Still on desmopressin at night age 12

[pharmachameleon]

My son is 12 and has always had trouble with wetting himself. He took ages to be consistently dry during the day but never has any trouble with that now. I think he just didn’t want to take time out of his day to go to the toilet! He often wets the bed at night though. He has been on and off desmopressin since he was about 7. Started by the enuresis clinic at our local hospital. When he takes a tablet at night he is dry but when he stops these (as I think you have to have a break every 3 months) he’s fine for a few nights then might wet the bed again a few nights. He has accidents when he’s in a really deep sleep or if he drinks fizzy drinks.
He’s embarrassed about it as he’s getting older and I’m starting to worry that there’s an issue and he’ll never get off desmopressin!
Any advice?
He doesn’t have any other medical problems apart from asthma and is a really bright, active boy. We have been discharged from the enuresis clinic now.

I would ask GP for a referral again, or contact your bladder nurse.
My daughter has never been dry (almost 11). She is under the Childrens hospital now and her care and assessments have ramped up and has regular flow tests. She is on solfucidin, mirabegron and sodium picosulphate.

My son was a very heavy sleeper and would wet every night. I got an alarm that fitted in his underwear and signalled when he wet himself. It would wake me up - 3 rooms away - and I would struggle to wake him to get changed. The alarm system suggested dribbling water on his face, and that turned out to be the only thing that would actually wake him up enough. He kept wetting for 2 solid months every night with me getting up to wake him every time the alarm went off and then he gradually learned and by about 4 months it was mostly gone and now it's been over a year. He does sleepwalk now sometimes - caught him trying to wee in the kitchen garbage bin one night . We used the Huggies drynites so we didn't have to strip the bed and changing was fairly easy... a lot of people recommend not doing that so they recognise the wet feeling but I'm pretty sure it was just because he was such a deep sleeper. He wasn't quite as old as your child though.

Thanks both. I think I'll contact the enuresis clinic again-I think I've still got the nurse's contact details. I'm not that keen for more medication as he can go months off desmopressin and be dry every night, then something triggers it and he starts wetting the bed again. The desmopressin works but I don't really want him to be reliant on it. Maybe we just need to stick with it.
We got broken into a few weeks ago during the day when my son would usually be in the house on his own for a bit. Luckily he was still on the train home but this seemed to trigger wetting the bed again. Also starting secondary school seemed to trigger a spate of wet beds.
We tried the alarm when he was younger and he just turned it off and went back to sleep as he was in such a deep sleep. There's absolutely no way he would put pull ups on. Not a chance. He's nearly my height! We used them when he was younger though.

We had very similar issues with DS. It all started out of the blue when he was in Year 5. I took him to an Enuresis clinic and we were told that there seems to be some promising evidence from trials that there is a longer term training effect from taking regular Desmopressin. On average he would wet the bed about 7 times a month. We tried the alarm but it didn't work for him. His bladder capacity was tested and it was in the normal / large range. DS also had some accidents whilst on Desmopressin. He would take them for 3 months at a time, then stop and start again after the next wetting episode. We continued for approximately a year and a half and he became completely dry before he turned 13.