Help on bed wetting for a sleep deprived mum, who is losing patients and faith!

[Stephaniedavies700]

Anyone with any advice on bed wetting would be greatly received!!!! My boy is 7 this week and is still wetting the bed, and absolutely swamps himself and leaks out of a nappy.
He drinks 1.5l of water a day, doesn’t drink fizzy drinks, or squash. We have tried getting him out of bed before we go to bed, incentives etc etc. Our latest attempt is the bed wetting alarm, well shit! He sleeps right through the bloody thing, it’s like a frigging fire alarm and he’s snoring away, swamped to the core 😊. On average we are changing him and the sheets twice a night and it’s like having a newborn. We also have a 4 year old who gets woken up by the alarm.
He has been referred by the GP to a bladder and bowel clinic, however in the current COVID-19 situation everything is on hold.
Any tricks other people have tried, as this sleep deprivation is doing nothing for my home schooling technique 😬.
Hit me up with ideas fellow mums.

Many thanks

A desperate mum.

Put him back in pull ups and see your GP when you're able. 7 is within normal range for boys. My nephew was 9 until he was reliably dry and eventually had the vasopressin shot from the GP which kick started natural production. Stop torturing yourself and him,cans accept.he doesn't have the physiological capability to stay dry yet.

Put him back in pull ups. My son wasn't reliably dry until he was about 9.5, we were just on the point of referral and he stopped. Its hormonal, so you need to wait it out until his body produces the hormone or you approach docs and go down meds route.

Hi,
Thanks for responding 😊
He still wears pull ups, but leaks through.

The OP says he leaks out of a nappy so it sounds like he is still wearing a nappy / pull ups at night.

I think the pps didn't read that he is still in nappies!! What time does he stop drinking liquids in the day? That must be so exhausting 😴.

Also if he sleeps like a log, could you try lifting him onto the toilet and see if he goes for a wee in his sleep? This does sound equally exhausting but at least saves the washing!

Hi,
He has his final drink with his dinner at 5pm. Then doesn’t have anything 😊 x

no drinks for one hour before bed, but encourage drinking plenty earlier in the day.
pull ups.
double wee at night (once before brushing teeth once after).
encourage going to the toilet throughout the day.

Can you put him in nappy and pyjama pants to double up on absorbing the wee?

Also layer mattress protector and fitted sheets so all you need to do is remove sheet and top mattress protector and change him and back to sleep.

Maybe set an alarm for yourself and wake him up to go to the toilet at regular intervals say every three/four hours?

Make sure he goes right before bed time and a while before bedtime so he empties his bladder properly.

I hope it gets resolved for you.

My DSS is 9 1/2 and also wets his bed. He's on Desmomelts which work most nights, but other nights his whole bed is saturated.

You have my full sympathy. Maybe ask the doctor for a prescription of Desmomelts? X

Similar situation here too. We haven't completely fixed it but nearly there, mostly dry nights now....you may already be trying these but this is what is working for us,
We have stopped any drinks in the hour before bed. Toilet immediately before bedtime. Dream wee at half 10.
Sheet has drynight pads on so easy and quick to change. I did not plan on stopping DD wearing pull ups but she absolutely refused to wear them anymore. I think it's helped actually as they were so good at wicking away the wee that she never woke up.
Good luck

You may already be doing this but make the bed with 6 sheets on the bottom. Waterproof/normal/waterproof/normal etc then you just whip the top 2 wet sheets off. Quicker to do than taking off and making again. Also have a spare top duvet if that gets wet too.
It does get better in time but tough when going through it.

We are going through similar with my DS1, and since Feb this year (he was about 7.5yo then) we have taken him out of pull ups. Our new routine is wearing pants, two wees before bed (asleep around 7:30). Lift and take for wee at about 10-10.30pm. At the start he was wet at least once every night requiring a full change of bedding, but we've had improvement. Now, 2 months later, we continue to lift him when we head to bed but he is going 3+ nights dry in a row. Its taken a lot of disturbed nights and we've all just kept going when it was really tough but I'm glad we just stopped using them. The school nurse told us the alarms don't really work and we needed to just ditch the pull ups. Im so glad we did! We've still got some way to do but we know it's just down to each child.
DS2 was dry by himself at 4.5yo. They are all different.

Ds1 wasn't reliably dry at night until he was 10. Desmopressin was prescribed and worked so the doctors knew from 7 that he just didn't produce the hormone that supresses urine production at night. Less urine means the bladder doesn't get full and need to empty.

But we weren't prepared to medicate him every night, only for school residentials and hotel stays. But even then he was in a pull up.

If you haven't already discovered the ERIC website here is the link www.eric.org.uk/

But I am assuming you have as you have already gone down the alarm route. Ds1 tried the alarm, it woke him but left him distressed so we stopped using it.

We found incontinence products such as a completely waterproof mattress protector and we had several cheap duvets from Matalan that could be washed and either tumbled or hung out to dry. We did have mattress pads from Eric but it was hit and miss due to the volume of urine. Sometimes soaked the pillow (again waterproof cover) so only the pillowcase needed changing and the pillow cover got wiped down with disinfectant.

You are not alone. This happens a lot more than you know, it just isn't spoken about.

How long have you been using the alarm for? It can be a very long process.
I put DS in bed with me for the first few weeks of using it. I gaffer taped those bed wetting mats to the sheet and he had his own duvet. It meant I could hear the alarm and act quickly to wake him up and take him for a wee.
Initially he just wet through but then he had a few dry nights and when he did wet it was a tiny amount and he was stopping and holding it until he got to the loo.
It took about 6 weeks for him to be consistently dry. My friends DC took 14 weeks.
DS has wet maybe 5 times in the year since we used the alarm but it's been when his routine is disrupted or he's had a lot to drink later in the day.

Dd needed meds, she was 8 when she got it, buy reusable pants then at least he feels wet

Oh dear, I don't have an answer but can sympathise. My DS is 7 and is still wet at night. He wears nappies every night but only leaks sometimes (maybe once a month). I haven't been worried because I heard its hormonal and there's not much you can do. It must be exhausting to have wet sheets every day.

My sons were both in year 6 before they were reliably dry. DD was 5. I stuck with nappies for my skinny DS1 and pull-ups for DS2 . We took all usual precautions and had some wet beds but more often the flood was contained. We just waited until they were dry and made no fuss. They do get there in the end .

Try putting incontinence pads under him as well so it soaks up the wee and doesn't wet the bed so much

It's hormonal so once his body starts producing it he'll be better

I wouldn't restrict his fluids personally but take advice from the continence advisors -
Can they phone you?

That seems like a lot of water.....it takes aver an hour for water to be absorbed into the blood, and then I guess at night his kidneys take it all out again. Is the wee 'wee' coloured?

Do you make him drink that much? I know we are all told 8 glasses a day, but I just give my kids bottles and they drink as and when they feel thirsty, I've never forced drinking.

My DS was 10 before he stopped wetting. It wasn't every single night but at least 3 times a week...

To save some sanity I had waterproof sheet, normal, waterproof, normal... On top of that I had two of the bed mats.

Also recommend a duvet protector as we've replaced several over the years.

We were referred to bedwetting clinic and advised..

Not to keep him in pull ups as this meant he felt 'safe to wee' and wet PJs meant he felt it and woke up more easily.

Plenty drinks through the day and encouragement to empty bladder frequently up to 8 times a day if currently less (DS will happily wait till he needs to run there) including just before bed.

DS was also constipated so we had to work on foods with fibre, extra water and he was told when he had a poo to use stool to keep knees above hips as he wasn't always emptying his bowel fully. Also said to try going an hour after a meal and sit calmly to try as again DS would wait until he was desperate.

1400 to 2300ml per day water intake was recommended for him (varies on age etc)

Good luck because this tested my sanity until it was resolved.

DS1 took 2.5 months with the alarm before the magic 14 nights dry in a row.

The first few weeks we would take it in turns to sleep on a mattress on the floor in his room to help him properly wake up and get to the loo.

DS conveniently slept on his back without a cover so the damage was limited. However if necessary you can clip the alarm to ordinary pants then put a nappy over the top to limit the wetting.

The Dr put him on meds first but they barely worked and made him put on loads of weight. We much preferred the alarm.

Hmmm my son pees loads too and he doesn't have any liquid after 3. He doesn't complain and otherwise he completely drenches himself too! Maybe try this? Just a small sip of water after dinner if his mouth is really dry?

I just wanted to reassure you that there WILL be an end to this. My DS wasn’t dry at night until he was about seven and a half. We were told doctors wouldn’t do anything until he was eight. His younger brother was dry from three so he refused to wear nappies at night as it was ‘embarrassing’. We despaired. It was exhausting. Then suddenly, dry! It’s hormonal apparently. He WILL get there. It’s soul destroying now, but you won’t be changing sheets forever

Depends what time of night it happens ...night (sleep ) terrors tend to occur around 90 miniutes after they fall asleep (nightmares much later in the sleep cycle). Prime age for sleep terrors (which he would not remember) is 3 to 8 (a little younger than nightmares but he would almost always remember those. The root cause is often anxiety (which is unlikely to be helped by the current situation). Like a lot of bad sleep problems the go to treatment is Image Rehearsal Therapy.(used extensively by the NHS to avoid drugs). A basic guide is available here and it sorted my oldest out.www.sleepmastereurope.com/good-dreams-comp