To ride the piss tsunami?

[Curiousaboutchoices]

My 6 year old was a very late toilet trainer, on meds for chronic constipation and still leaves it too late for the loo in the day and often has wet pants. Poor child has to drink shitloads (2l) of water a day for the poo issues so there’s a lot to come out.

Day 3 of no pull ups at night. Pull ups weren’t dry in the morning but she had got up a few times to wee in the night over the last few weeks so we jumped on the easter holidays to give it a try. I was a bedwetter, if it doesn’t work we’ll pop her back in and no matter. We are being only very positive.

Night 1- little dribble that woke her in night at 1230am and rest on loo (in bed at 7 so we were impressed she lasted that long!)

Night 2 - big dribble at same time as previous night and less in loo

Night 3 - piss tsunami that she’d obviously slept in for hours but which eventually woke her up at 4am requiring nuclear safety suits and a full hose down to sort her out.

They’ve been in childcare while I work this week so are way more tired than at school (it’s a sports based club). She’s had a quieter day today at home and I’m off now for a few days so hoping it improves if she’s not too tired.

My question is how long do I keep this going for? I’m happy to ride it for as long as she’s happy, which she is as she feels a big girl and only one wee per night so far. Partner feels she’s not ready and we should put her back in pull ups. Eric (continence charity) says a week or more before you backtrack - longer if poss. Any practical experience or ideas from your own bedwetters? How long did you let them wee wee wee before you decided they weren’t ready or, conversely, they got a dry night after being wet?

Would love some reassurance, I’m terrible with night disturbances and can’t continue the current rate of Cadbury’s cream egg consumption for much longer without becoming a Cadbury’s style supersize me experiment. Please reassure me I’m doing the right thing?

That sounds like a lot of water, my sister had a special jam for constipation when she was little. It went down well, I think pectins in normal jam also help as do prunes.
Sorry if that's not helpful.

We used an alarm but think they need to be 7 (development of the hormone should be there by then so it's training it I think).

No orange squash etc as it irritates the bladder (apparently).

We didn't really ever have a bed wetter as we went from night pants (wet every night) to the alarm and that worked really quickly, just put a pad on the bed in case of accidents but very little made it out before the alarm woke them.

Snowsky - not heard of this either, thank you, and to everyone else for your suggestions. I’m going to go through them all.

Random - Eric definitely says that bedwettjng children should be seen from 5. It shocked me. Until them I was much more relaxed.

Thanks also to the sleepovers advisors, it’s good to know itecreally very common too.

That seems a huge amount to drink. Has she had movicol instead of lactulose ever? Works much better in my experience

DS had diarrhoea for a long time, so was very late being clean and dry during the day, even longer at night. He was given desmopressin for special occasions, which worked to a degree, but not reliably. The side effects were awful, he had a constant headache when he took them, as he would not drink enough.

We just left him in Pull ups. He decided at 10 1/2 after one night we forgot, that the pull ups were making him wet himself. They weren't but that was his first dry night and he has been dry ever since.

We took a very relaxed view, thanks to my DSis having been the same. I also have a friend with older DC and DC the same age and even her 14 year old had only just become dry at night, so that helped.

Eat - my daughter is a massive jam fan, where can I buy it? She actually said today that a jar of jam and a spoon would be a brilliant present

I think you need to be seen by a specialist for the constipation issues as it sounds like there is an underlying cause - milk intolerance can cause chronic constipation btw.

I was quoting from the ERIC website...

Ds is very sensitive to sound, just like his Mum :)

So the alarm would wake him and freak him out - he learned very quickly to wake and go to the toilet to avoid the thing going off!

Thinking about it OP, if I were you I’d tackle the poo issue first. I reckon if you sort that, the rest will follow. I’m by no means a professional but had bowel trouble myself as a child and it’s amazing how that one problem can wreak havoc!

My eldest suddenly became dry for a month and then what you describe started. We noticed that it was much worse when he was tired. Now we wake him to use the loo before we go to sleep and he is dry without fail every morning. I know it's not a long term solution but both the bed wetting and the pull ups really upset him so happy to do this for the foreseeable future.

Random she sees a consultant. They say it’s really common in ‘poo retainers’ who hold in poo instead of go when they need to. I still have to tell her as she doesn’t get the signs - it’s incredibly frustrating, but down to her physiology rather than any allergies. She has poo retained since we took nappies off and in retrospect did that too soon because pre school refused to take her in pull ups at 3. If I had my time again I would have fought that decision.

Dh and his brother both bed wet till puberty when it spontaneously resolved, ds was dry at 5 but dd took till 12 when she hit puberty and also spontaneously stopped

It can be hereditary and due to low hormone levels that rise at puberty leading to a sudden end to bed wetting

Can you remember your own history? You may well find your dc will follow a similar pattern as you did

We took the pull ups approach, reassured dd that her body would catch up eventually and used desmopressin on trips.

Dd has never felt bad as we’ve never made it an issue

The docs contemplated Movicol but arexhappy with her progress on lactulose. Aim is to wean her off. Jesus knows what kind of shit tsunami that will present.

How rubbish for her (sounds like the issues I had/have) I would actually ask her consultant what he thinks for her. If she still gets so constipated it just mean she can't distinguish between full bladder and full bowel

I would also recommend ditching the duvet. A warm child is more likely to wet themselves. If you keep the room cool and use a thin blanket this should both help prevent accidents and reduce washing.

*I don't mean let her freeze but just keep her cool rather than warm iyswim

Random I did read that connection on Eric but I suppose, in my head, barring the painful patches which seem to stem from eating crap (which I guess naturally reduces the fibre from fresh food), I don’t think of her as being constipated anymore. She poos daily though still does the 5 mins on loo 3x a day as has never learned the poo cues properly. Am I wrong on that? Is she still suffering from constipatijbthat could impact her wees too?

Poor girl, she’s such a trooper, no moaning at all and such a happy thing. I’d feel awful if I was setting her up unfairly to fail when/if her medical condition makes it impossible.

Dairy I genuinely don’t think I could do that! For me bed is warm and snuggly and cosy and full of comfort. I think I’d rather she hosepipe the walls with piss than see her cold

I abandoned the duvet and used cellular blankets instead; a doddle to wash and dry.

Curiousaboutchoices It's called Lansoyl Raspberry. But while looking for the name I also found a nice recipe for a prune and date jam (150g dried prunes, 150g dates and 1,25 litre of water).

Another one who used an alarm - worked a treat within about 7/8 nights!

Eat can I get that recipe pls? Sounds like all the right stuff!

Adner can I ask what age your dc was and did you do a dry trial first? Not that what we arecdoing could be categorised as a dry anything...

I'm sure I read that it's better to night train in the summer as they sweat more and therefore less likely to pee or pee as much so would maybe contradict the cold theory? Although If i was peeing and was then cold then maybe it would discourage me whereas warm pee in a warm bed doesn't impact as much?

Have a 9 year old DC who started a bed alarm this week. Before he started we had to put him on a stool softener although there have never been any constipation issues to ensure any poo is very smooth and none is retained. Retained poo puts pressure on the bladder.
We also were told that day issues need sorted before night issues, but we had no day issues. We also have to ensure 2l of water a day are drunk. They have a watch that buzzes every two hours and they have to empty their bladder even if they don't feel the need. The alarm attaches to underwear and we then put a pull-up over this to prevent a wet bed. One week in I am being woken up once a night and am tired. I think we aren't drinking enough during the day yet but two weeks of holidays coming up to help.
This is a very long ramble but advice is new and from hospital consultant.