bed wetting

[dixylou31]

Hi all. I'm wondering if anybody has any advice about bed wetting please? My youngest son will be 5 in July and he still wets the bed. I have tried everything from dry nights, to trying to wake him up (trying being the key word) to fitted plastic sheets. He treats dry nights as nappies and wees in them on purpose, before he's even gone to sleep, He's a nightmare to wake up to go to the toilet, he just wont wake up. I've tried to cut his drinks down and he even goes to the toilet before he gets into bed. I just dont know what to do anymore. People keep telling me he'll grow out of it in his own time but I feel so unsure about it. I never had this problem with my oldest, so it's kinda new to me.

its not considered an issue until the age of 7/8 especially in boys

My son stopped wetting the bed at 10. GPs don't consider it an issue until they are 9 or 10. I am assuming your son is dry in the day as you said it is just "bed wetting"

The advice from ERIC website who specialise in this is, don't cut fluids, you need their bladder to be able to hold a lot of liquid.

Unless he produces a hormone that suppresses urine production whilst he sleeps there is not a lot you can do. I know my son didn't produce it because we chose to medicate him with the fake hormone (Desmopressin) because he was going on a residential school trip. But we only medicated him for the school trips and not at any other time.

Plus my son was and still is a very very heavy sleeper so just didn't wake up to empty his full bladder.

Have a look at ERIC here and just know that it is very few children who become adults that wet the bed.

People don't talk about it but you are not alone. It is very common, especially in boys.

Please do have a look at the ERIC website as already mentioned OP.

People don't talk about this stuff much but it is SO normal. Ds1 wasn't dry at night until after his 8th birthday. I know lots of friends' children have been similar. Then all of a sudden it just clicked and he hasn't wet the bed since. It was that sudden I promise you.

You can also speak to the school nurse about it - mine told me that in an average infant class about a quarter won't be reliably dry at night.

Hi there, just putting forward another option. I am a Clinical Hypnotherapist and Hypnotherapy in my experience can have really good results with this issue and ShoeWore is right, it is very common IME but rarely talked about. I have successfully helped two children myself for this in the last three months. I would encourage you to explore this option if you are interested as it is a very gentle approach, totally unobtrusive, individual to the child in question and often fast acting which is a huge relief to both the parents and children. Not trying to sell you anything, just wanting to make you aware of this option. PM me if you want more information. Good luck and try not to worry too much xx