Bedwetting at 11

[BeckenhamAndie]

Hi. My 11 year old DS is still wetting the bed most nights. We have been getting up at midnight to take him to the loo (sometimes he goes, sometimes he won't) but that's never a guarantee of a dry night. We have never made an issue of it but it's getting to him now. We tried urine supressant from the doctor a couple of years ago but that had limited success. He does tend to leave going to to the loo in the daytime until the last minute. Anyone else been in the same situation? Thank you.

[ihearsounds]

Did the gp run any tests because sometimes there are medical reasons why people bed wet.

Did the gp ask you to keep a diary listing food, drinks and bedwetting? As a child one of my dc's was unable to have chocolate or tea unless caffiene free. The diary made this blatantly obvious.

Did you get refered to a enuresis clinic or a paed? If not request the clinic.

Was you told to limit drinks after a certain time?

[BeckenhamAndie]

No she didn't offer much in the way of extended help. We didn't get a referral. We have limited drinks after 6pm. I think I'm going to have to go back to the docs though for more advice, although DS is really ashamed poor thing. thank you

[SauvignonBlanche]

We've been in the same situation. DS was referred to an enuresis clinic and we tried alarms and various medication.
Desmopressin helped in that DS got a night's sleep before he wet the bed.
Eventually the enuresis clinic said he'd probably grow out of it at puberty and they were right he did.
He stared to improve at 14 and was 100% dry by 15.
It's hard work but very normal.

[BeckenhamAndie]

Thanks SauvignonBlanche that's very reassuring. He sets his own alarm to go off in the middle of the night but sleeps through it every time. My gut feel is that it's immaturity (he was born two months early and is still very small for his age) and I don't want him to have to suffer the indignity of rounds of clinic visits and not keen on him taking more drugs for it when they didn't really work before. I might do another doc visit though. I want to reassure him it's normal just to put his mind at rest and your post really helps.

[MarjorieAntrobus]

Another one here saying it's not uncommon. The alarm helped sometimes, but didn't fix the problem. Reassure your DS that it happens to lots of kids. Equip him with pull-ups for sleepovers, camps and so on. Here, it completely stopped at 16 when the big growth spurt happened (ie puberty as said above).

[SauvignonBlanche]

DS hasn't wet the bed for a year now.
I was always very matter of fact about it all, I used Pampers bed mats under the sheet and just popped his sheet and PJs in the wash every morning. He just described it as his bladder problem and was equally matter of fact about it, using Huggies Dry Nites when sleeping away from home. They make those things for up to age 15, they wouldn't be doing that if there wasn't a market for them, would they?
The first odd dry night coincided the appearance of his pubes!

[alemci]

yes very difficult. ds stopped around 12. had alarm and he slept through it but your ds will get there.

tried to get him to drink plenty.

[UnicornsNotRiddenByGrownUps]

Dehydrating by limiting drinks doesn't work. Sorry!

Can the doctor prescribe you a wet alarm? They clip in to a pad in the undies or inside a dry night pant. If they get even a teenie bit wet they go off very loudly and can't be turned off until properly dry.

[SauvignonBlanche]

The alarms can be disconnected though, DS soon worked out how to do it!

[2kidsintow]

DD was referred to an aneuresis clinic at about 9 and we had years of star charts, rules (no dark drinks, no acid drinks, no milk - too salty, nothing after 6ish) and wet beds!

The desmopresin had limited effect, but was worth a try.

Just this summer holidays (she's 12) we finally had a breakthrough. She's had one accident since July. I've been confident enough that I replaced her much abused mattress finally. :)

The alarms did nothing for us except wake everyone in the household up - apart from my DD who was wearing it. Grrrrrr.

[soontobeslendergirl]

we used an alarm with my son when he was a a little bit younger than yours and it worked for us - one thing they say though is to avoid orange/citrus flavoured squash as it seems to make the problem worse - we changed to other flavours and i think it helped. But the alarm definitely worked with my son.