Experience of a child not dry at night at 7yo

[BeyondAvoidant]

Just waiting for our referral to the specialist and have been told to try him without pull ups.

I'm curious how many people this strategy works for, given I know the two main reasons for late wetness are either lack of vasopressin or very deep sleep - neither of which seem to be affected by the alleged "feeling wet" (which is more what I'd associate with younger potty training. If that makes sense?)

I know it's never physically easy for anyone to let their child wet the bed night after night to see if it makes a difference, but especially so for me - he is in a king size bed and I'm physically disabled, plus he suffers from eczema which I'm sure will flare up if he is left in urine :(

Try keeping pants on under the pull ups. He'll feel the wetness but if he's not dry you've some chance of not needing to change all the bedding. DS is 10 and we're still working on it. Down to about 1 wet night a week. Big improvement after he had treatment for threadworm, which I read is really very common and can cause bedwetting. If you can bear to look at his poo it might be worth it, you'll get picture of what you're looking for on NHS website. I got the treatment over the counter and the whole family had to take a pill each. First dry week in a year followed.

I know I sound poo obsessed but constipation might be affecting his urge to wee, especially as it sounds like his bladder doesn't hold a great deal.

He's not constipated and was last treated for threadworm a few months back - DS1 is the one who keeps getting them (and it causes him a lot of pain - took him to A&E the first time!!) but we treat the whole family

ERIC is useful website.
www.eric.org.uk/Handlers/Download.ashx?IDMF=2389eff8-420a-45f1-956c-14f2323361f5

Agree with others about timetabling the drinking during the day and ensuing its a big drink and a wee at each time ( 6 times)

And nothing in the hour or so before bed

If you haven't already you might want to. Di a fluid volume chart( what he drinks, how much, what time, then how much he wees and what time) for a few days. Its likely the clinic will ask you do one before you go

Also, constipation. I know you said he isn't, bit he might be. Its frequently a cause for bedwetting. Constipated kids can still go, and at his age you're likely to be less familiar with his bowel habits. i would recommend reading up on it on ERIC and then checking out what poo's he is doing ( bristol chart) and when to really rule it out. Again , the clinic will want to check this first too so you you can get a head start.

Good luck

My daughter became dry at night very suddenly in the week before she turned 8. Until then she used pull ups and a cotton covered rubber mat that was easy to wash without changing whole bed. She's never wet it since.

We never consulted doctor about it as my husband wasn't dry at night until around 11-12, despite all the interventions of alarms etc. He was quite upset about it so we were keeping it as low key for her as possible. I think we would have looked at urine suppressant medication for odd overnights if it had continued much longer as this was getting more embarrassing.

Definitely not constipated - we're talking Bristol chart type six most of the time, and every evening at the very least

Frequently doing type 6 , in the absence of taking medication to cause loose stool, can be overflow poo around impacted poo. This was what alerted us to the fact child was chronically constipated and had been for a long time.

My dd was dry from age 3, but started bedwetting age 9. She used pull ups for about a year, when it was obvious it wasn't going to be short term, then, as I knew a school residential was looming, we started with an alarm. About 3-4 weeks later she was dry. Really recommend them. Like others, I slept in her room initially to help wake her when it triggered.

I always recommend the Dryeasy alarm and reward chart from Amazon. About £30. I did have to sleep in my son's room with him as it didn't wake him up, but it worked like a miracle after about 8 weeks. He relapsed a couple of times but now only has an accident every few months.

My DS was still wetting most nights when he turned 7. We did nothing, didn’t make a big deal of it (although obviously we worried quietly). Honestly, one day it just stopped. I’m so glad we didn’t make it a huge thing.

Could you leave it a bit longer OP? When is he 8?

I'm pretty relaxed about this. Dd was 8 and it happened overnight. She was in pull ups and one morning it was dry and was never wet again. Ds2 is 7, 8 in March and has a heavy wet pull up every morning. He does a last wee before bed, goes first thing on waking but obviously goes while in deep sleep. It'll happen at some point. He goes on beaver camp etc and pops his pull up on in the loo and wears a baggy onsie to hide it. And as a beaver and cub leader I know he isn't the only one! I go figure they sell dry nites up to age 15 in my local Tesco so there is clearly demand for them.

My ds was a regular bed wetter until he turned 10. We used a waterproof mattress protector and bed mats at home and when we went away he used pyjama pants. We didn't stress about it and it all worked out fine. When he recently went on a school residential the teacher made it clear to parents that they expect some children to still be wearing pj pants - all quite normal natural and not to worry if they still need them.

He's 7.5 now. His brother also potty trained at 2 but was wet at night til he was about 5.5 - when it just stopped completely overnight (while he was still using pull-ups, to add to my curiosity about the idea that pull-ups actually prolong night time dryness), so I'm not overly worried. He's blasé about it - quite open with friends that he uses pull ups.

I'm fairly sure he isn't impacted - he doesn't have any other symptoms

It does run in families so the chances are that if a DC is still wetting the bed at 7+ someone else in the family did too. Strangely it is something DGP fail to mention.

I know my DSis was 7 before she was dry at night and DB was early teens.

One of my own sons was also early teens before he was dry at night. We never made a big thing of it but went to the ERIC clinic for years. Tried everything. The medication did work for holidays, camps and school trips.