Bed wetting!

[Kendodd]

DD2 4y2m wets the bed every night. Sometimes three times a night. We took her out of nappies at night at four and to start with it went really well, about a 35% success rate. She goes to bed at seven and we were taking her to the toilet at about 10.30.

The last about six weeks though we have increased it to twice a night due to the increase in wet beds. We take her about 9.30 and 11.30 and still always have a wet bed in the morning, mostly 90%+ have a wet bed on at least one wake up, and sometimes, about 50% of the time have three wet beds a night out of her. We we take her to the toilet she still seems fast asleep and when she has a wet bed in the morning she says its because we didn't take her to the toilet in the night, she never remembers going.

What am I to do? My washing machine can't keep up!

Some children just aren't physically ready at 4. I would go back to nappies for a while and save the laundry. At 4 many children don't produce the hormone necessary to stay dry overnight and it sounds like your DD is one of them. Frustrating I know but probably better to go back to nappies for a few months and then try again maybe.

put her back in nappies until she is ready to be dry at night. Did she ever have dry nappies in the morning? I took mine out of night nappies once they had a run of dry morning nappies and would also wake in the night realising that they had a full bladder

if she doesn't remember going then she's just weeing in her sleep, the same as if you didn't get her up

I can see it is frustrating as you felt you were making progress initially, but for the sake of your laundry load & peace of mind, def put her back in nappies (or those Huggies night-time pull-ups so that she can go to the loo if she does wake - I've just discovered you can get them surprisingly cheap on amazon (& free delivery) - \link{http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004H4VJGE/ref=asc_df_B004H4VJGE10022567?smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&tag=googlecouk06-21&linkCode=asn&creative=22206&creativeASIN=B004H4VJGE\here})

If you want to continue lifting her, do it at a different time each night.

but as fuzzymum says, she's not physically ready - the hormone is called vasopressin & suppresses kidney function at night, some children are much later producing it. It also sounds as if she sleeps very deeply which is another reason they can be late to night dryness. (one of mine had small functional bladder capacity on top of those 2 things, so we had the triple whammy, that was hard!)

\link{http://www.amazon.co.uk/Huggies-DryNites-Girls-38-66-Pyjama/dp/B004H5163O/ref=sr_1_16?s=drugstore&ie=UTF8&qid=1349695326&sr=1-16\Dry-Nites!!!} (I couldn't remember the proper name)

Huggies make them in sizes up to teens, so don't worry that your DD is too old to be still wetting

\link{http://www.eric.org.uk/Bedwetting/info_bedwetting_wetting_parents\the eric website is very helpful}

Thanks

I might have to go back to nappies.

Any thoughts on a 7 yo still in pull-ups at night? DS1 also needed them til 7, so we keep thinking DS2 should suddenly get the hormone switch-on, but he's now 7.5. Have had the occasional dry one, but nothing consistent yet.

Should I be asking HV for advice?

mixedpeel If you feel it's causing a problem, then do speak to the HV. They can probably refer you to the right place for support.

Thanks boots. I vaguely remember reading something about not worrying until age 7, so left it with DS1 and he sorted himself out. Just starting to think, ooh, time's ticking on a bit here.

I think bed wetting until 6 yo is not seen as a medical issue for GPs. My DS was dry at 3.4 yo with odd bed wetting, once every 10 days or so, then with the addition of a baby in the family he now wees every single night, so he is back in nappies, I tried over one week to keep him out of them but, one and then 2 bedsheet change a night were too much for me, I gave up... Hope he will grow out of it soon

Buy some dry nites and put her in these, she clearly isn't ready, take a look at the Eric website. My ds is 51/2 and no where near dry at night. As frusating as it is, it is normal.

mixedpeel, at 7½ you should be able to get desmopressin tabs on prescription - they will often kickstart the production of the natural hormone. When DS had them he had to take them for a month or so, then have a week off to see if it had made any difference. They did work eventually, & with a child who bedwets very late they are a life-saver for sleepovers, cub camp etc

alarms didn't help him at all because he slept so heavily. He still does in fact (he's grown-up now) & also has long & entertaining conversations in his sleep

I have put her back in nappies.

She was happy enough about it and I didn't have to change the sheets this morning (or twice last night). I will try again after Christmas.

My eldest DD always had a full nappy every morning, we tried her without when she was four (like DD2) and she was fine, almost no wet beds straight away. That's why I didn't wait for dry nappies.

oh that sounds ok then, Ken - I'm glad she wasn't bothered about it

if you have a go every 2-3 months you should be able to catch her when she is ready

Ponders, thanks, that's v useful info. DS2 would definitely prefer to have this sorted, esp with regard to sleepovers and the like.