Urgent - advice re Desmopressin and how long it takes to work.

[FallingBlossom]

DD is due to go on a one-night school residential in less than 2 weeks. She's been on the local enuresis waiting list since before Christmas, but they have no idea when she'll be seen.

So we went to the GP who was happy to prescribe 10 tablets of Desmopressin, saying it would either work straight away or not at all and she should just use a tablet on the night of needing it for the trip (and one on a test night beforehand).

DD took it Saturday night and it had little if any effect. I then googled NHS Direct and Patient UK after reading the info leaflet that came in the box and both indicated it's supposed to be taken for at least 2 weeks before deciding whether to up the dose (DD on the lower 120 dose).

So DD had another dose last night and this morning she had an almost dry, very light nappy, therefore I am wondering if it needs to be taken for more than one night for it to have a full effect?

Should I keep giving it to her for the next few nights? How should I approach the GP, without challenging her advice in a negative way? I'm not sure I can even see the same GP and they only have emergency appointments between now and the trip.

Any advice and your own experiences with how Desmopressin was prescribed and how long it took to work would be hugely appreciated as I'm not feeling confident about querying the GPs initial advice. Just to add DD is in yr 2.

No personal experience of this, but have you looked at the ERIC site? www.eric.org.uk

They have an information leaflet on overnight trips for children who have enuresis, and also a message board which might have covered this topic before.

Ds1 is the equivilent of Y3 and still bedwetting. He's managed very occasional nights away using a pullup which he then put into a nappy bag and disposed of himself - I've found other parents/carers very helpful and supportive of his wish for other children not to know as it's really still pretty common at this age.

DS1 took it for ages before it started working for him so I think it must vary from child to child. (He still needed pull-ups as well when he went on his residential in Y6; luckily DH was able to go too as one of the parent helpers & keep an eye on him.)

In some cases taking desmopressin can kick-start the child's body into producing vasopressin by itself (it's a pituitary thing I think?) so if you're lucky that will happen with your DD

One thing we found with DS1 was that after it did start to work, if he then woke during the night it seemed to stop working - must be a brain chemical reaction thing? If he slept through it was ok.

I would definitely keep giving it & ask for more. Good luck

Thank you for the link sleepyhead, I called ERIC and they were very helpful!

TheOneWiththeNicestSmile - that's really interesting about the possibility of a kick-start. Do you mind sharing the dose your DS1 was taking? DD had a light, but not dry, pair of pj-pants this morning, so I'm wondering if it's worth asking to up the dose to 240mg.

I don't remember, I'm afraid, Blossom - it was a long time ago! But if there's a standard initial dose, it will have been that...he might have taken 2 sometimes? I'll ask him if he remembers

No, he doesn't either (he's 26 now so although he had issues relatively late it's still a long time ago!)

I'm pretty sure he did take 2 as he got older though.

Anyway hope it works out well for your DD. It's great when they know they've put it behind them