How late is normal for bed wetting?

[Cha]

Asking on behalf of my 5 year old stepson who wets the bed every night (wears nappies). Is there anything anyone can suggest?

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DS2 is 7 next month and still has the occasional accident. He was wetting the bed virtually every night until around his 6th birthday because he was such a heavy sleeper. We frequently tried without pull ups but he just slept all night in a wet bed. If we tried lifting him when we went to bed he got really distressed and often wouldn't perform but would still wet the bed shortly after going back to sleep. We found Pampers caremats quite good but rather expensive and eventually resorted to a plastic matress cover.

I would recommend pull ups rather than nappies, then if he does wake up needing a wee he can go to the toilet (perhaps you could leave a night light on for him). Or tell him that you don't mind being woken if he needs the loo. Don't make an issue of it, he will grow out of it in time, just give lots of praise for any improvements. I think medical professionals wait until around 7 years of age before they see it as a problem.

I was looking in the supermarket are there are now things called Pajama Pants that go up to age 11. Not used them with either of my children so I don't know how well they work.

I used to wet the bed until I was about 7, and was only cured when my parents bought a pad which goes on top of the mattress - when the pad gets wet it sets off an alarm which wakes the child up so they then go to the loo. I don't understand how it works - I still had to wet the bed to set the alarm off - but according to my mum it was very effective, very quickly. The worst part, apparently, was that because I was such a deep sleeper I took a long time to wake up to the alarm - meanwhile, the rest of the house had been woken up ages before! I'm afraid I can't remember what this device was called, but I'm sure I've seen adverts for similar things in magazines such as Good Housekeeping.

I really feel for your stepson, Cha - I can still remember the humiliation when I went into hospital to have my tonsils removed, and the nurses used to make so much fuss about changing my bed every day. This was in the days before parents were allowed to stay, so they were able to tut and make pointed remarks as much as they wanted.

I've used DryNites with both my boys. DS1 used them until he was nearly 8, and DS2 is still in them at 6. We too, tried the lifting and no pull ups and it didn't work. when DS1 was dry for 2 weeks we stopped using them. There's a history of bed wetting on both sides of our families, so I wasn't particulary worried - I didn't really make a fuss and that seemed to be the best course of action for my children. My dad is a GP and said that in his experience, stopping drinks and alarm mats don't really have much effect on stopping a child wetting the bed.

I had heard it was genetic too - though don't know what his mum's bed wetting history was - daren't ask. My brother's best friend when we were kids had that alarm thingy, I remember it used to wake us up (his sister was my best friend) and he would sleep through it!

I suppose we just have to leave it up to him to just grow out of it. It's never made a big issue of, and with the nappies it's not a hassle, I just feel for him as he gets embarrassed.

My son, age nearly 5 wets the bed 50% of the time. We have a fabric type absorbent mat which goes on the top of the sheets (ie he lies directly on it), about £15 from places like JoJoMaman Bebe. PyjamaPants are like the old DriNites (nicer word though) and seem very effective. My son used them until recently. The alarms can be hired (about £25 per month) or bought (£100) from a company called Astric Medical. Email [email protected]. And no I'm not a rep for them, they just advertise in NCT magazines. (Prices might be out of date but gives you a rough idea.) Might resort to one if no improvement in dry bed rate for my ds.