Help with My Almost 7 Year Old

Usually wetting the bed long after a child has been potty trained and free of night time accidents; can be a sign of some trauma. Is he being bullied at school and not telling you. I would talk to his teacher and see if there is any school stressor he is not talking about at home.

I have not read replaies, so forgive me if I'm repetitive.

Has he ever had this problem before? If this is VERY new, you need to get hin to a Dr-- many times this is a sign of medical issues, especially diabetes. I would start there!! (Doctor) THEN you can start to resolve it if it's not a medical issue.

C.

hi, well have you asked him if there is anything bothering him. maybe you should talk with his teacher and make sure there is no bullying going on at school.

M.,

You will find that once he gets truly adapted to going to school that he will settle down.
The peer pressure of school with small children will manifest itself in many different ways.
Some children get whiney and others start being mean, and yet others will start wetting the bed for no apparent reason.
So be patient and understanding.
Let him know that it is no big deal, it will pass.
Good luck and give him a hug for me.
M.

This could possibly help:

http://www.drchristophers.com/kid_e_dry_extract.php

Bring him to the doctor. It may be something medical, better safe than sorry.

My pediatrician told me that starting school can trigger this reaction in young children because it is a new adjustment, a new schedule, etc. I know your son was in school last year, but if it was 1/2 day, he now has a whole new - tiring- full day schedule to deal with. Hopefully once he is feeling a little more settled, and not so tired that he does not wake to pee, this will be resolved. Good luck!

Hi M.,
It may be stress and it may be a growing spurt. My son went through periods of not being able to control wetting until he was 9. Most of the time he would be fine and then for a couple weeks to a month there would be a problem. The Dr. said sometimes their muscles grow so fast their nerves get stretched in that area and don't work until the nerve catches up. I told my son this so he didn't feel so down on himself about it, he loves science and knowing why things do what they do, and he used pull ups during these short periods. My older sons didn't do this but they did have growing pains in their early teen years, I didn't know these were real pains but sometimes kids grow so fast it does physically hurt.
Good luck,
SarahMM

This happened to my daughter. AFter much heart ache and trying everything else, it turned out that her body was out of balance chemically (I think, due to antibiotics.) The night time bladder control is balanced by a hormone called vassopressin. It comes from potatoes, yams, sweet potatoes. I cooked potatoes, saved the water, and gave her 1/2 cup of potato water to drink. That got tiresome so I switched to a nutritional supplement made from yams and it worked Immediately. Good luck.

I would take him to a chiropractor to see if his spine is in alignment. I have a son that peed every night until he was 13. He had no life because he always had to wear a pullup at night. I took him to a chiropractor and the problem went away. If that doesn't do the trick, take him to a physician and have blood work done. This is a sign for type one diabetes. Finally if it all checks out well, he might have a milk allergy. Anyway, just a few ideas

Hi M.,
I would suggest starting with a visit to the Doc. You first want to rule out any urinary tract infection or bladder issue, especially if this has happened every night for almost a week. Sometimes when kids are at school they don't, or won't use the bathroom and then that can cause issues such as infections. Beyond that, perhaps your little guy is just so exhausted that he isn't able to wake when he needs to go. It sounds like you are doing everything right there. And any change in routine, such as a new school year, can cause stress even when all of the adults around are supportive. That part may just take some time for him to settle into.
I hope you find the answer. Take care,
B.

It could be stress, or it could be that your little guy is just REALLY tired. My son is in first grade as well, and I have noticed it wears him out by the end of the day. He only did half days in Kindergarten, so this is a huge change for him, especially since he now has homework too. He also wet the bed one night last week, but lucky for me, he woke up before it hit the sheets. You are doing the right thing by cutting his water out an hour before bed, but I wouldn't make a big deal about this with your son. You may want to invest in some "Good Nights." Lots of kids wet the bed when they are bigger, and those will cut down on your laundry. I have a girlfriend whose daughter is 11 and still has a wetting problem. I also remember a girl when I was about 11-12 who had that problem, but she just wore special night time panties, and we didn't think differently of her. If you really think there could be something medically wrong, take him in for a check. It can't hurt. Take care.

If this were my child, I might ask him if anything is bothering him, if he wants to talk about anything. Sometimes these things are correlated with emotions, and talking them through may help with the bed-wetting.
If there seems to be no emotional problems attached to it, you may take him to the pediatrician to make sure he doesn't have a urinary tract infection or something similar that would be causing this. Good luck!

Hi M.,

It could be that he's exhausted from all the work he's doing in school and sleeping more soundly than usual. My son wet the bed until he was 8 1/2 so I know your frustration but he had always been a bedwetter. My main advice is to get him some pull-ups so you're not having to wash bedding every day--believe me he won't like them enough to want to rely on them. I used to think that if my son wore pull-ups it would make the problem worse but it helped me with frustration so I could focus on how bad he felt. Bedwetting isn't something kids do just to get attention and it's hard on their self-esteem. Also if you have good insurance it wouldn't hurt to take him to the pediatrician--when my 11yo son started wetting the bed we found out he had diabetes--not likely if he isn't having peeing problems during the day. Good luck!

That seems like a lot of homework for first grade! Is the teacher assigning that much homework every night or is he not able to finish all of his classwork and having to bring it home to finish? I would start by asking his teacher if she has noticed anything at school that might be causing him stress before checking the medical stuff. He may be having trouble keeping up with his classwork or being bullied etc.

Both of my sons (now 7 and 9)went through a period of wetting the bed in first grade. I do believe it was stress related because they both stopped over Christmas break and over the summer. My 7 year old just started 2nd grade now and once again had a few nights wetting the bed but now is back to being dry. I say put the pull-ups on at night and don't make a big deal of it. Obviously he doesn't need any more stress! Also, pullups overnights has a very helpful web page that has all kind of info on bedwetting and checking with your pediatrition to check for hernias would be wise too.

Something has triggered his bed wetting. It could be a physical problem and I would take him to the doctor to rule that out. After that I would check with his teacher to see if he is under any stress at school. And lastly, the one we all dread, there is a chance he has been sexually abused. Think of older children he has recently been in contact with, or new adult males in his life. check out all these things, rack your brain for any stressful incidents. You are doing the right thing, not punishing or humiliating him.

It's probably first grade stress. Talk to him about it. If his concerns sound alarming, talk to his teacher. Don't "poo-poo" his concerns -- that will just make him feel worse. Thanks!

p.s. My daughter had serious "first grade stress" and another daughter had serious "second grade stress".

Hi M.
I have 4 children, 2 were bedwetters. The most effective treatment is using a bedwetting alarm. I didn't have one with my first child and spent way too much time doing laundry and trying all the tricks. The second child I got desparate in the middle of the night and found a place called the bedwetting store online. I purchased an alarm that clips to the underwear. at the first drop of moisture, the alarm goes off. I found my daughter didn't wake up at first and I had to get up, and help her to the bathroom, sometimes change her underwear. After a few days, when the alarm went off, she might not wake up, but she was dry except for a drop. So,her brain heard the alarm and stopped the wetting. Then you start using it every other day and wean off the alarm. She stopped wetting within a couple of weeks. A year or two later she started wetting again, and we just took the alarm back out and solved the problem quickly.
Good luck! The cost of the alarm ($80-100) is well worth it!
C.

I am sure the changes with school could factor in, especially if he has no other issues. I would stop fluids two hours before bedtime and even wake him when you go to bed to get up and go to the bathroom.
If it is stress related talk to your Pediatrician. You may even want to consider those older kid night time underwear.
He may just need some time to adjust to the new things going on.
With boys too you want to make sure it isn't anything medically, kidney or bladder related.

I have a feeling this has to do with stress. Are the other kids picking on him? Or is there something more that is going on that you don't know about. I would see a dr. to make sure it is not a UT or something phyical. Then go from there and find out what is happening at school.
C. B

I agree he may just be a lot more tired. My 6 year old son is such a deep sleeper, we have set an alarm clock in his room that goes off in the middle of the night. He doesn't even always wake up to that, but we do, and we make him get up and go to the bathroom. After two months he is starting to get up once a night (at least most of the time) by himself. We still do the alarm clock. He is just a deep sleeper and really tired. Good luck!

Take your son to the doctor and have him tested for a urinary tract infection. I had a very bad UTI as a child that progressed to a kidney infection, I had to be treated and monitored for over 3 years. Please take this symptom seriously, it may not be a UTI but since this is a recent problem it very well may be. Another possibility is that he is so tired after a long day of school and play that he can not wake himself up to go to the bathroom, make sure that he is getting 9-11 hours of sleep a night. Good luck!