Family Matters
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
bed wetting
My son sleeps so sound he wets the bed. He is 7 1/2 we use the good nights but looking for suggestions to try and get him to realize he is wetting the bed. We have tried waking him up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. Cutting fluids off early in the night before bedtime. We resorted to the good nights but he doesnt really like to wear them because he feels like a baby, but it's not worth ruining a matress and doing laundry everyday to let him out of them.
Any suggestions?
Re: bed wetting
It could also be a sleep disorder --- I remember reading about this one quite awhile back. Somehow the sleeper doesn't get the message that it's time to get up and urinate, they just keep sleeping.
Take him to a sleep clinic, also.
Hoping you get this resolved. GL.
And a third, and a fourth until you are happy with the diagnosis.
My DC had a similar problem, and did not want to use pullups anymore b/c they were afraid of being embarressed / teased at sleepovers etc.
What we did:
Limit drinks after 6 pm (drink as much as they want all day, but 2hrs. before bedtime drinks should be limited). If they get enough H2O during the day, they will stay hydrated. Of course, if they are really thirsty, give a little water.
Limit chocolate, caffine, soda (all day)
Use the bathroom before getting dressed for bedtime
Then we just had DC just stop wearing pullups. Of course, there were a few nights when the bed was still wet. I would praise DC for lasting even having one more night of no accidents (ie going from 2 dry nights to 3 dry nights before an accident) and assure them that as time passed they would go longer and longer without an accident. And that is what happened. Dry nights became more of the norm and wet nights less and less frequent. In the meantime - there was plenty of laundry to do. Buy a really good mattress pad / cover / protector and try to use your oldest, crummiest sheets.
* * *
My friend did something different - she would wake her DC in the middle of the night and take them to the bathroom. That might be something else to try.
First off, I'm sorry that you're going through this. Does he not realize that he's wetting the bed? If so, be honest and tell him. And let him know that he will have to wear the 'good nights' until he can stop wetting the bed, if he doesn't want to feel like a baby, then he shouldn't wet the bed. He's seven years old, he doesn't get to tell you what he won't wear. Not to sound super religious, but my biggest suggestion is to pray for this end, and pray with him every night before he goes to bed that whatever is causing this, whether it's fear, anxiety, etc. will leave him, so that he can have peaceful and DRY sleep. When there is nothing else left to do, then leave it in the hands of Jesus :-) Have a great day, and don't feel bad, there are plenty of children his age that still wet the bed, and they grow out of it. How many 18 year olds do you know that still wet the bed? :-)
This is a most excellent suggestion!
I am wondering --- if you tried that for say, 6 weeks, and then stopped gradually, would he get up on his own to go to the john at the same time you usually woke him up?
There is caffeine in colas, also --- and also Mountain Dew. Caffeine isn't the greatest thing for kiddoes. Eliminate them completely, if you can.
Buy a waterproof mattress cover for the bed, sheets are no big deal and your son can help the next day with laundry. How often does this happen? Once a week, more?
You should also see a specialist, in my experience general doctors side on the most common diagnosis, which may not be correct. Maybe he has really deep sleep cycles, has a medical issues, etc. Could be a phase but either way I would check it out again to be sure.
Baby Boy loved for 15 weeks, 5/31/11
Baby Girl loved for 16.5 weeks. 3/1/12
Before you do all this, I'd start with his pediatrician. Bedwetting at age 7 is pretty normal and doesn't usually require the help of a specialist. Many kids wet the bed occasionally at this age, my son included. Did either you or his dad wet the bed? If so, that really increases the chances that the child will.
My son is SUCH a sound sleeper that he doesn't wake up for the "gotta go" signal. I don't think it rises to the level of "sleep disorder" though -- it's not that unusual for school aged kiddos.
Speaking of which, come post on the bump's "school aged children" board. I recently posted a long reply to a bedwetting question on that board with all my tricks and tips to minimize accidents and deal with laundry and clean up, if the pull ups don't work.
In short, my pediatrician (mom of 4 boys) has assured me that this will begin to go away around age 8 (it has) and will be a thing of the past by age 12, with no special intervention.
Ask your pediatrician. My younger brother used to wet the bed and my mom was at a loss. She asked the doctor and he suggested a device that "alarmed" him when he started to wet the bed. He too was a deep sleeper.
Anyway, something like this may not even exist anymore, as it was many years ago. But basically he had a tiny alarm that snapped to his t shirt and a sensor that he wore in his underpants. At the first sign of wetness the alarm would go off and wake him to go to the bathroom. I think the doc explained that it was "training" the brain to recognize the need to urinate and wake up. Ill never forget it, because the alarm was so loud, but it eventually did work! I think he used the device for maybe a week then was fine.
Maybe something of that nature does still exist somewhere? Sorry if Im not much help, just thought Id throw that out there for you.
Good luck!
Try doing a little research before you get judgemental.
This is a perfectly normal (and by normal, I mean more than the average number of children, especially boys) occurrence.
"if he doesn't want to feel like a baby, then he shouldn't wet the bed"
There are a number of perfectly sound MEDICAL reasons why a 7yo will wet the bed, NONE having to do with being a baby, being obstinant, being lazy or being anxious.
I am not sure that she stopped after a period of time - she would wake him up before she went to bed (around 2.5-3 hours after her child went to sleep) so it was part of her night-time routine. I don't know if he learned to wake up on his own or just grew out of it, b/c now he does go on sleepovers.
I agree about the caffine!