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Original poster

Nearly 8 and not dry through the night.

18 replies

HeadbandsandFlowers · 16/09/2019 23:42

I wasn’t sure where to post this, hope it’s ok here.
My son is nearly 8 and has never been reliably dry at night. He has been wearing pull ups until about three weeks ago when he decided he wanted to try without them ( I have been very relaxed as I remember having accidents until around aged 10 and hated feeling guilty about it) anyway three weeks in and we have had 4 dry nights in total. Some nights he will be wet when I go in to check on him before going to bed at 11-12 pm (2.5-3.5 hours after he goes to bed) and other days he has been wet when he wakes up around 7:30am. He does not stir or notice he is wet until he is properly awake do us obviously unaware that he is weeing.
I mentioned it to the dr about a year ago and she said it was common and he would grow out of it and start producing the hormone needed to be dry at night.
Is there anything I should be doing to help him? We try and reduce drinks after 6pm but he has football training on Wednesday evenings so has a lot to drink then. He always has a wee just before getting in bed.
He doesn’t seem bothered about it but the washing is becoming ridiculous and he is getting to the age where sleepovers and cub camps start and I don’t want this to stop him doing these things.

OP posts:

Janus · 16/09/2019 23:50

I bought an ‘alarm’ off amazon. It was expensive, about £100 but it sets an alarm off when they wee (they wear it between 2 pants). Sods law is mine stopped as soon I bought it apart from the one time we forgot to set it. Have a look on amazon, the reviews are very good. Mine would sleep through absolutely everything, never woke up unless she was soaking. I don’t know why this didn’t wake her. Good luck.

YesItsMeIDontCare · 16/09/2019 23:50

He doesn’t seem bothered about it but the washing is becoming ridiculous

DS wasn't dry 'til about 11 so when we had this problem I got him to wash his own bed linen. Didn't take long before he agreed to go back to pull ups! Sleepovers were a no-no, but school trips and the like are used to dealing with nocturnal enuresis and it's not a big deal. I treated it like you would a disability tbh and so did DS's friends. At about 11 he agreed to try medication (again) which kick started the hormones and never had a problem since.

mawof3soontobe · 16/09/2019 23:53

Placemarking as my son is 11 and a half and still not reliably dry at night

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Bea3998273 · 17/09/2019 00:04

Speak to your sons school nurse, they will be able to help and give advice.

narkedinNI · 17/09/2019 08:01

My dd wasn't dry until after 10. The GP referred her to an enuresis clinic and we got the alarm, which worked within several weeks. It sounds as if your ds is a heavy sleeper and needs help to wake for his bladder. Ask your GP for a referral.

MrsMoastyToasty · 17/09/2019 08:04

Is he drinking enough during the day? The bladder needs to be "stretched" by drinking enough water in the daytime so that it's large enough to hold a nights worth of urine until he wakes naturally.

funmummy48 · 17/09/2019 08:07

Have you tried waking him to go to the toilet when you go to bed yourself? I know you said he’s sometimes already wet but if he’s dry it might be worth doing. I wasn’t reliably dry myself until about 13. It’s very common but not always spoken about.

Alwayssaythewrongthing · 17/09/2019 08:10

I mentioned it to our school nurse and got a referral to enuresis clinic. Make sure they drink plenty during day (my son hadn’t been drinking enough) and no blackcurrant juice in evening.
My son also got the alarm and this worked within a week - he had never had a dry night before that

AndyJune · 17/09/2019 08:13

DS1 was identical - wet every night, aged 7.5. We got an alarm and it took maybe 5 days max - it went off only once per night but I couldn't believe how effective it was, I honestly thought it would be pointless. Been reliably dry ever since. I suspect an enuresis clinic would recommend this as a first step either way so I'd give it a go.

calmpuppycrazykids · 17/09/2019 08:54

My son is 13 and is only just dry apart from one incident two weeks ago.
It’s hard because he was so embarrassed and started asking for bed time pants
Then one day he just stopped
He is about to be tested for Dyspraxia though so I don’t know if that has anything to do with it

zafferana · 17/09/2019 09:00

I have the same issue OP, except my DS is already 8. This past six months have been better and we now have more dry than wet nights, but he still wears a pull up and it can still be soaked through (plus his bedding) either during the night or in the morning. Sometimes he wakes up and I have to change his bed in the night, sometimes he doesn't. We tried one of those bed wetting alarms, which makes a piercing sound, but although it woke me down the hall it didn't wake him!!

I suspect that DS may be dyspraxic. He is dyslexic, which we had to pay £700 to get diagnosed and which is essential for his schooling, but I don't see the point in paying a similar amount to diagnose dyspraxia.

Original poster

HeadbandsandFlowers · 17/09/2019 14:25

Thank you for all the replies.
He drinks lots through the day (mainly water with the occasional fruit juice)
I have heard of the alarm but I’m not sure if it would actually wake him up and if it did I’d worry that it would wake him with a shock and then he wouldn’t be able to get back to sleep.
I haven’t tried lifting him as when I have been reading about it the advice seems to say to avoid this as you are not teaching the bladder to hold on through the night or the child to wake themselves up when they need to go.

OP posts:

LifeInAHamsterWheel · 17/09/2019 14:41

Our DS was wet until almost 10. There is no way to 'night train' a child, our bodies produce a hormone that prevents us from weeing in our sleep and it can take a while for this hormone to kick in. We used pull ups and GP had told us it's very common and we wouldn't be seen by a specialist until he was at least 8. At 9 he was getting quite upset about it so we saw a specialist and he was prescribed two drugs, then after a few months he was just on one drug and within about 6 months he was completely dry. Best thing we ever did for him as it was starting to really upset him.

cannotchange · 17/09/2019 15:04

My DD 8 is the same.

We recently started putting her on the loo at 11pm, did this every night for about month. She is mostly dry now, still had the odd accident, but not a soaked pull up that we used to have every night.

SecretLimonadeDrinker · 17/09/2019 15:09

We bought DS an alarm I think it was about £33 from amazon. Six weeks later he rarely wets himself and if he does it's just a little on his pj bottoms. We were changing his bedding a least one a night before then.

Original poster

HeadbandsandFlowers · 25/09/2019 16:23

We have decided to go back to drynites as he was wet almost every night and it was really affecting his sleep.
He has actually got up to go to the bathroom at 11:30-12:30 for the last two nights and then been dry in the morning so maybe we can try again soon.

OP posts:

janj2301 · 25/09/2019 17:58

I bought an enuresis alarm pad. Goes off when daughter pees. Seem to train her as she'd wake up before peeing in the bed and go to the loo. She was dry within a fortnight

Deadringer · 25/09/2019 18:03

Our DD was the same, we took her to the Dr when she turned 8.she wet the bed practically every night, sometimes twice. Dr said first thing to try is to wake her last thing at night for loo, and again during night if necessary. If that doesn't work the next step is to get an alarm, if that doesn't work she would look at medication for her. It did take a bit of time, for the first few weeks we would sometimes wake her too late but those times got less and less over the months. In the past year she didn't wet the bed at all so for the last couple of months we don't wake her any more and she is now dry all night, it's brilliant.

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