Putting an older child back in nappies

[Pinkdotydot]

I really need some advice please

I have a 10 year old with profound Developmental Verbal Dypraxia. His speech is very limited. His intelligence and comprehension is fine, even though he is extremely behind in areas at school. He is also a very anxious and shy child. He does goes to a special school.

The problem I am having is the fact that he is experiencing frequent nighttime and daytime accidents, which has been going on since he was a toddler. He often soil and wet his pants. He get very embarrassed and upset over it, he always tires to hide it. Whenever he soil himself, has has a habit of not changing unless me or one of his siblings say something.

I took him a number of specialists and could find nothing physically wrong with him, he isn't constipated. We believe it's might be a behavioral thing.

It got to the point where I feel like I need to put him back in either nappies or pull ups because it is causing us both too much distress. The amount of washing is overwhelming. I feel like I might need to go back to basics and re-potty train him.

I have no idea where to begin. He hasn't wear nappies since he was toddler. I don't know what product to buy. I am also concerned about how I am going to manage to get him to wear them. He wants to be as independent and as 'normal' as possible, so I know this is going to be hard on him. His 2 youngest siblings are still in nappies but one of them has just started potty training, so I don't know if that is going to make things harder for him. He also got 2 older brothers.

Any advice would be so helpful and appreciated because I'm struggling

[Hopeful1234567]

Sorry to hear it's all so tough for you. I can't really help that much but just to say my 10 yr old went back in to Huggies night time nappies, the ones that are aged 8 upwards, and they only leak once every couple of weeks typically. Much easier than washing all the bedding which I had been doing, for ages, hoping that full dose of Desmopressin was going to start working (it didn't for us). Good luck.

[laurendyer90 in reply to Hopeful1234567]

Not aged 8 and up they are a size 8 baby dry with tapes or nappy pants in the same size!

[ERIC-Charity Partner]

Hello there Pinkdotydot,

We are sorry to hear you are struggling.

Poo and wee accidents are tell-tale signs of constipation - see here for more information eric.org.uk/advice-for-chil....

You might like to read about Lucinda and Leo's story - Leo was treated for constipation at 10 years old and these days is doing much better eric.org.uk/lucinda-and-leo....

Please do call or contact our Helpline for help with this. We understand what you are going through and we do not judge :).

@ERIC