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Behaviour/development

Talk to others about child development and behaviour stages here. You can find more information on our development calendar.

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Original poster

Bedwetting in 5 yo

35 replies

singyswife · 07/03/2006 22:00

Hi Dont know if anyone has any advice. My DD who has just turned 5 still wets the bed twice a night. She was brilliant to train through the day and was day trained before her second birthday but just cannot get her to go through the night. We dont make a big thing of it but it does bother me having to strip beds and wash her down in the mornings. Does anyone have any advice.

Thanks

OP posts:

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

RedZuleika · 07/03/2006 22:05

There was a piece about bedwetting on Radio 4's casenotes a while ago. Transcript \link{http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/science/casenotes_tr_20050906.shtml\here}. You have to scroll down past the stuff on nits...

Aero · 07/03/2006 22:11

Dd is in pull-ups at night now. She was dry previously, but has regressed following two UTIs and a case of threadworms. I'm trying not to get too stressed about it (hence the pull-ups - changing sheets several times a night was just too much). It's very common and they really only start to 'treat' this problem when the child is seven apparantly.

RedZuleika · 07/03/2006 22:12

Hello Aero. I've been wondering how your daughter was doing after that thread you had going in September.

Original poster

singyswife · 07/03/2006 22:17

Thank for the replys. This isnt a new thing, she has never been trained at night. Took her out of night nappies thinking it was the natural thing to do and have had wet beds twice a night since. She is a very independant proud little girl and I dont want to put her back in nappies or pull ups and the pyjama pants are very expensive. I know the HV wont do anything till she is about 7 but I just wondered if anyone had any success with their own methods.

OP posts:

Milliways · 07/03/2006 22:28

This is cut from an old thread that I posted on:

I had 5yrs then 6 then 7 as a goal. At 6 the school nurse said he could go to clinic at 7. He was 7 in the August & started clinic in Sept, was home & dry by Christmas.

I think a few factors were involved

He REALLY wanted to be dry - cub camp, sleepovers etc. Got v.embarrassed if anyone saw the Dry-Nite packet.
The clinic made him want to report good news. They worked on a sticker chart & we choose the rewards. First was a new pair of PJ's, final one was a sleepover. NB, we made our own really snazzy chart with NO reference as to what it was for in case a friend saw it.
Drinking more. We cut out ALL fizzy for a while, treats allowed before 4pm on weekends only. Almost forced him to drink more at breakfast, before school, break time, lunch time, on the way home and up to tea time then NO MORE. This expands the bladder - makes things worse for the first few days though.,
No more Dry-Nite pants. Apparently if they are aware they are on, they are less likely to wake.
No lifting to loo when we went to bed - bladder has to learn to cope.
In the day, when he needed the loo - WAIT. Get used to feeling the need to go so it can wake them at night. When cannot wait, COUNT TO 10 at the loo before going (v.difficult for a boy!).
Get them to help change the bed. No malice involved, just becoming part of it. Good practice anyway.
remind them at least one other child in their class will have same problem.

Try the ERIC website - good advice there.

Aero · 07/03/2006 22:30

Hi RZ. She's doing ok. She saw the consultant at the hospital today for a check-up and has some tests to go for in a couple of weeks. Not really looking forward to that tbh as it involves injecting her with a dye and then she has to wee in front of a camera (privately, but all the same.........).

I'm hoping this has just been a setback and that eventually she'll grow out of it singyswife and will be watching for other mners tips too. The consultant said (jokingly) today that they tend to sort these things out by the time puberty hits!

Aero · 07/03/2006 22:34

That looks like good advice milliways.

Milliways · 07/03/2006 22:44

Aero, I know that feeling. The doc told me about X no. of Army members still wetting the bed -as if that makes you feel better.

Our clinic now accepts kids at 6. DS is now 10 & has been completely dry since 7.5.

Good luck :)

Aero · 07/03/2006 22:47

stitch · 07/03/2006 23:16

i had success using reusable pullups.
very big and soggy when wet. worked fantastically. and if you have two, then dont have to do a frantic wash and dry before nighttime. ds1 was dry and 5.6 with those. ds2 still not dry, but using huggiees pullups as little brat wont wear the reusables.

NannyL · 08/03/2006 09:12

In order to be dry at night a hormone needs to "kick in" which can happen any time between 2 and about 7 years.

Until this happens you relaly dont have much chance of getting her dry, so going back to night nappies is probably the only real solution!

Its NOT her fault... once it does kick in she'l probably do it VERY quickly!

NikkiH · 08/03/2006 10:03

Boots do a mattress protector that sits on top of the sheet rather than underneath it so all you have to do when it's wet is to remove it and then the child can go back to sleep. It's washable and can also be tumbledried so possible to get it back on the bed for the following night.

I used to make my ds's bed up with two layers of sheets with bed mats in between and the mattress protector on top so that it was just a case of taking the wet stuff off in the middle of the night rather than hunting around for clean sheets etc.

When night training ds we stopped all drinks except water after 6pm and insisted he had a wee before getting into bed. Also if he woke in the night we'd get him up for a wee too. It took about six months or so but we got there in the end and he now only has the occasional accident.

singersgirl · 08/03/2006 10:08

I just kept DS1 in Pull-Ups until he was dry. He went to the enuresis clinic at 6.5, and they gave us the advice Milliways has given you, particularly drinking more and holding on during the day. He wasn't interested enough at that point in trying out an alarm, and 6 months later (last September, when he had just turned 7) he still didn't want to go back to the clinic.

He has been dry since early December (only 3 wet nights since!), without the alarm or any other training. His vasopressin has finally kicked in, I think.

Perhaps you could discuss with your daughter whether she would mind wearing pyjama pants - she may not like waking up twice a night cold and wet any more than you like changing the bed. DS1 slept through at least and we didn't have to change the sheets, once it was clear he was not ready to be dry.

auntyquated · 08/03/2006 10:10

ds is 7 today and still in pull-ups.

we tried Desmotab (which is the hormone nannyj mentioned) in tablet form, but it didn't work.

i don't think that we have a clinic around here - the school nurse deals with it. we are going to ask for an alrm to try over the Easter hols (so school sleep isn't disturbed). someone on MN had a big sucess with her Ds and an alarm ---Marthamoo iirc.

may try the resusable pull-ups, do Boots do them?

Original poster

singyswife · 08/03/2006 20:30

Thank you for all the advice. I really appreciate it. Never thought about getting her to drink MORE. Will give that one a go.

Thanks again guys.

OP posts:

Orinoco · 08/03/2006 21:04

..singyswife, my dd1 who turned 5 at Christmas is still not dry at night.

She WAS dry last summer, but when she started school she was so tired she stopped waking up and slept through with a wet bed. After a few weeks of this it started to get too cold at night to have a wet bed and not realise, so I switched her back to pull ups (she was very relieved!) and we've agreed to try again when it gets a bit warmer. Sometimes I hear her getting up in the night for a wee but mostly not!

beetroot · 08/03/2006 21:24

Does she drink regualry in the day time? and does she wee regularly in the day time?

I would let it be tbh. My 8 year old stillwets sometimes.

Yah just have to wait for that bloody horn=mne to kick in.

DS3 has problems with squah so can guarentee he will wet if he has squash

Aero · 08/03/2006 22:06

That's interesting Beety. What's the squash thing - I ask because although dd will have water (never milk), she prefers squash and drinks it during the day and water at school and if she's thirsty at night.

beetroot · 09/03/2006 11:53

2 of my boys have an allergy to to squash and ribena and fizzy. It maewks them wee for england. If ds3 has squash he goes to the loo all the time. and wets the bed...

katyp · 09/03/2006 11:58

Another request for stockists of reusable pull-ups please! DS is 4.8 and shows no signs of being ready - am waiting for warmer weather to try again....

Orinoco · 09/03/2006 13:00

Mothercare do some pants which are cotton on the inside but plastic on the outside, which hold one wee I think. Would imagine they're quite sweaty though....

pashmina · 09/03/2006 13:25

does anybody lift their children for a wee? I'm still doing it, but think we should stop

Karenann · 02/04/2006 13:23

Just come across this thread whilst looking for advice. My son is 5.5 a very deep sleeper and still wets the bed 3 - 4 times a week. the school nurse advised against using pull-ups as he won't know when he's wet, but the amount of laundry in this weather is a bit of a pain. Could anyone let me know where I can get the reusable pull ups from as dri nites are quite expensive Thanks

magnolia1 · 02/04/2006 14:04

Dt2 wet the bed up until aged 6 and still has occasional accidents now, she is nearly 7. We tried everything and to be honest it just happened less and less and when we had 3 dry nappies in a row we took them away.
Lifting them at night doesn't make any diffence IMO and we only limited drinks after 5pm and no drink after 6pm (bed at 7pm) I found blackcurrant squash and fizzy drinks made it worse.
I encouraged her to strip the bed herself and help me wash the mattress if it got wet.

rosycheek · 03/04/2006 14:08

just seen thread. Ds1 has same problem, is 6 and has never had a dry night. Katyp, have just bought some reusadble bedwetting pants from Motherease. Try www.babykind.co.uk (sorry, couldn't get link to work!)

Not tried them yet,only arrived today, but look very absorbent.

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