]

My son is 6.5 years old and he wets the bed about 5 times a week. sometimes he can wet the bed twice in one night. he goes to the toilet before he goes to bed at 7.30pm and he could be wet by 10pm. If he wets he doesn't get up he will lay sleep all night and yell out when he wakes in the morning. I wash sheets most days. We use drynights when we go away. My 4 year old daughter is in drynights as she can't manage to stay dry. We have tried taking them to the toilet at 11pm but my son just fights us if we get him out of bed.
What do people think of the alarms. do they work. I don't think it will wake my son up, I'm sure it will wake everyone but him up. my son once went 15 days dry...I was so happy and thought he had stop wetting the bed but then it started again. I've considered putting him back in drynights full time the price i'd pay for the pants I'd save on washing and stress. I tell myself they will grow out of it, but i guess as parents we don't want to have to worry about them when school camps come. He has had a sleep over at a friends place and wore drynights for the night, his friend never said anything and a good thing is they go to different schools. both my children toilet trained during the day about the age of 2.5 and we had no problems.
I guess I'd like to hear from other people about their children and what works for them or what age they stopped.

[jtk'smum]

Hi sethjarum,
Just wanted you to know that Im in the same position at the moment, i have a 5 year old that still wets the bed every night and is fully toilet trained during the day.
We still use drynights nappies with J. Im really hoping that he will grow out of it aswell, we havent let him stay over his friends places at night because of it...

Can anyone else add to this comment any thing that may help us.

[MegaGuts]

Sorry i don't have any advice but i was just wondering if you had spoken to your doctor about this?? Or maybe gotten in touch with your local community health centre?? Maybe they may be able to advice you on what's best to do.
How long has your 6.5yr old been wetting the bed for? Is it just a thing that started recently or has he always done it??

[2girls&1angelboy]

My DD turns6 in september she used to be dry for awhile after i took away the pull ups but has started again i can put her into a wetaway program when she turns 6 ive tried things from waking her up one thing i dont do is restrict her fluids, i know she can do it thats the hard part.

[sandramm1]

The alarms do work, but often will not wake the child but rather the parent who will then have to wake the child and get them to go to the toilet. You could also try a reward chart- where for every dry night he gets a star, which then at the end of the week converts to a monetary sum or a present or treat of some sort- at the moment it doesnt sound as if being dry at night is a priority for him. Also get him to help you strip the bed and re- make the bed. Dont punish him for wetting and dont tell him he is bad but he has to know that it is not the norm and that you want him to be dry so he can enjoy things like staying at friends houses etc.

[sandramm1]

restricting fluids really dont work- just leads to dehydration
also look into the possibility of a urinary tract infection
everyone has a switch in their brain that will wake them when bladder is full some kids need help to activate this while others will develop it naturally.
some kids are just such heavy sleepers they need to get into a pattern- using the bell and pad alarms

[MegaGuts]

I just googled "bedwetting in older children", they had some good websites that may be able to give you some good advice, im not sure if you've already looked, but you should check them out.
Hope it helps :)

[UmmInayah]

this might help you with the expense side of things, though you might have to do a little more research.

the government currently have an incontience payment scheme for children in dry nights and adults that require incontience pads.

would definitely be worth looking into. it would save you a bucket load, i would imagine. maybe centerlink will know about it?

[our3boys]

my son is 5 years old and has been toilet trained since 2 but wets the bed everynight and not just a little he will wet through even the thickest nappies half the time. i took him to the doctors and they checked his adnoids and found they are enlarged he now has an appointment to the paeditrican in september and will prob get sleep studys done. you are best to go see your gp about it they should be able to help you out.

[Just Add Water]

Please don't use a reward chart in regards to bedwetting... it's one thing if they're sitting there and doing it on purpose, but if they're wetting their bed because they're asleep then you can't reward or punish them for it, it's like giving them a sticker when they have a good dream as opposed to a bad dream - they have NO control of it.

Many older children wet the bed and often it's more of a problem for the parents than the child. If you are concerned it is a health issue then please speak to your gp, I know children who were allergy tested and once they removed certain triggers in their diet it helped, other are simply very heavy sleepers.

As for the cost of bed time pull ups, have a look at some cloth ones, they can wash just like regular undies and will cut down your costs. Genesa Forge makes custom Night Knickers and they work really well. We have them for our 6 year old.

Good luck with it :)

ETA - in regards to them staying at friends houses - why not? It's only an issue if you let it become one. Have a look at how many sizes and packets of dry nites are in the aisle at the supermarket, your child is not alone. My nephew was a heavy bed wetter until he was 13 or so, it was never made to be an issue and he never had a problem staying at anyone's house.

A pead made a comment to me the other day regarding our daughter's likely adhd diagnosis and it's fitting in this instance as well "You don't get angry at someone with breast cancer, so don't get angry at your child for this - it is a problem they are not choosing to have.". It really made me rethink how I was dealing with things.

[TripleTime]

For what's it's worth, DF was wetting the bed into his teens, he was 10 before there was a huge difference. Most nights were dry but still had wet ones.

[sethjarum]

Thanks to everyone for replying, sometimes it's nice to hear from other people. He has always wet the bed, he can go 2-5 nights dry but he can wet 7 nights in a row. It does frustrate me and I'll look at talking to a GP or the health nurse. he is one of these children that goes to the toilet and then 15 minutes later is busting to go again.

[TripleTime]

Sound like he may not be emptying his bladder when he does go to the loo.

[Refresh]

My eldest has this problem as well. I do find that taking him to the chiropractor helps but I would need to do it regularly for long lasting benefit.

I can't wait until he grows out of it...and I bet he can't either :(

I agree with NOT using star charts or rewards for bedwetting.

[faroutbrusselsprout]

DS1 is 6 and still wets the bed. I buy the largest nappies as dry nites etc are just so expensive.
I'm actually not that worried about it at the moment. He's a pretty emotional kid who has had a big year.
I think he'll be dry in his own time.

[jlc70]

Check with your local CHC about bet wetting programmes - they are available through the likes of community nursing agencies (such as Blue Care in QLD). I did a program with my son when he was 5 (they have to be this age to start the program) and it was a success. There were different strategies and stages eg. bed time routine, only water from 6pm (this includes absolutely no icecream etc), working on increasing their overall bladder capacity during the day. We progressed to the alarm which I was convinced would not wake him up but we persisted with support. The first 2 nights, the alarm (which sounds like a fire station bell) woke everyone in the neighbourhood, except for my son! The third night, it woke him and he did the rest of the wee in the toilet, the fourth night, I was awoken by him standing by bed telling me he needed to go to the toilet - that was it!!! Not everyones experience is probably that easy but it does eventually work. There were a few accidents over the following month or so (hence you keep the alarm on the bed over that time) but since then he is absolutley never wet again. He's now 13....
Good luck:thumbsup: