My ten year old had never been dry at night since 5 years of age. Over the last year it has improved considerably, not wet every night, though saying that this week he has so far!
Usually tends to wet early morning(5-6am) we tried an alarm four years ago(via enuresis clinic) very briefly but he hated it and we also had a course of desmopressin from Dr last year didn't seem to help.
Not sure what else to do , he's also beginning to affect him, as he's getting older and school trips/camps etc eventually . Nobody that he has seen medically as ever suggested any other causes..he did have a bladder scan many years ago which showed it was on the small side , he also doesn't have regular bowel movements (every 3-4days), however doesnt seem constipated.
Written by
DJC1102
To view profiles and participate in discussions please or .
My 7 year old boy has night time issues but ive just found out that he still wears pull ups through the nite, parents are not together so difficult to follow similar plans
We stopped wearing pull ups quite a long time ago because he didn't want to anymore and I think it was dulling the sensation he had wet himself therefore not waking up at all!
We use disposable bedmats which are great , tried washable ones but not very good.
I guess the disposables could work out pricy if using one a night though.
Try without pull ups or wear double pants can help , as if not heavy doesn't soak through to bedding as quickly, thereforless washing to do! Doesn't always work but can help .
During the lockdown its far easier to keep track of problem, although there are 3 different plan of actions as boys stay at 3 different houses. I personally have tried lots of different things but am only finding out things now
Hi there. My nine year old son has never been dry at night. Bed wetting alarm didn’t work. Desmopressin did nothing. Paediatrician ordered a bowel transit test which did show that he had slow bowel transit. I had no idea he was constipated as he was pooing regularly. But it’s most likely he had a build up over poo and any bowel motions were bypassing an impaction. He now takes quite strong laxatives. No improvement yet after taking these for a few months. But the paediatrician said it can take 2 years for the bowel to recover. When the bowels start working normally, the hope is that his bladder will be less squashed and he will be able to hold more overnight x
I realized that I need t o put a disclaimer in here. I am not in any way a formally trained medical professional. What I'm stating here is from my own reading , responses from kids and sometimes adults, and just plain logic.
There is no easy answer here. I have talked with a number of kids, and sometimes parents. It may just be an issue of waiting until his brain learns to wake him up before he wets. One of the things I read a long time ago was that the overall success rate of was not great between all of the choices , and that when the medications were stopped, the wetting came back with a vengeance. So far as the social/psychological aspects, It's a tough thing to deal with. The first thing is to get your son to be as independent as possible so far as managing the bedwetting. He's not too young at this stage. Needing help from an adult, parent, teacher, coach, etc. only adds to the anxiety and possibly to the problems with teasing. He needs reassurance and reminders that he is not doing anything wrong, but that it's something he can't help right now. There is one thing that might help, but might also backfire. That's to have a sleepover with a few of his friends and at sometime he lets one or two of his friends know that he wets the bed. I've heard many stories where situations had happened where friends found out and they were totally cool about it. Also them finding out that there were one or more there that were also bedwetters. The biggest things right now are that he needs to be taking care of his bedwetting. He's probably going to be at the point where pull on diapers are not going to work anymore because they just won't be able to hold the amount of urine that he pees at night (peeing several times a night). You will wanto help him understand that what you are doing is about empowering him, not punishing him. He'll need lots of reminders, but it's just like the other things he does himself like getting himself dressed on his own, etc.. If he needs full diapers, you won't find anything in typical stores. You'll have to go online and get ATN, all through the night diapers. He should be encouraged to learn how to put them on himself, and it can be done. A suggested guideline is that it will be his choice whether he wears diapers at night in his own bed. but...... it will be his responsibility to take care of the situation. He needs to strip his bed any put his bedding and clothing to be washed. Eventually, he should start doing his own washing as well. It should go without saying that it will be his responsibility to re-make his bed. Now, when it comes to any other place that he goes to sleep, or bay fall asleep, he is obligated to wear protection as well as making sure that there is protection on the mattress where he's sleeping. If you guys go on a trip without diapers and mattress protection, you may get a hefty bill for professional cleaning or replacement of the mattress. Many hotels, at least the bigger ones will already be set up for that and all you need to do is let them know and they'll take care of it.
Now how to hopefully help him stop earlier. There's no guarantee that it will work, and it's likely you will never know f it does. The next things to understand are that the accepted benchmark for when bedwetting is over is 6 months completely dry. The other thing is that if your child goes 3,4,5 or so without wetting the bed, its very likely that when he goes to sleep somewhere else, a friend's, relative's a hotel, camping, he will likely wet the bed.
Now I'm not going to take the time now to talk about the control of the bladder, but there can be any number of reasons why some kids wet the bed and others don't. There's stronger evidence that bedwetting is inherited. Now there are other reasons why a person might start wetting the bed after being toilet rained and perhaps dry for several years and starting again Among them medical things like the onset of diabetes, psychological trauma like the death of a family, physical or sexual abuse, bullying, etc.. This falls under the category of secondary nocturnal enuresis. But were' going to talk about those who have not learned to stay dry at night. There may be something else happening but it's likely that their brain has not learned to wake them up. There can be sleep disorders that would be responsible, like one I heard of , of a boy who never had a normal sleep pattern where he would stay in deep sleep most of the night. Basically, you are unconscious.
So, what might help?
1. Have them get their bladder as full as possible ( at home) until they're about to have an accident and empty their bladder into a container and record that volume. Do this twice a week.
2. Every time they are going to empty their bladder, have them start and get to a full flow, not just dribbling and completely stop it If they need to go more keep repeating that until it's not a challenge any more as it gets easier hey should get their bladder fuller to make it harder to stop. They shouldn't worry about what others say as many people do start and stop their urine when they go
3. If they are waking up in the middle of the night , whether they need to go so bad that they can't get to the bathroom soon enough, or are in the middle of going, or are already finished going, they need to get out of bed, go in the bathroom and do everything they would do if it were the middle of the day and they were going to use the bathroom. That means going in there, dealing with their clothes , and staying in front of, or on the toilet for a couple of minutes or whatever time it would typically take them in the daytime and the the rest, deal with their clothes, wash their hands, etc.. I can't tell you that it will help, but I think it will eventually help their brain to wake them up before they wet themselves.
Content on HealthUnlocked does not replace the relationship between you and doctors or other healthcare professionals nor the advice you receive from them.
Never delay seeking advice or dialling emergency services because of something that you have read on HealthUnlocked.
11 year old bedwetting
10 year old still bedwetting need advice
Bedwetting 7 year old
Bedwetting alarms for Nocturnal enuresis 
Bedwetting and domestic violence 
