7year old still bedwetting - finally a breakthrough?!

[justkeeponsmiling]

Hi all, I wanted to share this in case it helps anyone esle...

My DD is 7 years old (nearly 8) and has never been dry at night for more than 2 or 3 nights in a row. She usually wets the bed at least 4 to 5 times a night.

Over the years we tried everything - lifting, ignoring the problem and hoping she would grow out of it, fluid restriction, treatment for infection... you name it.

I should add that her older DS and younger DB never had any problems and both were completely dry by the age of 3.

Anyway, I took her to the GP for some advice and she explained that mostly children wet the bed at night for one of two reasons, either their bladder is too small to hold on to urine or they do not wake up when they have the urge to wee. ( this makes senseI know, but I never thought about it in such simpl
e terms!)

She therefore suggested to stretch her bladder, which is actually a muscle, by encouraging her to drink lots throughout the day. So far, DD had not really been drinking an awful lot during the course of the day.

I decided to monitor her fluid intake and try to encourage her to dring at least a litre a day (thereby probably doubling her fluid intake), using quite diluted fruit juice and starting as soon as she gets up.

We have been doing this for around 3weeks now and to our amazement DD has not wet the bed for 2 Weeks now.Not once! I'm not celebrating too much just yet but this really seems to be working.

Just wanted to share this in case it helps anyone else!

Oh my word, thanks for that info i will try it, i have 8 yr old boy, nearly 9, who is never, ever dry!!!!!!!

Good luck funkydubs!!

Let me know how you get on. It's such a small thing but over the months and years becomes such a big issue, doesn't it?

Fingers crossed!

Ps. We stop encouraging her to drink lots at teatime, around 6pm and she only has water if she says she is thirsty then until she goes to bed

Can I ask what you do in school. Ds only has 2 small drinks a day in school,so not sure how I could get this to work on school days. I'm open To suggestions though, getting desperate.

DS has a big drink in the morning. I then send her to school with a half-litre bottle of juice/water and she knows to drink as much as she can through the day, so she has some during her morning break, during her lunchbreak and I have encouraged her to drink as much as possible from it in between if she has a chance.
I pick her up and on the way home she has whatever is left in the bottle, there is usually about 1/4 or so left.
I try and give her another big glass full around 4:30 to 5:00, after that its only water and only if she asks for a drink, which she often does and I only give her a small glass then.
I was a little worried about schooltime but it seems to work out ok!

Thanks, think I'm going to give it a try. It's just about the only thing I have'nt tried I think.

justkeeponsmiling I just wanted to say how helpful I found this thread.

My 5 yo DS is wetting through his nappies twice a night. We were on holiday this weekend and I was very concerned that he'd do this whilst away. However we had two dry nights out of 3 ! He even asked to use the loo in the night.

Too early to tell whether this will work for him long term, and I am worried about the fact he doesn't seem to drink anything at school but it's a start.

How're things with your DD?

That's brilliant!!! I'm really really pleased for you :) :) :)
Since posting the thread my DD wet the bed once, the day after I originally posted (I did think, serves me right for boasting... ;) )
But nothing at all since! It's amazing, we just can't get over it!
We have recently started relaxing a bit with the amount she drinks, still encouraging her but not obsessively measuring her intake anymore and she is still going strong, so if your DS is struggling a bit with drinking in school maybe the summer hols might be a good time to get him to drink loads?

Thanks for your message, I'm chuffed to bits that our experience might help others too. Keeping my fingers crossed for you!

Yay!!! Maybe I'm being a bit to full on, whoops!

I spoke too soon