How do I help my 6yo DD stop bedwetting

[Alex71452]

What am I doing wrong. We're starting to talk about sleepovers in the summer and I'm more and more worried I won't be able to get my daughter dry at night. We've tried waking up when I go to bed, limiting drinks at night and even an alarm (which she slept straight through). I'm at the point with the washing that I might have to go back to buying pull ups as the dry nights are rare.

What else can I do to help her get sleepover ready as I really don't want her missing out on them when her two best friends start.

I don’t think you’re doing anything wrong. 4 is the average age to by dry at night so whilst yes she is on the later side I’m sure she isn’t the only one in the class that isn’t there yet. And 6 is very young for sleepovers, will the best friends definitely be doing them this summer? My experience with my 7YO is that they only happen at that age when the parents are already good friends. So might be worrying about nothing??

Have you seen the GP? I know 7 is the age for many but it’s worth asking if they’ll see her at 6.

Otherwise things that you haven’t mentioned that may help-
No blackcurrant ever
Limit her caffeine especially in the evening, I’m sure she’s not having espressos but remember it’s in chocolate and dark chocolate especially contains a lot, also coke if she ever has that as a treat
Up her fluid intake during the day to increase bladder capacity whilst limiting drinks after dinner
Wee before bath and again right before bed to check her bladder is totally empty
Earlier bedtime because she might be sleeping so deeply because she’s really tired

Try the ERIC website for lots of good advice.

She's still very young, bit too early to worry yet.

She will be 7 in the summer. I've become good friends with the parents, they've been together as friends since they were in reception. I'm a SAHD so I have offered as it's a girls sleepover that for the first time she has it away from our home as my wife is likely to be away on business for quite a bit of this summer. To not betray my daughter's trust I haven't mentioned this to those parents yet. But I suppose it could be an option to talk about it.

Thank you for the other tips, she doesn't have fizzy drinks but I didn't know about blackcurrant juice, she loves the squash. I didn't know about the drinks in the day. She is awful at school for drinking so I might speak to her teachers to help as well.

I don't know if it is different for girls, but with boys, there is a hormone they release that stops them bedwetting around age 3. If the hormone is not released then, it won't happen until puberty. This happened to one of my sons. We just had to wait until puberty kicked in, the hormone was released and he got dry, around age 10, I think. It's worth ruling out other reasons, such as infection or underlying illness but if she is a very frequent bedwetter, it may be this hormonal delay.

We tried everything. Night lifting, reducing evening drinks. Nothing worked. One GP said the issue is that his bladder control is too strong and only relaxes when he sleeps. You could encourage her to drink a lot at breakfast and during school hours and let teachers know that she needs to be excused quickly if she wants the loo, to help train her muscles to relax during the day.

Avoid dark juice drinks like blackcurrant and look up any other diuretic foods and drink, and avoid them from afternoon onwards.

For DS, we did go back to pull ups. I also put dry-nite adhesive mats on his sheet and also the underside of his duvet, where it touched his body when he slept as washing a drying a duvet every night just became too much. If there's an accident, just pull off the absorbent mats. I also used to double up sheets so there would be: mattress protector, sheet with absorbent adhesive mat, second sheet, second adhesive mat, duvet with adhesive mat attached where it is most likely to get wet. Then if he had an accident in the night I just had to pull off the top sheet and there was clean bedding underneath. I always kept wipes and clean PJs beside his bed.

The washloads were exhausting - I remember that now.

For sleepovers and camps, we let parents know in advance, went for slim fit pull ups under baggy PJs and also used Desmopressin. I didn't like that drug so we only used it very seldom but he needed it on school camps, to avoid being teased or bullied.

She will grow out of it, but may not for a while. If she starts getting upset about it, maybe look at some of comedian Sarah Silverman's material. She's very honest about being a bedwetter throughout her childhood, and might be a good role model for feeling confident and unashamed. (Not sure how suitable she would be for a 6-year old.)

Has she been checked for reflux? That can keep the brain awake and stop the brain signaling the kidneys to stop creating urine
. my 7yo is the same and reflux deffo makes it worse

My DD was still in pull ups at a similar age. She had sleepovers with very close friends. I told the host mums who I was good friends with, and they were discreet about it.
She had a bed wetting alarm which helped, but my DS who also wasn't dry at night until 6 or 7, just slept through the alarm when we tried similar with him. (It woke everyone else up!)
So they were both in pull ups until at least 6, because washing and drying an entire set of bedding including the duvet wasn't sustainable to do every day, particularly in winter

Some kids don’t produce the hormone vasopressin until they are older. This helps to regulate urine production, reducing it at night.

Go to your GP. You can get an artificial version that you spray up their nose and it has the same effect.

Very easy to solve until your child’s body does this naturally.

Ds1 is 8 (9 in march) and has only just stopped bedwetting, through nothing we have particularly done at all,

DS2 is 4 and has been dry at night for as long as he's been dry in the day - just different children.

I used an alarm mat with both of mine. My son was 6 when we started and within a fortnight he was dry. At the start I had to go in and wake him and walk him to the loo but the association soon built and he was soon able to wake himself and go.

My daughter was 4 at the time so once my son was done with the mat, I swapped it to her bed and she twigged really quickly (much lighter sleeper) and was dry within a week.