Bedwetting for the first time at age 6

[tim091]

As title says my boy has never, ever wet the bed even in transitioning from pull-ups to potty/toilet etc.

In August he started wetting and doctor has exhausted all medical reasons - blood sugar, constipation, UTI etc. That leaves mental issues and I can't finger anything there either: he is a happy boy, has a happy, stable life, nothing has changed in his life to cause stress (divorce etc). He seems happy at school and has friends.

As he has suddenly started doing this after never having the problem before the GP was concerned and made an "urgent" referral to peadiatrics in November. The appointment is March 20th!!! Not my definition of urgent.

He wets most nights, maybe has one or two dry in seven. I've tried all the obvious things: no drink after 6.00, wee before bed. Basically, he wees in his sleep and is woken up by the cold, wet bed.

I don't make a big deal about it with him but am very fed up with changing bedding in the middle of the night most nights!

Any ideas welcome!

Maybe take the pressure off for a wee while and try pull ups. Being awake in the middle of the night will make him even more tired and sleep more heavily making him more likely to wet the bed

First I would consider going back to nappies if he will wear them. It might seem like a step back but at least you would have a break from washing bedding and he would get a good night's sleep. As its secondary enuresis feeling wet at night is unlikley to train him and if its a mental issue as you suspect then taking the pressure of him might help.

Many kids aren't dry at his age, my DS age 8 included! So don't let him feel ashamed or embarrassed by it.

Thanks both, pull-ups seem a good idea I hadn't thought of!

I would really like to get to the bottom of why it is happening though, but maybe the answer is "no one knows why it happens"!

I know you say the doctors thought of and dismissed other causes. Did they investigate epilepsy? That’s how we worked out ds was having nocturnal seizures - it was only a couple of episodes of bed wetting that tipped us off.

Thanks, I hadn't thought of that. I think I would have heard if he was having seizures as I still use the baby monitor (when do you give that up!?) but maybe not.

I don’t want to worry you - it is far more likely something else including just “one of those things”. But worth bearing in mind, perhaps. Is he very tired in the mornings afterwards? That was one of the questions we were asked as it can be a clue.
And to reassure you, the medication these days is pretty good and now it is all a bit of a non-event as it is well controlled. We see the doctor twice a year and he just gets on with his life.

Worms?

Could just be constipation putting pressure on his bladder.

Pull-Ups might be a short term solution to save the washing but don’t make them a long term thing as he could end up getting lazy and comfortable using them as happened with my DD6.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/3730964-AIBU-to-just-let-her-be-DD6-night-routine-related

Apologies, been offline for a while. I also thought the pull ups might make him complacent about it.

He is not tired in the morning, full of beans from 5.30 on!

Constipation was my main thought initially as he is on a strong iron supplement due to low ferritin. But he tells me his poo doesn't hurt, he goes several times a day, and the doctors have felt his lower back and tummy for constipation.

Worms is an interesting one, I will mention that to the specialist in February.

I have bought a wee alarm and have been trying that for 7 days now. The idea is that it wakes him up as soon as some wee comes out so he stops it and goes to the bathroom. However, when the alarm goes off and I get to his room he is sitting there still mostly asleep and confused, and weeing! It may point to the problem being that he is sleeping so deeply.

I will persevere with it for a couple of months and see what happens. So far three dry nights out of the last seven, which is pretty much the same as usual. At no point has he been woken by it, stopped weeing and gone to the bathroom.

UPDATE: Been using the wee alarm for 29 nights now, 18 have been dry which is a slight improvement. No real pattern to what is happening, or proof that the alarm is doing anything to change the behaviour.

Some observations:

1. Most of his dry nights have been him sleeping through without going to the toilet, either in his bed or getting up to use the bathroom. So, the alarm isn't coming into play at all, he is just going through the night without needing to pee. That didn't happen much before using the alarm! Makes no sense!
2. When the alarm has gone off it doesn't wake him. I get to him and he is still asleep and weeing, with this noisy alarm vibrating and sounding near his ear! This may be the most conclusive evidence pointing to the fact that he sleeps so deeply his "bladder full" message doesn't wake him.

Had the appointment with the paediatrician a few days ago. She couldn't really come up with anything new. She agreed that we had covered all the possibilities with tests and routines etc so discharged him.

Two things she said that were of interest:

1. The alarms work better with older children (seven+). My boy is six.
2. (In response to my logging the times he is weeing during the night and they range wildly from 10.00 - 05:00). She said that hormones tell the kidneys when to make urine and in children they are crazy unpredictable doing all kinds of stuff. So filling his bladder can happen anytime, not directly related to when he took in fluids.

So, I will persevere with the alarm; he does seem to be going a little longer dry; I am no further forward in knowing a cause, but feel better for having eliminated all of the usual causes.

FINAL UPDATE: The wee alarm seems to have totally solved the problem! 22 dry nights in a row now.

The weird thing is that it doesn't work in the way it "should"; he isn't peeing a little bit, being woken up by the alarm and going to the bathroom, he just isn't peeing. He isn't even waking up and going for a pee of his own accord, he is just suddenly sleeping through without needing a wee.

It's a bit inexplicable but I'll take it! Possibly the best £27 ever spent.