Night time bed wetting at 6 years old

[SPARKLER1]

my dd of 6 years has had three nights in a row now of wetting the bed. We have had the occasional accident over time but never this regular. Night time drinks are being kept to a minimum and she is always made to go to the toilet before she gets into bed.
The only thing I can think of is that she goes into such a deep sleep that she doesn't wake up in time to go to the loo.

Does anyone else have this problem with their kids?

My ds is 8 and just the same. Although he has never been reliable. He rarely wakes up.

Does your dd's coincide with the start of the new term - ie. more tired again?

That could possibly be the reason for it happening this week.

It's so tiring getting up in the night to clean her up and change the bedding. I thought all that would have stopped by now.

My DS1 is six and has never been consistently dry at night. Typically he manages three or four dry nights followed by two or three wet ones again. Oddly he was dry every night when we spent a week in a holiday house during the summer but that might have been something to do with going to bed later.

We just use pyjama pants and have a good waterproof mat on the bed, as sometimes thepyjama pants leak.

Could your dd have a UTI? I think that can sometimes cause bedwetting in a child who has otherwise been dry for a while.

My dd is 5 and we have just been through exactly the same thing with her. We took the same action as you...

no drinks before bedtime
making her have a wee before bed

it seems to have done the trick. It has been very hot recently - has your dd been drinking alot more. I think this is what my dd's problem was.

If after doing these things it continues it may be worth a trip to the Dr - maybe she has an infection or something??

I don't have to get up in the night because ds never wakes up . So his room is a bit smelly in the morning , but we do have the absorbent/waterproof mattress so not too much laundry.

perfectly normal in our household Im afraid.

hmm UTI? I never thought about that one. Shall keep a close eye.

I had no problems with my 5 year old ds until this past week, he's wet the bed every night for the past four. I'm wondering if its got anything to do with him going back to school.

I don't mind admitting I was a late bedwetter. Don't worry. She'll grow out of it.

I'm really please someone has posted about this, my DD1 has just turned 5 and has never been consistently dry at night. Longest she has been between accidents has been a week.

I've been taking the attitude that this is normal and she'll grow out of it.

Is this right? Anyone with experience of this out there?

Sorry to hijack

My son is 4and a half and very similar. I wasn't really too bothered about it but fed up of changing bed linen. The health visitor's approach was that he should drink at least 7 Ikea size beakers of clear fluids a day, nothing after 6pm( she doen't have kids- so doesn't understand the family meal timing!) No fizzy drinks and beware of some fruit juices which irritate the bladder. If thet do this itmeans that the bladder is ready for a rest overnight and is used to holding a good volume of liquid before emptying so hopefully won't empty during the night. We are working on this but there was a good discussion about it this afternoon on Radio 4's case notes which you could listen to on the internet or read a transcript of.

How have the last two nights been, Sparkler1?

Not sure about limiting drinks after 6PM. It doesn't seem to make any difference in DS's case. The making sure they're drinking enough throughout the day so that the bladder learns to hold fluid, is supposed to be v. important.

Blackcurant is supposed to be bad.

Passionflower - yes, she's normal!

What does everyone think of nappies? I just could not physically keep up with the laundry, so put DS (6) back into nappies. He doesn't mind at all, but the school nurse has sent me bumpf telling me this will damage his self-esteem. Really?

My DS1 (5 3/4) has never been reliably dry at night. We use pyjama pants and a waterproof mattress protector for when they leak.

A GP friend told me that it's incredibly common. I can't remember the statistics but quite a high proportion of children are still wetting the bed through the primary school years. His son wets the bed quite consciously because he likes the feeling of the warm wee

DD1 is only upset cause DD2 3yo has been dry at night for ages and she can't understand why her little sis can do something she can't!

Have a son with same night time issue. I use Pampers disposible changing mats under a normal fitted sheet. Sometimes go through 3 in a week, other times, just change it when I change the bed (weekly) Plastic sheets (we have tried many) make him very sweaty. We also wake him each evening about 10.30pm and take him to the loo. This stops the problem 99% of the time.

However, I'm very concerned he sleeps so deeply he just doesn't wake up. Dr told me this is quite normal and they wouldn't want to intervene until he is 7 - if he still has the same issue

Yes it is incredibly common ( 1 in 10 5 year olds and 1 in 20 10 year olds still wet the bed) and it is not unusual to have a teen who wets mthe bed my DD is 13 and still does this , she is under the local enrusis clinic. The doctor their said you should not limit thier drinks in fact the more they drink the better. My DD's wetting gets worde if she does not have enougth to drink during the day this should be at least 6 or 7 glasses of liquid each day. The only thing the doctor said was not to have any fizzy drinks after 6pm and no more then one a day ( she only has these occasionly)and not to drink tea. She hakes desomo tablets which do help and wears pyjama pants if she goes away

Yes, very, very common, Sparkler. Have a look at this thread - it's mine, about ds1 and his eneuresis alarm. He's completely dry now so there is hope.

Dd2 is 6 and has been mostly dry for the past 6 months with a few accidesnt. I tried stopping blackcurrant, stopping drinks after 6pm, getting her up in the night but nothing made any difference and she just stopped gradually.

My brother wet the bed till he was 9, my sister till she was 6. It really is so common!!

DS 8yrs still does it when he is tired or late drinks, its always just before he wakes up when he sleeps a bit longer. He's got a watch with an alarm now set for his usual time and gets up when it goes off instead of sleeping on.

There are loads of threads re this on the Nappies/Potty Training bit

Hi all,
i would just like to pass on something that my gp and HV told me when ds was 4 and bedwetting. I told them i had stopped bedtime drinks etc, woke him in the night to go to the toilet, you know the routine lol
they told me that a sympton to cause bedwetting can (not always) be a sign of dehydration. Are the children getting enough to drink duruing the day whilst at school. Also, fizzy drinks and strong juices can add to wetting. I did let him have his bedtime drink, i also provided him with "extra drinks" at school. I told the school he needed to drink plenty of fluids. And to my surprise the wetting stopped...... until we moved in with now hubby and then he wet for a few nights before stopping again. but that was due to a change on circumstances.
I am not saying this is why all children wet, just what happened in my experience.
Hoope it helps someone else, it helped me.

I agree with Vaunda (Keels over in shock)

I was sent a chart by the school nurse for DS recently - it has 8 boxes, and the aim is that the child should colour in each box every time they have a drink. They must colour in at least 6 boxes per day.

This is very popular, as they can choose whether to use the same colour for one day, or different colours - my DS loves it.

Then she had another chart, a star one, which is daily - the child gets a star for the day if s/he's coloured in at least 6 boxes.

This seems to be working. Fingers crossed, but amazingly, DS has now been dry for 6 nights in a row. I can't quite believe it. Am touching wood as I type.

Caligula,
I too was shocked (not only when you agreed with me ) but that giving more to drink stops wetting rather that increases it.