5 1/2 Year Old Still Wetting Underwear and Pull Ups at Night.

They have a special program at Children's Hospital in Denver for these types of problems. Give them a call.

Fixing these problems early is always better than waiting a few more years. Same with eyesight. Same with reading problems. Don't let this linger.

Not to be a downer, but my sister waited too long on her child's pee/poo problem, and now the child -- who will be in middle school soon -- wears support products 24/7, and there's no prognosis that the child will ever learn to control the situation. They've long since given up on trying to find medical/psychological remedies. Don't want to share too many details, but it's sort of like the child missed the window of opportunity of learning how to properly handle bodily functions.

I use to work for a chiropractor that helped a few little ones with their potty issues. Its the first thing to try before all those expensive medical tests. It worth a try.

C.,
My 7 yr old daughter also has trouble staying dry, day and night. We took her to the children's hospital in Aurora. Their nurse practitioners run a urology clinic just for enuresis (involuntary voiding).
While their first assesment did not reveal much we had not considered, it has been very helpful. We now have medical measurements and tests (all non-invasive) to support the parental guess we had made. We wish we had done this years ago!
Our daughter had a very distended bowel and bladder and this has lead to her brain shutting off the normal 'reading' of those organs sensory nerves. Not to mention the pressure those organs apply to each other. She really does not feel when she has to go to the bathroom! And then can not always control it once voiding is initiated.
I would urge you to please call your local clinic and Children's.
The nurses are always ready to assist when I have called. They can help you understand the situation and possiblely suggest a clinic closer to you.
www.thechildrenshospital.org ###-###-#### or 800-624-6553
The clinic is called the BEE clinic.

I also found a comprehensive article on line that you might use as a reference.
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/10...
A review of Bowel and Bladder control development in children: How gastrointestinal and urologic conditions relate to problems in toilet training.
-hope you find some answers soon, A.

I wish I had the advice I'm about to give you when my son was 5. take her to chiropractor. I waited until right before my son turned 13. He had a series of adjustments for about a month, but after the 2nd adjustment he never peed the bed again. THe CHiro. sid that when he laid down, he had a nerve pinched and could not relay the message to the brain to shut off the blatter for a while, When that was reset, he never went back to peeing the bed. It really helped with some of his anger issues as well.

It isn't normal for a kid to have to urinate that much. I would recommend taking her to a urologist. She may have an overactive bladder or even some problems with urinary tract infections. There is not always pain associated with the infections. My daughter has struggled with UTIs for six years and she has never had painful urination. My bet is on the overactive bladder though.

I saw the earlier comment on constipation and she is dead on. We found out severe constipation was seriously aggravating the UTIs. Once we got rid of the constipation, the UTIs went away too. I still don't think it sounds like a UTI, but constipation messes with everything in that respect.

It sounds like an incontinance issue. It may be medical. It may be immature nervous system. It could even be a sign of a UTI. I would get her checked (it never hurts, even just for peace of mind).

As far as the nighttime wettings, that's still not abnormal for her age. Continue to use pull-ups and don't push the issue. As you resolve the daytime dampness, it may fix itself, or it may just take more time. Just be patient and let her grow out of it.

After consulting a doctor to make sure that it isn't a UTI or something that needs to be fixed right now with medication I would try the Chiropracter. I have been learning a lot about how the spine controls the entire system of our bodies and if it isn't aligned correctly you can have all kinds of problems. My sister's son was helped a great deal with bed wetting by their Chiropracter. If you find the right one they are not quacks who just crack your spine. They really care about whole health in a way that my look at me for 5 minutes and tell me it's in my head doctor never did. Well guess what, if he'd done an x-ray he'd have known that he was right but not in the way he thought. I had a big, unknown problem with my spine and I didn't even have spinal symptoms.

My 6 yr old daughter has the same problem. I took her to the doctor and no UTI, but he did say that a VERY common cause of this is constipation. I know it sounds strange, but the problem is if they're "backed up" it puts extra pressure on the bladder and their muscles are not yet developed enough to handle the extra pressure and this causes urine to leak a little. Ask your daughter if it hurts when she poops. We put my daughter on a fiber regime and it seems to be helping. We get the Fiber Choice chewable tablets and give her two every morning. We started with one and it didn't seem to help.

HI!
I know boys and girls are different, but my 5 1/2 year old boy still wears pull ups at night. My doctor said some kids just develop different and if the pull up is still wet at night not to push the issue. It makes me a little uneasy, but talking to other moms I know, this doesn't seem to be uncommon. I would say check with your doctor, I trust mine, and if you trust yours just follow their lead.

I would talk to your Pediatrician about getting a urine sample.
Leaking can be caused by holding it too long or her bladder not holding it, which possibly could be medical if her bladder walls are weak.
Night time takes some kids a long time to master. If they are deep sleepers they don't have the ability to wake themselves up to go.
I would get her urine checked for any infection, then consider having her checked by a Pediatric urologist. All she has to do is pee in a cup at the Dr and they can let you know right there. If it is an infection, they need to treat it accordingly.
If all checks out, give it time.

It may sound a little weird, but you can teach your daughter to do kegel exercizes. Just tell her to try really hard to hold in her pee, then explain that she is using little tiny muscles when she does that, and she needs to use those muscles a lot to make them bigger and stronger so she will not have little accidents anymore. Honestly, every woman of every age should be doing kegals many times a day, they are so beneficial. Just remind your daughter several times throughout the day to exercise her tiny muscles, it really will help!

I'm all for chiroprators when they have back or other joint related issues (ie -- the previous poster who's daughter had a turned out foot and issues sleeping on one side) but how can joint and back issues be related to peeing!! These are "doctors" who specialize in back alignment, and while many of them will say that they can cure everything if they just "get you in alignment and relieve stress points" they can also do ALOT of harm. If you go to a chiroprator, remember to also keep your medical doctor advised to the issues. And NEVER let them do "adjustments" above the shoulders. MDs get YEARS and YEARS of training and if you see a pediatrician rather than a family doctor then he also has years of specialized training to cover kids issues.
That said -- you can try a chiroprator is you think it might help, but you should go see her doctor too if you are concerned. The fact that she was able to keep herself dry for 6 months and then has this issue indicates the me that there is a problem (whether it is physical or emotional). If it's a physical problem getting it solved early will save her alot of trauma later.
And, like the previous poster -- please don't make a big deal out of it. Kids get plenty embarrased about this on their own.

I have the same issue with my 4 1/2 year old. I have no advice for you but would love some advice myself. Any advice you get would you please pass along. Thanks!

I just really want to encourage you to NOT make a big deal about this. I'm telling you, the more frustrated you get, the more pressure you put on the child, the MORE the accidents will be.

I have two 11 year old children who have difficulty wetting at night. THEY HATE IT!! Frankly, I don't care about it...because I understand that there are physical, emotional, and developmental issues that can cause this. I also simply require them to take care of their own bedding and clothing. The washing machine isn't that difficult to put clothes into. When the children are little I, of course, start the machine and watch them put the laundry into it, but they gather their things for washing.

For my daughter, it's an indicator to dyslexia--you can google dyslexia symptoms--but I wouldn't worry about that particular problem at this point.

I think the advice you've gotten so far is sound. Go to a Chiropractic doctor without hesitation, and absolutely take her to a Pediatric Urologist after her regular doctor rules out a simple bladder infection.

This is COMMON. At this age, it's generally NOT do to laziness but a bladder smaller and more immature than the rest of the body.

Mainly, I want to plead with you not to make this thing be a source of ruin for your day and your daughter's. My daughter has make me understand that this is highly embarrassing, terribly stressful and painful for a child, and has gotten to the point where SHE HATES herself. Our boy tries to pretend it doesn't happen because he, himself, is also very embarrassed and doesn't want others to know. Seriously, if YOU think you hate it, put yourself in the place of your daughter who doesn't like how it feels, doesn't like disappointing you, and feels helpless...and has to go to bed thirsty.

OH, that's another thing. As doctors encourage; avoid restricting too much water. Children who wet the bed are at risk of dehydration because they or their parents try to avoid the bed wetting so the children tend to not get the full amount of daily water they need.

Anyway, I feel for you. Go out to the bed wetting store online. There's lots of good information out there.

I would talk to her doctor about it. Perhaps her muscles down there are not strong enough to hold her urine in. Perhaps theres another problem. Chiropractors are good, too. She's not too young. I took my daughter in all the time and she just turned two. Even infants can benefit from chiropractic care. Our backs can get messed up easily and that can affect other aspects of our health. I can recommend two very good ones, if you need one. One in Lakewood on north Wadsworth and one in Littleton, closer to Centennial. Where ever you live.

Our son is six and every night before we go to bed we get him up and take him to the bathroom. It's really worked. It seems like that final potty trip keeps him from going the rest of the night.

I use chiropractors a lot, and when doctors weren't able to help my children, the chiropractors were able to. For example: my son wasn't sleeping at all, whenever he was on a specific side he screamed, doctor's said he was fine, took him to a chiropractor and after 2 treatments he started sleeping longer and stretched out and not curled up on his side. My daughter's foot was really turned out, the dr. took x-rays said she would grow out of it, took her to a chiropractor and found that her SI joint was out, a couple treatments and she was walking normal, not falling all the time, and with her foot where it's supposed to be. That said I promote chiropractors.

There is a chiropractor in the Boise area that treats children. (if you want info on him, just send me a message) He has told me that if the spine is out, it puts pressure on certain body parts and causes problems. With just a few treatments he has cured bed wetting, he has cured reflux in babies, etc. I would give it a try and if that doesn't work out then take her to the doctor.

As moms, we often set aside our own judgement and intuition because we are afraid of seeming overprotective or high strung. I think your initial instinct is correct, I would take your daughter to the doctor. My sister in law is now a grown woman, but when she was a young child, she was constantly wetting. My mother in law, who is not a nice woman, would punish her severely for wetting (she was only three!!!) Eventually, as she got older and the problem persisted, they finally got her to a doctor that found she had a problem with the tube that the urine is released from the body through, it connected to the bladder in the wrong way and they had to surgically fix it. Now she is completely normal in that area. Because the problem can be passed on, I have already had my daughter checked out and she is fine. Good luck, and I hope this helps!