To not understand what’s going on?! (DD peeing the bed)

[Shellfishblastard]

Dd is 7.

She potty trained at 2 years 9 months no problem but was much slower to be dry at night.

We have never made a big deal of it.

She wore pull ups until she was consistently dry at night for a few months.

She had the odd accident initially then went through weeks of bed wetting either every night or several nights per week. This caused her a bit of distress as she was embarrassed. So we went back to pull ups for a while to save her the embarrassment, and again after being dry for a few months we tried again.

Since then it’s been really mixed. Months of dry nights, then a couple of accidents, dry spells again then maybe a longer run of wet nights.

A friend gave me one of the alarms last summer when DD was 6.5. This was after weeks of wetting the bed. As soon as we used the monitor she stopped peeing during the night. If she needed to pee she got up. The alarm didn’t once go off because she had wet the bed. It was as though having the alarm on was enough to prompt her?

Fast forward again to this year - we had a run again of wet nights and we started to use the alarm again. Once again no more wet nights. The alarm has NEVER gone off since we started to use it as DD has had no accidents.

Why is this?

DD is now 7, she will be 8 next month.

Just to say - I understand that being dry at night is linked to hormones.

We’ve never been in any rush at all to push this. Wearing pull ups wasn’t a big deal and we didn’t make it a big deal.

We went back to the alarm again because we were getting so many accidents, night after night.

Have you noticed a pattern of when this is happening? I only ask as kids have just recently gone back to school and I wonder whether perhaps it has something to do with being overtired / too tired to wake up to pee? Or possibly something that is making her anxious or a big change in her life?

Yes we wondered if it was going back to school this time - she loves school but had a little bit of a hard time from another child in her class at the start of term. It did coincide with this.

Other times we can’t think of a change or trigger.

And yes she is definitely more tired after school than she was during the summer hols.

I would say this is something emotional happening.

Similar story to you here and anxious times caused mine to regress completely. But she was wetting herself in the day time without even realising she was doing it, age 6.

Perhaps consider any outside influences or school stuff?
X

@thesunwillout

I would say this is something emotional happening.

Similar story to you here and anxious times caused mine to regress completely. But she was wetting herself in the day time without even realising she was doing it, age 6.

Perhaps consider any outside influences or school stuff?
X

This time could definitely have been prompted by school issues. We’ve hopefully resolved these now.

It’s just so strange that as soon as the monitor is on it doesn’t happen. We expected to be woken by the monitor quite a few times before she was dry. But it didn’t happen!!

We have no issues in the daytime at all.

If the monitor has a bit which clips on to her clothing, is it possible that it’s sticking in, or something, and is just uncomfortable enough to stop her going in to a very deep sleep, and therefore when she has it on, she’s waking more easily when she needs to go?

Also at school is she drinking enough? As that is also what helps the body produce enough of the hormone.

My one that was late to being reliably dry was a very very deep and long sleeper and it was probably about 8 before she was 100% dry every night. She's also the only that internalises her worries.

Mine was like this and I think it was constipation related. The constipation meant she couldn't quite feel the sensations assoviated with needung to wee. Califig sorted it.

Thanks all.

She isn’t constipated - she poos at least once per day. Usually in the morning.

Yes it’s a monitor with a clip on her pants. I’m not sure how deep she sleeps - we certainly haven’t noticed any difference in her sleep since she’s been wearing it, other than she is more settled because she isn’t waking up wet during the night. It doesn’t seem to bother her. We’ve had to readjust it if she feels it digging in. Which we always do as would hate for her to be uncomfortable.

We’ve had issues in the past with her not drinking enough in school but this doesn’t seem to be a current issue, although I will keep an eye on this when I check her water bottle. She drinks lots at home too.

My understanding is that you need daytime drinking rather than evening drinking.

We have stopped drinks an hour before bed. And also cereal - she loves weetabix for supper but we have stopped this too as she likes it with lots of milk.

I feel like she does drink quite a lot during the day but it’s hard to monitor when she is in school, as she sometimes refills her bottle. I will make more of a conscious effort to ask her if she has refilled. And also if she has had a separate drink at lunchtime as water is offered with lunch.

Will also make sure she has a decent drink in the morning too. She doesn’t always drink a lot in the morning as she has a lot of milk with her cereal

Could it be that when she uses the clip she doesn't relax as much, and so wakes more easily when she has the sensation of needing to go to the loo. But after while if not having. The alarm she slowly starts to relax more and so goes into a deeper sleep?

I find when my DS is tired and goes into a deeper sleep he is more likely to have an occasional accident.

The solution might be a less intrusive alarm. Perhaps an under sheet alarm instead. And although she is producing hormones at night to prevent the night time loo trips, maybe it's not as high as it needs to be yet?

But until then, get spare duvets with covers on at the ready, double sheet (waterproof protector/sheet/ another waterproof protector/ another sheet), the mattress and have spare change of night clothes to change into quickly so the nights are less disturbed.

These accidents would make her tired which would roll on to the next night, then the next, etc.

Oh and she needs to go to the loo right before bed. Twice preferably, 5-10 minutes after each other. If she's been holding on to the urine her muscles might not relax enough to let everything out so a gap of 5-10 minutes would let her muscles relax and enable her to release more urine.

My youngest wets when she feels cold and by cold I mean if during the night the house goes below 20c.

Took a while to work it out but yeah only on chiller nights does she wet and she’s 5. Kinda dreading winter for it

She does kick the covers off @horst and I wondered if she was cold but a lot of the time she is cosy and in a deep sleep when she has an accident so it’s not that. Her room is also very warm at the moment as it’s south facing.

We take her to the loo before bed and if she has a story she often goes again after they too as I do wonder if she is patient enough to sit and fully empty her bladder. Will make an effort to do the second pee consistently.

We’ve now bought big incontinence mats for her bed. Comfy ones but they had good reviews. We have two and can switch it over at night if she does pee.

Although since buying it she hasn’t done a pee in bed 😂

Other fiends who used the monitor had nights of it sounding when their DC pee’d. It’s a tiny clip so I can’t imagine it’s uncomfy

Have you had her urine tested for a UTI?

No I haven’t. It didn’t occur to me to test for a UTI as she has no other symptoms and goes to the toilet normal during the day

If it persists ask for a referral to the enuresis clinic. They are really helpful but they may not want to prescribe desmopressin if the alarm is working.

We're under a specialist nurse for incontinence and have a water regime! DS has to drink 300 ml of water, all in one go, 6 times a day. So that's a normal size cup fill to the brim or he has a line on his water bottle he needs to get to.

1 at breakfast, break, lunch, break, end of school, dinner. Then nothing 2 hrs before bed.

Black currant squash? My 10 year old still has accidents if she drinks this too close to bed time.

Yes she does drink black currant squash!
In fact she had two large glasses (probably about 700ml) with her dinner this evening. But nothing since.

The rest of the day she drinks water only.

Thanks @FusionChefGeoff that’s helpful.

We will see the GP if the accidents start again for sure. For now the alarm is working.

I just don’t understand why she’s not peeing anymore 🤷‍♀️ Or why she didn’t at least pee initially when she started to wear the alarm!

I wonder if without the alarm she wakes needing the toilet, can't face the dark or cold of getting out of bed so falls back to sleep, and ends up wetting, whereas with the alarm there is a bigger disincentive. She might do it all subconsciously, she's half asleep and doesn't remember making that decision.

Yes possibly.

There are times during the night without the alarm when she will pop to the loo and go back to bed.

Lots of times when she sleeps all night too without going to the toilet - this is more common actually.