2nd dry night for ds 7.4. Is this it?!

[Whereisegg]

Ds has had very few dry nights in his life, and even fewer of these have been in a row.

At 5 he had his HUGE (surgeon said biggest he'd seen) tonsils and adenoids removed due to sleep apnea.
Dr had mentioned that his brain was so concerned about keeping him breathing, it didn't care if he wee'd but that this would likely resolve itself after surgery.
It did, for 3 nights.

Fast forward a couple of years solid of brick-heavy pants every morning (and occasional wet beds too despite pants), we are on our second morning in a row of bone dry pants.

I don't want to be too outwardly excited at home in front of ds as he can't control it, so I want to be excited here please!

Could this be it, or just a lucky streak?

Yep! Hopefully it was a blip. We're still listening out for him, though. One night with the alarm did help him to relax a bit, even though he initially resisted the idea. We just pointed out to him that it worked... Happy boy.

Hello egg. lemon and all the new visitors. For some reason I stopped getting notification of posts so didn't realise there'd been so much going on. We had DS' appointment with a new nurse this week and she has put us on the waiting list for a bed alarm. He's gone back to more wet than dry lately, although the last couple of nights have been dry.

Hi Hippo. We're very new into this but there def seems to be a link between drinking more in the day (apart from 90 mins before bed) as our dry nights seem to be when I can make sure DD is drinking properly I.e school days are worse.

Thanks for the welcome, it's been really interesting reading though your posts. I must admit it feels a bit like we have 'cheated' by having the medication. I think basically what happened was they saw how much he was weeing both day and night (although thankfully in the toilet in the day, although with some urgency and the odd dribble) and basically decided it was so bad they needed to put him straight on the medication.
Previously we have tried and are still doing, increasing fluids in the day, no black current or fizzy drinks, no drinks after tea and getting ds to change his own bedding. We have previously tried lifting and not wearing any pull ups but neither worked. He's a very, very heavy sleeper which I don't think helps, even when soaking wet he will sleep on soundly. He's only been on the medication for a few days and I can't see a difference yet but it's early days.

sydney my ds has a clear water bottle at school, I was thinking of marking lines on it, and seeing if he could drink to one by break, the next by lunch, and finish by home-time.
Could a visual reminder like that help?
If not clear water bottle, would a sneaky dash of orange cordial be more appetising?

hippo, I don't think that anything should be seen as cheating.
We found the alarm worked to switch on the hormone, for you it could be the meds.
Whatever calms the washing machine down

That's a good idea whereisegg! They're not allowed to go to the toilet when they want which is also a bit of a problem I think. And Hippo, I totally agree, whatever works is good. I can hardly believe it but we've had two consecutive dry nights now...

sydney I would be talking to the teacher re your childs medical need to have access to a toilet, and then the headteacher if class teacher no help tbh.

Yes, whatever works! It's not cheating; it's intervening to take a worry away from your child. By the age of 7-8, it is seen as a medical issue, as an element of their development that would usually have kicked in by then, hasn't - and they need help, be it from medication, an alarm, radically different drinking habits, to ensure that they can get dry.

sydney I would definitely be talking to the class teacher/head whoever else is in the chain at school. One of the things our continency nurse said was that she often has to write to schools and say "please let x have large drinks, and visits to the toilet as needed/suggested." One of the many thinks I am thankful that home educating removes the need for!

mychildrenarebarmy - I'd like to but DD has made me promise I won't as she doesn't want attention drawn to her. The rest of them have to go in breaks and at lunch and so she'd be asked why she's going at other times... He's a lovely teacher and I know he'd be understanding but I don't feel I can go against DD on this one.

Hmmmm, would she be agreeable to using a different reason for her leaving the class?
Taking the register to the office, a book to the library...

Also, what lemonsole says about the age thing being crucial. By 7/8 they really know that they want to get dry and can take an active part. For us, DD was the one who wanted to get help, not us, and that is a key factor in all of this. I know it's probably been said below but it's still 1 in 10 KS2 kids not dry at night. That's 3 a class... (look, I can do Maths!).

Wow haven't been on here for just over a week and look how much I've missed!

Welcome Sydney and great news on the dry nights - it's such a huge feeling when it happens for the first time - we didn't get a dry night with DD until we started using the alarm in the summer, she was 7.5 by then. Also I would speak to the teacher - my DD is fine most of the day but in the afternoon when she has finished her drinking bottle she can need to go 'quickly' and can't always wait until break of home time. My DD won't drink plain water, no matter how many times I encourage her so we bought a special bottle so she has very watered juice in it, she now drinks the whole 500ml and does sometimes top it up with water herself at school.

And welcome Hippo - we used oxybutinin briefly for DD about a year ago - she was wetting every day and needed to use the toilet 10/15 times a day. The GP and nurse suggested the oxybutinin as they thought she had a tiny bladder - she would only wee about 50ml each time instead of the 150+ml her bladder should have held. Things did improve, however, I can't say if it was the oxybutinin or increasing her fluid intake through the day so we stopped it after about 6 months. She is now mostly dry through they day but has a slip up every few months.

Ok well bedtime is continuing the same as before - we have managed to get up to 5 dry nights but that was followed by a wet night - she turned off the alarm and fell back asleep so it meant the bed was wet too. I am hardly hearing the alarm at all now as she is good at waking when it first goes off and normally gets up to come and tell me. Still normally only a tiny amount in her underwear and sometimes PJs but always loads left for the toilet :)

Great news August!

That's great, August: you're getting there, slowly but surely.

August, you give me hope! We had a run of THREE dry nights, the thought 'maybe we've cracked it' popped into my head and hey presto, DD was wet last night. It's good to have a run under our belt though. At least we know she can do it.

Thank you Lemonsole for pointing me in the direction of this thread. I had thought others would be in the same frustrating boat as us but couldn't find the right place!

DC2 has always been a deep sleeper and a bed wetter. She can get to 5 dry nights in a row but not beyond. Tried most things people have talked about on this thread over the last year apart from alarms. DD isn't keen yet on using one yet. She is 7.3 years.

Most of this year she hasn't wanted to wear dry nites as she really dislikes the feel of them. She will wear them if we are away from home or if I say I need a break for a few weeks from washing bed sheets, I make it my issue not hers.

I mentioned it to our GP just after she turned 6 as she had had to go though DC3 becoming dry day and night and I knew baby DC4 was going to be toilet training soon so didn't want both younger siblings to be dry before her. They referred us to enuresis clinic but they won't even put us on the wait list till now when she was 7. DC4 now day trained and only wet 1 night a week so as of this week she isn't in night nappies either - she is 3 this month. I know this has been a huge dent to DC2 but we can't keep DC4 in nappies forever. I have talked it all though with DC2 and she accepts she has a medical issue.

AugustRose you mention your DD daytime wetting since 6.5 years DD has started having damp pants some days. She says she doesn't feel the need to go. I have spoken to her teacher as she had the same one last year and this year. No bullying or emotional reasons we can identify in past 6 months or so. So no logical reason for this starting.

The daytime wetting made us see a paediatrician this summer. She had x Rays and an ultrasound. Nothing abnormal found apart from bladder not completely emptying. I have put her on a star chart this week for daytime wetting and that seems to be helping, so far.

The paediatrician put her on Desmomelts for the nighttime wetting. On an occasional trial they seemed to stop wetting so he has now suggesting taking every day. She is still wetting the bed when taking them. He then doubled the dose and she still wet beds! I really don't want her taking tablets for no benefit.

Thank you for reading this far and nice to find others with children having the same problem as it is not something I can talk to real life friends about as all our kids are the same ages and therefore classes. In the last few months DC2 has become really worried about others finding out about it.

Welcome fresh

Hi, Fresh,
They're all deep sleepers, aren't they and one day it will be an asset for them.
My DS was helped by knowing that I talked to other people whose children were the same age as him, and who were going through the same thing. It kept it mostly anonymous from his own friends, while not feeling alone. We did also point out that Dry Nites wouldn't go up to age 15 if it wasn't needed.

I don't know anything about the drugs, but our stories here suggest that if the days aren't right, the nights won't be and making DS feel in control, by ensuring that he understood his Biology and the need to keep drinking (Eric web site very good here). Once he could talk about it as a medical and not as a "growing up" issue he was more receptive to the idea of the alarm, which has (touch wood) worked for us.

Welcome Fresh - nodding in agreement Lemon - I now if DD has a bad few days she will be up in the night. It does help them to know that others have the same issue and it's not just them, my DD started talking about it to her best friend at school as she wanted to have a sleepover and I wasn't sure.

I remember being told that one day they were going out to play at school and she needed the toilet, her friend kept insisting they go straight out but DD ran the other way shouting "No I have to go now, I have an overactive blader you know!" :)

When DD was wetting every day we were told that when she thinks she is finished to make her count slowly to 10 before getting up just to make sure, and at night we do the double voiding ie go to toilet, wash hands/face teeth, then toilet again.

DD had actually been daytime wetting from 3.11 - she potty trained (daytime only, never night) at 2.6 and was dry from then until 3.11 when she started wetting little bits but within 2/3 weeks she was fully emptying her bladder 2.3 times a day. But because of her age they weren't bothered and didn't seem to believe that she had been dry for 17 months beforehand.

It's can be a long slow road but it helps to have others to talk to about it.

Welcome Fresh. There are some very wise birds on this thread, I've found it so useful. Re knowing that others are still not dry at night - we've been seeing the school nurse and it really helped DD when she said she was helping 'lots of people in year 3'. We've had a run of four wet nights and then, bingo, a dry one. It's so nice to start a day without having to wash a duvet and sheets!

Thanks for the welcome ladies.

AugustRose the words "overactive bladder" was used by the paediatrician at her last appointment. Thankfully she doesn't fully wet herself in the day but regularly has damp pants! She ignores them till she gets home as won't carry or have a spare pair in school. So far the star chart has helped with that this week.

Double voiding doesn't work as she doesn't seem able to go to the toilet unless she really needs to go. Will try the count to 10 thing.

We had a wet night last night so off to remake the bed. She has twin beds in her room so when one gets wet she changes her pj's and gets in the other!

I have an overactive bladder you know adorable

there is a poster wanting dc who aren't dry at night to take part in a trial.
It's in non-member requests, but I don't know where that topic is or how to link.
Says non-invasive and not medicine...