Help! 7yo dd still very wet at night.

[Chocolateporridge]

Since around age 4 my daughter has had issues with frequent UTI's, sometimes every couple of months and at one stage she had three in the space of two months.

The Urologist felt the issue lay with sluggish bowels so she's been on Laxido or Sodium Picosulfate, depending on which seems to be more efficient, for a few years. She was also encouraged to drink a litre and a half a day, even though she was constantly having wetting accidents, to flush out her bladder and avoid UTI's, and at one stage she was on prophylactic antibiotics for about six months, so we've got a bit of a back story here!

To try and combat the wetting and also the fact that she's still not dry at night, the continence nurse put her on Ditropan, which she was on for over a year as we adjusted the dose. Her daytime wetting stopped and she was very occasionally dry at night but then she started to get side effects so we were advised to slowly reduce it until she was off it.

Now she's no longer on Ditropan but is still on Sodium Picosulfate for her sluggish bowels, and we're still encouraging her to drink a litre and a half a day (although she rarely manages this) but she's having occasional daytime wetting accidents, and at night she goes through two or three pull ups! She's been getting upset lately, saying that she feels like a baby, so we have just tried a week of no pull ups, just pants with a Dry Like Me pad in, but it's not been successful at all. She gets up to the loo around 9pm, having already been twice at bedtime, then we put her on the toilet around 10.30 by which point she's absolutely soaked herself. She's sometimes dry the rest of the night but usually has a small leak early morning too. Half an hour before bed she has a little Actimel but no other fluids.

We are at our wits end, we want her to be dry for her own self esteem and we're reluctant to have her on medication if it can be helped, plus the cost of the pull ups can be up to £1.50 a night which we could also do without!

Has anyone been in a similar situation and found anything helpful?

No idea sorry but as a mum of a 7yo dd too, I can only imagine how desperate you are to crack this for her own self esteem.

No experience but have you contacted ERIC? They might be able to help? Sounds really difficult for you all

www.eric.org.uk/Pages/Category/bedwetting

Thank you both, and thanks for that link @sparklyseashell, I'd forgotten all about ERIC and I've just had a look, it's really helpful.

We've gone back to pull ups tonight because dd is really exhausted after a week of very broken sleep and getting washed down in the middle of the night, but we'll try again in a week.

As I'm sure you know it is entirely normal to wet at night at 7yo and certainly not something that should effect your DD's self esteem as it is outside her control.
Daytime wetting is much less common and I feel for her... I think the advice to look at ERIC website and to keep her bowels working regularly is the way to go here and to forget about night time wetting for a year or two.

I know you said you are reluctant to try medication but has your GP mentioned Desmopressin? It sounds as though your daughter is producing lots of wee overnight. This happens when the body’s own supply of a hormone called vasopressin has not yet ‘kicked in’. It’s what reduces urine production overnight so that the bladder isn’t constantly filling up. Some children just don’t get the hormone until later than others. The desmopressin replicates the effect of vasopressin.

Is there a history of bedwetting in your family? If either one or both parents got dry at night later on there is a higher chance the same will happen for their children. You can wait it out, but if it’s really causing a lot of stress in your family then there are more options to try now. All the best.

Alarm worked v well for us in similar situation. You can buy via ERIC website it is about 50 pds. Sensor clips onto childs pants and they have the 'pager' on their PJs somewhere. Turned things around for us

My son was 14 when he stopped having 'accidents ' tried everything known to mankind!

Are you certain that the bowel problem is sorted?
No evidence of impaction/overflow?
If the bowel issue is not managed properly she will never achieve bladder control.

Thanks for all the responses!

@yikesanotherbooboo, that's very reassuring, I think I've been stressing a bit too much about it.

@tgesunrising the continence nurse had mentioned it a while ago but we went with Ditropan instead for some reason that I can't remember! I'll ask her again at our next visit. There's absolutely no history of bed wetting in our family, which is strange.

@BusyBusyBusy1, our dd shares bunkbeds with our 3yo ds, are the alarms loud enough that they'd wake him too?

@endofthelinefinally she has her bowels scanned every time we visit the continence nurse and they're a little sluggish so that's why she's on Picosulfate, we did have a massive blockage (we called him Mr Stinky) a year ago which thankfully hasn't reoccurred!

Dd was in bunkbed too and it didn't disturb her sibling but I guess it depends on how light a sleeper 3 yo is. Also amazingly took only 3 nights (after a year of other attempts). I wasn't too worried as I know it is still normal for 7 yo to be wet at night. Just thought I wld try alarm to see if it might work.

Another vote for Desmopressin here. DC has the odd accident still but not nightly wetting. It took about a year, I think.

It is crap for DC who aren't dry. DC felt humiliated- no sleepovers, residentials etc

DD1 didn't stop wetting the bed until just before she left home at 17. Has the urologist tested to make sure she can feel when she needs to wee? When I was potty training, I told the doctor that I was sure DD1 couldn't feel when she needed to go. I was pooh-poohed, but several years later, when she was finally referred, I was told she had problems feeling her bladder. If they had caught it younger, they could have taught her techniques to help. She also suffered from almost constant UTIs because she couldn't tell when her bladder was emptied. Her bladder is enormous as a result.

Persevere in getting help. I'm glad to see others mentioning ERIC. Desmopressin is also good, although DD1 was allergic to it, so no help to us, sadly. I hope you find an answer.

I have a 6 year old who still wets the bed most nights (no other health issues). I've read lots about it and I'm not concerned, but he is getting a bit fed up because his 4 year old brother has been dry at night for over 2 years.

My mother in law thinks a daily vitamin D supplement is supposed to help. I have no idea, but I don't think it can do any harm (especially in winter) so we're giving it a go.

I don't mean this offensively but how is it normal for children over 4 to still be wetting the bed?
Is it physiological? I always thought children should be dry by around 3 or 4yo.

My dd has the odd leakage still at 14 (when she needs to go, she really needs to go and she can't really hold it, but also doesn't get much notice beforehand, iyswim).

I was told it's a common problem in dc with Aspergers and they can't really do anything about it so she takes tolteridone daily to help.

Sorry I don't have any advice.

Another vote for desmopressin, it was life changing for my ds. Yes ireallylovetea2 it's very normal up until aged 7 or 8 and still common after that. I didn't realise it was linked to aspergers syndrome though, my ds has that as well.

Speaking from experience here I’m 28 and i wet the bed till I was 8. My parents were fine with it and never made it an issue that I wore a nappy at night luckily I was not too big for my age so I could fit into pampers. My daughter who is 6 wets the bed and I take the same approach with her. She can’t help it so why get angry she too still fits in baby nappies so I buy these for her during the week I take her nappy off in the morning and she’s goes to the toilet. Her nappies are usually at least half full. During the weekend I’m at little bit more relaxed and will let her do her morning wee in her nappy and she usually keeps it on till 11 in the morning then will take it off some people might find this odd but at the end of the day like
Me she won’t be in them forever so
Cherish your child’s childhood even if it means she’s walking around in a wet nappy at 6 years of age. :)