6 yo still bed wetting

[Pixie18]

Any tips on getting 6 yo dry at night? Ive been sending to bed in knickers (not pull ups) for nearly 3 weeks and see no improvements whatsoever. Start reducing water in the lead up to bed time, trying to make her wee 2-3 times before bed but still wetting at least twice a night! Sometimes she wakes up and gets changed but sometimes she just sleeps in it all night! Wondering if i should keep persevering or she really just isnt ready and i should give up and try again in a few months?

6 is still within the spectrum of not unusual, so itight come over nextvyear. But it is very common.
My now 9 year old is really only dry at night this last 6months.
There were a few things that helped, mainly putting a potty in her room- not ideal, but not forever and better than wetting bed.
I spoke to an enuresis nurse. She advised the need to promote the development of her bladder size. This meant pushing fluids up to about 3pm, just loads, as much as you can get into her. As long as not fizzy drinks or blackcurrant- can't remember the reason. But any squash is fine if water is tough going. You can track the growth of her bladder by getting her to pee into a measuring jug once a day.
My little one pee is dark and strong smell. The nurse said that strong pee irrates the muscle so means it wants to release it before full too. ( we had day time problems too) so the drinking helps with diluting it too.
Nurse said no pull ups at night. Just good mattress protectors.

Hope any of that helps.

Try an alarm. Got our 6 year old dry in about a month. We'd tried loads of things up to that point. Not an immediate fix but went from a child who could wet the bed by 10pm to consistently dry.

You can also get alarms which can help some kids.

DS is getting there slowly, he’s 6.5 and he’s probably dry 5 nights out of 7 now. No pull-ups, we have 2 brolly sheets mattress protectors that he sleeps on so it’s just a quick swap of the mat rather than the whole bed needing changed.

No blackcurrant or fizzy drinks and no drinks an hour before bed. Like PP says try to get her to drink more in the day and then 2 wees before bed. DS still wasn’t getting there even with an alarm so he was taking Desmopressin but actually seems to not need it now so we only use it if he’s sleeping over somewhere. The enuresis team have been great, lots of support and suggestions. Part of our issue is that DS sleeps like the dead, impossible to wake and he never ever woke because he was wet so he was just lying in it all night.

Have the same issue my 6 year old daughter is still not dry at night she wets every night despite using the toilet before bed 🙁

Hi, different as i have a 6year old boy but he isn’t dry at night and we are still using pull ups. We limit fluids after dinner. Tried with just pants but were constantly having to change the bed. Have you dried doing a “sleep wee” during the night, when you are going to bed, wake her up and take her to the toilet.

tried not dried.

Get her to drink more during the day to increase her bladder capacity.

My DD got dry around age 6. After I asked the GP for a referral to a continence clinic and several months of her wetting the bed one week it just clicked and she stopped. Happened before we got to the top of the clinic waiting list! Feel for you but I was told not to worry until she was over 7 so keep going!

My DD got dry around age 6. After I asked the GP for a referral to a continence clinic and several months of her wetting the bed one week it just clicked and she stopped. Happened before we got to the top of the clinic waiting list! Feel for you but I was told not to worry until she was over 7 so keep going!

Well some things might reduce the amount of wee your DC will produce etc but you can't actually "night train" a child. Our bodies produce a hormone that prevents us from peeing in our sleep. It can take up to the age of 10 for this hormone to kick in. So while lots of children will be dry at night from a very young age, 6 is by no means too old or anything to worry about. Many years ago our DS was referred at age 8 and was put on medication which he was on for about a year. Up to that point he wore pull-ups at night and we just never made a big deal about it. Clinic told us it was very common. DD was dry at night before she turned 3. It's just one of those things you can't really control.

I have had the same problem with both of my sons. One is aged 8 next month and he seemed to stop at about 7 years old.

My 6 year old still wears pull ups because it's easier than changing the bedsheets everyday from bedwetting a long with everything else.

I looked into taken them both to the doctors then read they give some medication for it.

I made sure they both went to the toilet before bed every night and again before they went to sleep because they would always go to sleep and hour after actually going to bed.

I reduced water or any liquid intake an hour before bed. At one point I took them to the toilet at 12 pm but then read you should not do that because that does not help them stop bedwetting.

Our 8 year old eventually grew out of it and I am hopping my 6 year old will grow out of it.

I even waited to buy a bunk bed for them until they stopped getting the bed but they are now squabbling so I need to get them a bunk bed.

My advice for you is to continue with pull ups and hope for the best.

Thank you everyone, i will persevere with all these tips! Xx

Just wanted to say it’s good (sorry!) to read these comments. Our dd is 6 too and I’m starting to feel quite worried about the fact that she’s never had a dry night in her life. The school nurse told us they wouldn’t do anything until she’s 7 but it sounds as if some of you have had referrals younger than that.

@Flangeosaurus your DS sounds like our DD- you could bang a drum at the end of the bed and she wouldn’t wake up. Because of that I have hopes of the alarm. But it sounds as though your DS has got there on his own? What happens, if you don’t mind my asking- can he now just go all night without needing a wee? Or does he miraculously wake from his sleep of the dead to go to the loo? I just cannot imagine our DD doing that!

Just put her in pull-ups. If she isn't producing the urine suppression hormone there's no point. Some kids don't produce it till they're much older, and a GP can prescribe it, but usually not until they're 8 or older.

We had 6 months of the alarm which didn’t work as he’s such a heavy sleeper. It vibrates and cycles through 8 different noises, it woke me and DH from the next bedroom but never DS

We then went back to the continence team and said alarm not working and were prescribed Desmopressin which didn’t work at all for 2 months, then we slooooowly started seeing some dry nights, then he suddenly did a week long stretch where he was dry. You take a break on Desmopressin every 8-10 weeks to see if they still need it and the last break we took he did another week dry so he doesn’t take it at home any more, just if he’s sleeping out.

Sorry this is turning into an essay - I took him to continence team in the first place because we were never talking about a small amount of wee, the poor lad would be absolutely soaking and he was getting rashes because he didn’t wake even if he was wet so just lying in it. There’s also a link between nocturnal enuresis and ADHD, which he is currently being assessed for.

And no, he doesn’t wake for a wee in the night just seems not to need to go in the night anymore

It happened at 7yo for my DC1 - suddenly his pull ups were dry every morning.

They sell pull ups to got up to age 15 in Tesco. This suggests that they are needed for a significant number of young people. It isn't unusual. Most classes of kids age 8-9 will still have a bed wetter or 2 in them and younger ones will have several. Being dry at night is completely hormonal and while you can lift them and use alarms and so on, you are not changing the fact that the right hormone isn't being produced.

2 of my dc were 8 and one day woke up dry and never did a wee in their sleep ever again. Both would wee during the night, generally after midnight and sleep through it. One had a trial of medication but it didn't work. I never bothered with the next one, just waited it out.

Obviously there will be some where intervention is needed but at 6 years old you can't predict whether that will be them or not. Give it a couple of years.

Pull ups are great, come in big sizes and can be hidden with a baggy onesie for sleepovers.

Exact same position here.

Removed pull ups about 3 weeks ago. We only have dry nights if I wake her at 11am and take her to the toilet so that's what I'm doing

11pm obviously...

This 👆 My DD wasn’t dry until 12. Luckily we had a super chilled GP whose own DD wasn’t dry till 13 and a best mate whose son wasn’t dry till nearly 14 so the advice we were given was to leave her in pull
ups, explain about the hormones and ensure she never felt an ounce of shame about it or was made to feel like it was a big deal. Also luckily one of her BFs was similar and we knew of a fair few other kids - via school trips/ sleepovers and honest Mums - so never felt like a huge thing.

Desmepressin was hugely helpful for sleepovers and trips - and as it always worked for her she was very confident with it. We would always give her a tablet the night before she actually needed them
to kick in for extra reassurance.

Obviously we breathed a big sigh of relief when one day - after 12 years of wet pants - she was dry and that was that!

Hugely disagree with the ‘send them to bed in pants with a mattress protector and let them wake up in a pooL of wee and shame’ approach to this. It’s not intentional or even preventable - it’s a hormone. To repeat - night pants, hug, no big deal.

I used the book 'stop bedwetting in 7 days' by Alicia Eton, it doesn't work in 7 days but I kept doing the activities and my son got on board with it all and believed it would work. I think within a month he was day or got up to go to the toilet. I felt stupid doing some of the activities but I also could see how they would make sense to a child.

Also I got it from the library. I didn't want to pay for things that might not work for me