Nearly 10 not dry overnight

[Chilly80]

My son still wears a nappy to bed. We are under a consultant and have an appointment next month but just hoping for some real life help and experience.

We tried a bed wetting alarm. It was like having a newborn again. He went every 3 hours and as he sleeps so deeply he'd wet the bed before he even woke up.

Tried waking him up for a wee when we went to bed.

We've tried medicine and that did nothing.

Currently we are reducing sugar and upping fluid intake but that's not helped either.

It is effecting his social life as he won't go to sleepovers. On his overnight residential he didn't put his nappy on and the sleeping bag came back wet. Which you can deal with for 1 night but next years trip is longer and I would be so sad if he didn't go.

Any suggestions?

Our son was the exact same. Tried everything. Unfortunately nothing helped. When it came to his residential I planned a family holiday nearby so he could go during the day and stay with us at night. We used excuse that he didn’t want to stay overnight. At that age friends don’t really care about homesickness. School friends were just delighted their friend was there during the adventures and not missing out. We picked him up about 9pm and returned him for breakfast.

He is 15 now and has been dry since 12.

He needs desmopressin which mimics the hormone that his body has probably failed to produce yet.The idea is that giving it by tablet kick starts the body to produce its own. Hopefully the Consultant will prescribe it. We used that in conjunction with the alarm and 3 weeks later he was dry.

Desmopressin had no effect for my son. The deep sleeping also caused him to sleep through the alarms.

My son was the same, he’s just turned 13 and has only been reliably dry for about 6 months.

We've tried that it didn't work

My son was under a consultant and diagnosed with an overactive bladder muscle then prescribed medication which relaxed the muscle which ultimately allowed his bladder to grow and eventually he was dry. It took ages and a few increases in dose so hopefully now you’re under a consultant you’ll get a diagnosis which can then be fixed.

Do you remember what the medicine was called?

It is solifenacin and he’s still on it at 14

My 8 year old also regularly wets the bed. We have these for school nights away and sleepovers and they work. He goes through phases of a month or so dry so we’re hoping he’ll grow out of it soon.

https://shop.eric.org.uk/products/pjama-pyjama-bedwetting-pants

Thank you we've not been given that

Thank you. Do they hold a lot of liquid as his nappy is always completely full and sometimes leaks.

Yes they do. They are lined and are really absorbent.

Just a note to say that if you tell the adults in charge at residentials they will help him deal with nappies, wet bedding or pjs very discretely. We’ve had several girls at Brownie camps (7-10) who used night nappies and no one ever knew.

Hi OP,

I wet the bed about 2-3 nights out of 7 right up until I was 12.

I had tried the medication, I attended a clinic each week to see a specialist and I used the night time alarms but absolutely nothing worked. Nobody had any idea why it was happening.

And then out of nowhere, it just stopped.

My son is 9.5 and still has the occasional accident, maybe once every 6 weeks.

I’m really sorry you are dealing with this, it sounds very stressful and it’s must be hard/upsetting to be worrying about the social impact for your son too.

I really hope the Consultant can help you.

Thank you

Yes I have spoken to school and cubs but I can't force him to go

DS was the same. There is nothing you can do except wait. If their bodies don't produce the necessary hormone to keep them dry at night in infancy, it won't get produced until puberty.

DS used pull ups with a big baggy tee and loose PJ bottoms. He learned to take them off and tie them tight in a scented bag and stuff them in the bottom of his backpack on school trips. We let a teacher know so they could help him dispose of them.

The most important thing is for them not to develop too much self-consciousness about it. There will be some bullying/teasing when/if peers find out. But they need to think this through in advance and learn to react by thinking: no one is perfect - my body doesn't produce the chemicals it needs to stay dry through the night and your brain doesn't produce the signals to stop you behaving like a bullying tosser.