9 year old never been dry

[zenouba]

Hi everyone,

I have a 9 year old daughter who has never had a dry night. I have tried for years now and I'm tired. Dr is not a help and only asks if she is stressed. Can it be genetic, as it runs in the family ?

[Shornsby1]

I can't help with question about genetics, my 10 year old daughter had her first dry night last month. The doctors should be helping you. Maybe ask your daughters school for the school nurses telephone number and ask them for help.

It was the school nurse after doing an assessment that arranged for my daughter to be seen at the bowel and bladder clinic after going through this process daughter is on medication and so far it's going well.

Good luck.

[Frenchy65]

Please please ask for a referral or second opinion. My son is 14 and has always wet the bed and his older brother was the same up to age 12. My doctor finally referred him to hospital after trying get lots of medication. He was diagnosed with a small bladder. He takes desmomelt 240 at night which work most of the time and allows him to go on overnight trips. He has a plan in place to drink a lot and try and stretch his bladder which is still quite difficult when you have to go to school. We have a long way to go but I now only have the occasional wet bed as long as he doesn't drink much in the evening. Good luck.

[FranAdam]

Yes it can be hereditary but that does not mean something cannot be done to help. Even if the wetting cannot be completely stopped, the symptoms can be eased. I would ask for a referral to a paediatric continence clinic.

[PMW300671]

Hello Zenouba. Try and see a continence advisor to help you through. Although it can be hereditary it's not a genetic issue. Like others have said encourage fluids during the day. About 1-1.5 liters p/day. This will help stretch the bladder. Stop the drinking after dinner compLEtely if u can. Make sure she is not constipated as poo can press on the bladder. We used an alarm at night. It took 18 months but worked. Our son was completely independent with it after a short time and never woke us up wen toiletting. Don't give up and good luck! Hope this helps.

[Arianrhod]

Hi Zenouba, I can't offer any advice I'm afraid but just wanted to say I am in exactly the same position. My 10 year old daughter has never had a dry night, she has been under the care of the enuresis clinic for over a year and nothing has helped so far. She's done the 'trying to stretch the bladder' thing, no success. She's been on desmopressin, initially it seemed to work but now it doesn't at all, even with going up to the maximum dose allowed. She is an extremely deep sleeper; an alarm clock (the ringing type) has gone off beside her head and didn't wake her up. She's been fully tested for urine/bladder infections and scanned for constipation, nothing. I honestly don't know where to go next, so I'm watching your thread with interest!

[sav8180 in reply to Arianrhod]

My daughter is nearly 12 and sounds the exact same?? alarms don't wake her, desmopressin with 2 dry days and then it made no difference at all ! My Docter just doesn't seem bothered we were referred to a clinic but they offered no further advice!! I am thinking of going down a private route but don't know were to start!!

[Arianrhod in reply to sav8180]

I tried contacting ERIC directly to ask for advice, and although they were very nice, the only thing they could suggest was buying a bed wetting alarm, one with an additional vibration and sound recording function. While this may well work for some children, I cannot see it having any effect. It's a mission to wake her up in the morning; gently shaking her and talking to her takes a good 3-4 minutes before she stirs, hence vibration and sound won't do the trick quickly enough and as I mentioned earlier, audible alarms have virtually no effect on her at all! I'm really stuck, if ERIC can't help I don't know what else to do!

[Laundry in reply to Arianrhod]

I read somewhere that if your child is a deep sleeper you could try sleeping in with them so the alarm wakes you and then you wake them... I’m psyching myself up to try this in the Easter hols!