Bedwetting - 5 year old boy

[PalomaZen]

Hello all. My son is 5 years old and wets the bed at night. He has been in pull-ups and due to busy lives we havent addressed this problem until now. He is almost 6.

We have been so concerned about protecting the bed sheets and mattress and I feel so bad that we haven't given it the attention it deserves. We have a protector which is good.
Any suggestions on how we start this process? We often find that even in a pull up he will wet the bed which is ok but also the duvet gets wet too.

We are stopping him from drinking any fluids an hour before bed and he always visits the toilet before bed.
Any suggestions or feedback is welcome!

have a read of this, you might find it helpful
www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/bed-wetting/symptoms-causes/syc-20366685
I would have a chat with your doctor too, but they might not wish to do anything before your ds reaches 7.

Best way to start is to wait until he has a dry pullup most mornings. Until then he almost certainly doesn't have the hormones needed to a) reduce urine volume at night and b) wake him if he needs to go. If he's still not doing this by the time he's 7, speak to your GP.

Does he have any sensory issues? Diagnoses like ASD? That can definitely have an impact on this. My DC is under assessment for autism and only became dry at night a couple of months ago, aged 9. Toilet trained for wees in the daytime before age 3, but was wet at night for another six years and even now can't reliably tell when they need a poo. Still dealing with stained underwear from that.

I may be labelled as negligent but we continued with pull ups throughout at night, didn't make any fuss about it at all, it was just normal for DC. I felt they would get there in the end on their own, just later than other kids. And also felt that making a big deal of it, labelling it as a Problem To Be Fixed and getting medical assistance, would do more harm than good.

I'm sure others will come along with practical advice to try and force night-time dryness, and they might well work for your child. But the Wait It Out method also works, as long as you're happy to keep paying for pull-ups and your DS is happy to wear them. It's a case of making a personal judgement for you and your son.

As far as I'm aware paediatric incontinence specialists won't even intervene until age 7, as it's completely normal to be wet at night until then. Worth bearing in mind, although if this issue is causing distress to your DS then I think you can get help at a younger age.

Just seen a couple of replies come in while I was writing my earlier post, delighted to see others recommending giving him more time! I was honestly expecting a slew of 'get this wetting alarm, lift at 11pm, punish for bedwetting by making him wash his own sheets' etc.

If the pull-up isn't doing the job, check the sizing. We found that going up to a bigger size meant it contained all wee 99% of the time. E.g. we bought age 8-15 Huggies Drynites from the age of 6ish. They fit very well, and DC is a skinny little thing.

By the time DC finally stopped wearing pull-ups, they were in adult incontinence pants! They did a marvellous job and despite theoretically being far too big were deemed to be very comfortable, more so than the Huggies Drynites.

My son was 7 when he wanted to do something about it. We got a book by Alicia Eaton called Stop Bedwetting in 7 Days.
It took a lot longer than 7 days, maybe 6 weeks, I thought I would go mad from all the washing including duvets and pillows and the house constantly smelled of wee but he did it!!

All thank you so much for your advice!
I have been feeling really bad about this. As we have never addressed this problem we will try a few of the above.
Agreed that punishment is not the solution. I have always been a bit sceptical about waking him in the middle of the night as not to disturb his sleep, but I am open to all options.
As he is 5 I don't think he needs to see his GP yet, he will be 6 next month so I think I will just crack on.
It's reassuring to know that I am not the only one pulling my hair out on this :-)

Agree wait until he says he wants you to help. Just keep buying the night time pull ups and don't make a big deal about it.

I think 25% of six year olds are not dry at night. When he reaches 7, your GP will help. Until then, it’s considered very normal, especially in boys. We had two who were slow and one who’s now medicated, so have read up on it a lot!

Completely normal. As a cub leader I always had kids in night time pull ups at camp.
Night time enuresis past 7 is usually down to 2 things (1- non production of hormone, treated by taking synthetic hormone med before bed 2 - deep sleep, treated using enuresis alarm.) Some lucky kids have both issues to contend with so need both treatment angles.
As ds is 5, you don’t need to think about this yet as it’s quite likely he won’t need either.