Nearly 6 and never a dry night

[chickidee5]

My son, who will be 6 in January has never had a dry night. Ever! He is still in pull-ups and wakes up with it absolutely full every morning. We tried last summer to go without, but had 6 weeks of changing the bed once or twice every night and as a consequence, a very tired grumpy boy to deal with every day. Any ideas? Health visitor said the doctor would not do anything until he is seven.

My charge is also 6 and still in pullups at night. We aren't worried about it at the moment though. She's had a bed 18 months with her parents splitting up. Hopefully when she's ready we can say bye bye to the pullups .

Good to hear we're not alone. I'm trying not to get stressed, but I worry that his buddies will make fun of him.

He's had a couple of sleepovers and I asked the other mum to be discreet when he gets ready for bed, but I fear its a recipe for disaster.

I can't think of any good reason why he isn't dry, but somebody said it can be something to do with hormones. Anyone heard anything about that?

You'd probably be suprised by how many of his buddies still wear pullups aswell. 'A' has lots of sleepovers, and so far she's not had any problems with her friends commenting.....their normally too busy worrying about whats in their midnight feast

Night time dryness relates to three factors; hormones, depth of sleeping and behaviour.

Hormonal influences are the most important. Urine production overnight is controlled by release of a hormone called anti-diuretic hormone. Lots of children have immature ADH production so they still produce a lot of urine at night. These children, especially if they are deep sleepers, will be later in attaining nighttime dryness.

Doctors are reluctant to medically treat bedwetting until children are 6-7years as they know that most will grow out of it in that time as their hormonal production kicks in. Medical treatment in the form of a synthetic version of the ADH can be considered after that time if the bedwetting is still a problem but the synthetic hormone can have some side-effects. The good thing about it is that you can use it as you choose, ie only for sleep overs or holidays or every night.use of the synthetic hormone doesn't stop your own body from making it but clearly if you take it every night then you have to have the odd week off so that you can see what your body can do.

Behavioural management of bedwetting, eg star charts, bell and pad systems, can take a very, very long time to be successful and imho only really work if the child's hormonal prodcution has kicked in or if the child is significantly older when you are effectively training them out of being deep sleepers and making them much more sensitive to the sensation of bladder fullness.

Hope that helps.

Thanks Ladidadi for the great technical info on bed-wetting. I guess we'll have to just hope the hormones kick in soon.

DS2 was 8 today and still has pull ups. As does his cousin. We seem to have a familial hormone delay.

this site is quite helpful

We don't stress about it and are just waiting for stuff to happen. Though we did speak to the GP about it. She advised getting alarms rather than the meds, as she felt the meds just masked the problem so I am going to organise an alarm through the school nurse. If that doesn't work then the meds it is

Eneurisis nurse told us the worst thing I could have done is use pull ups and she hates them. She says the children do not recognise the wet feeling and so aren't trained to wake

First thing we had to do, was stop the pull ups and put up with the wet beds

Then we did bladder training (during the day, lots and lots of water, with regular visits to the loo.... so wake up - wee- large mug of water. before leave for school - large mug of water - loo. arrive school - water- wee and so on. Stop the water after tea/dinner. Only drinks to satisfy thirst (though shouldn't be that thirsty as had plenty during the day)

No fizzy (including water) or red drinks (pop, juice or squash)

It was a pain to start with but we started to see results in a month.

We covered her mattress, had a spare duvet and also bought a kylie sheet (very absorbant fleecy thing, better version of pampers bed mats)

We started last september (she was 10) and she has had 3 wet beds since xmas

HTH

Thanks for the helpfull comments. I tried do go without pull-ups last summer for six weeks and we got nowhere, but my son was also still coming to terms with his new sister and was perhaps not in the best frame of mind. I've asked him if he wants to try going without pull-ups and he doesn't want to. Its seems a bit cruel to force him.

Up until recently there was no drinks after dinner, but that didn't make any difference and he's doesn't have fizzy or diluting juice drinks, only water or a small amount of fresh apple juice mixed with water. He now has a small cup of hot chocolate at bed-time which seems to help him sleep.

I think we will try again with stopping the pull-ups, but finding the "right" time is difficult. The path of least resistance at the moment seems to be holding on and hoping it will sort itself out.

dont forget to make them go when you go to bed they won't wake too much but it could help.
I strongly believe the more they drink in the day the better bladder control as it gets used to holding more for longer.

ha, i have a child 6 months older than yours, and never a dry night.