Not sure where to put this, but do any of you have any experience of bed wetting in older children?

[Saltire]

More specifically, in 10 year olds. As a toddler, DS2 would always waken immediately if he wet the bed (unlike DS1 who would judt lie there).
As he's got older there has been occurences of bed wetting, soemtimes as many as 2-3 times a week, sometimes a week with none. Over the summer holidays though we have had quite a few incidents of it.
It seems to be that he is waking early needing the loo, only to discover that he's already done it, however sometimes he's waking with a soaking bed.
I don't know where to start!

Is it worth talking to doctor? it's not happening every night though. Last wekend we were at MIls and he did it twice, he was luckily sleeping on an air bed, and got up and changed out of his soaking wet PJs and put another apir on ( I now carry an extra pair even if we are only away for the ngiht) but he managed to soak them too.
he doesn't usually have a drink before he goes to bed, occasionally does, but these seem to be the nights where he doesn't wet.

You could try waking him for the toilet about half an hour before he normally wakes iyswim ?? Stopping any drinks after 6 pm may also help. Some kind of reward chart for being dry might also help in conjunction with one/both of the above.

If that doesn't work, then go to your GP and get a referral to a enuresis clinic. There are plenty of treatments available (bedwetting alarm, desmopressin etc.)

I would think at 10 years old that a referral to an enuresis clinic is probably a good idea. If he goes on any school overnight trips or stays with friends he might find it embarassing to deal with if he bedwets.

A friend of mine had her 8 year old referred for the same problem and they suggested an alarm which took a few months to work but it did work in the end. They had a few weeks of interruped sleep for a while but it was worth it to her ds who was beginning to get embarrased by the whole thing.

One of my DCs had this problem until he was 13. It was pretty much every night. We did the alarm thing a couple of times,and it seemed to work for a few months, then he started backsliding until we were back to square one.

I'm not sure what you have to do in our area to get referred to an enuresis clinic. We tried at 7, and were told he was too young, then again at 10, to be told he would grow out of it. I did manage to insist on a desmopressin prescription, which enabled him to do school trips and sleepovers with confidence.

To be fair, he did grow out of it, almost overnight, as he hit puberty. But I can't describe how much his self-confidence suffered in the years between about 9 and 13.

Butterbur - that is awful Your poor DS.

I speak as an embarrassingly late bedwetter and can remember it all like it were yesterday

Desmopressin worked for me in the end but I attended an enuresis clinic for years and tried all sorts.

my sister wet the bed until she was 13,we tried everything .she just grew out of it.shes now 32 with a son whos got it really bad ..again tried everything but the kidney medicine.{my mum and now my sister didnt want to go down the road of messing with kidneys.}bedwetters sleep so heavy ,needing a wee or alarms dont wake them.
my nephew wears nightime pj nappies?????under his normal pjs and hes 12 so maybe you could get some.good luck

I know Tilly. He thought he was the only one - statistics were no comfort. To have this embarrassing and disgusting secret that could be inadvertantly revealed to everybody on any school trip was more than he could bear. (Those are his views, not mine. We were very matter of fact about it).

My DS is now 12 and still wets the bed 2 -3 times a month. He has vastly improved over the last 18 months (it used to be every night) and I am convinced it is to do with approaching puberty. In the past we tried:

Star Charts - no results
Two trips to the toilet before sleeping - marginal effect
Desmo Tabs for school trips and sleepover - 90% success rate but some side effects so rarely used
Reduction in drinks after 6.30pm - some effect
Alarms - no effect, he slept through them and we all woke up

I have concluded that he is effected by a combination of things - very heavy sleeper, no slow down in urine production at night due to lack of the right hormone. In the end we have just waiting for him to out grow it and developed our own strategies when we travel etc.

He has coped with it really well but it does get him down sometimes.

There is a great website called Eric.org which is run by a charity which offers lots of good advice.

If it is any comfort, your son won't be the only one and you are not the only Mum worrying about it.