Bedwetting advice 7yo

[Jayg213]

My 7yo son has been wetting the bed for as long as I can remember. We started off taking him to the toilet before we went to bed and using pull ups to sleep in as he would wet the bed nearly every night. At 5 1/2 we took the pull ups away to see if it would help if he felt the wee in the night. This didn’t seem to help as he is a very deep sleeper. After seeing the GP we were referred to children’s continence services.

The doctor suggested upping his fluid intake in the daytime with a cut off of 2 hours before bed. Also do two wees, once going to bed and another before he falls asleep (usually around 30minutes later)
She also suggested trying Desmopressin and another medication for an overactive bladder, however I am a bit worried about potential side effects of using these medications in the short and long term, so we opted for a bed alarm to alert him if he was wet during the night.

As I have already mentioned he is a deep sleeper, the alarm didn’t wake him most of the time. Me or my partner would have to wake him up to change the bed. This went on for a number of months, we had some dry nights but it didn’t seem to really help overall.

Has anyone else had any similar experiences? Is there anything else that anyone can suggest that we could try before we go to his next appointment.

He is 7 1/2 now and I just want him to be able to take part in sleepovers and trips etc going forward without having to worry about wetting the bed.

Thanks in advance.

Has he had a blood test to check if he's producing the hormone linked to the ability to stay dry at night?

I would go back and try the medication.

However there's absolutely no reason he can't do sleep overs or trips. He doesn't need to wet the bed if he's using night time pyjama pants and he absolutely won't be he only 7 year old still not dry at night. I believe it's approximately 1 in 15 so very common.

It's very common, you need to wait for him to produce the hormone that stops the night wetting. Most children grow out. Meantime, keep using pull ups and if he's going on a sleepover have a discrete chat with the Mum? My DCs friend did that. I had a bin in the bathroom and my DC was none the wiser about their friend wearing a pull up (age about 9). My own younger DC just stopped about age 8.

Thank you for the responses. I haven’t had the blood test to check his vasopressin levels, however I am aware it can take some time for the body to produce sufficient amounts.

I am happy for him to wear night pants if needed. I was curious if anyone could suggest us trying something else to try to help him stay dry.

I would put him back in pull ups and give it 6 months with no pressure. It can be completely normal to still be in night nappies at 7. Mine were 6 and 7, nearly 8. I think you’ve just put too much pressure on way too early instead of waiting for it to happen when he is physiologically ready. Just remove all pressure and give it 6 months. If no change, then I’d go back to the GP for some advice then.

I wouldn't worry too much yet. Mine is 7 and still wets the bed sometimes, including through pull ups! He's a seriously deep sleeper. Unfortunately our family seems to produce boys that take longer to get it so we're holding off a bit longer before going to the GP. You're not alone.

My son just turned 8 and is wet every night. I know it's not his fault but it's quite frustrating. He often wets right through the pull up. We tried the alarm too but had similar experience to you. No advice, just solidarity.

Also here to say our 7yo has never had a dry night and is still in pull ups. It is frustrating but I hope eventually it will end!

Lots of excellent advice on the ERIC website. eric.org.uk/

My DD1 wasn't reliably dry until she was 10.

I understand your frustration my son is also a very deep sleeper. I would either give the meds a try or go back to pull ups and take the pressure off like a previous posted suggested. I will share what worked for us in the end. I did it in the summer when it was easier to dry bedding and he didn't have to be up for school next day. I used the alarm but because he is such a deep sleeper he would sleep through it so I slept on an airbed in his room for a few nights and as soon as the alarm went off I'd get him up and take him to the toilet. This worked after about a week.

DD was still in pull ups and referred to the continence service at about 6.5. The medication worked brilliantly for her. About 6 months later she was off it and getting up in the night to go to the loo. She's been off it about 9 months and never had to go back on it and has rarely wet the bed

Yes, desmopressin doesn't work all night so worked till about 4 am for my ds. Also he was tall for his age and the licenced dose just wasn't enough. We tried the 2 meds for twitchy bladder oxybutonin and tolterodine. I can't remember which way round we tried them but one instantly caused some scary mental health issues....lots of dark talk of wishing he wasn't here so we stopped that on instantly (unfortunately that one worked on the bladder) then the second one we tried was ineffective. Eventually the bladder nurse suggested solifenicin which she said wasn't currently licensed for children but studies had shown it was successful. It worked and was a huge relief because at this point ds was well into his teens and mortified. He stopped taking it every 6 months to see if things had resolved and they did when he was 14....basically once puberty was in full swing.

My dc wore pull ups until he was dry. My theory was je was such a deep sleeper he didn't wake and the pull up was absolutely soaked every morning. I didn't speak to a doctor but knew it was a time/hormonal thing. One morning aged 8 or almost, he had a dry pull up and he never wore one again! And still as a teenager, has never gone out to the toilet at night!
He was dry in the day from 2y8m.

Thank you so much everyone for taking the time to reply to my post. It’s given me hope everything will work itself out in time. Wishing you luck with your children too.