Bedwetting - Lake in the Hills,IL

I don't have an answer to this as my 6 y/o son still wets the bed every night also. My brother wet the bed until he was around 10 so I'm not really worried about it. He wears Underjams to bed and if it leaks he knows to take the sheets off his bed so they can get washed. I don't make him feel badly about it because I know it's just something that he will grow out of. My poor brother went through a lot with this so I am very sensitive about it with my son because of how my brother struggled. Having him use the restroom right before he goes to sleep and reducing fluids before bedtime seem to help somewhat. I know it's a pain but please know that you aren't alone.

He may not be neurologically and physiologically ready to be dry all night yet. I know my own daughter is almost 6 and still wears a diaper to bed because I don't feel like cleaning sheets every night. She simply will not wake up. I can bodily move her, shake her, speak to her and I'll get little if any response. It's not like he's doing this on purpose, his body just hasn't reached that milestone yet.

If you talk to your pediatrician they will most likely tell you that if it continues past 8 y/o - THEN you worry.

Some mornings my daughter is dry and it doesn't matter if she's drank past 6/7pm or not.

It is very natural for kids to keep bedwetting. I was told the reason why I did, was because my body grew faster than my bladder. I am not sure that is accurate, but you son isn't the only one that does it.
Have you talked to a doctor about it? I was given a nose spray that helped. I can't remember what it's called, sorry. It helped but didn't cure me. I would suggest looking into cloth trainer where you can add more absorbancy. This way you don't have to spend money on pull-ups and just re-wash the trainers. They look like underwear, but have a layer of PUL (a waterproof fabric). And I would get a waterproof cover for his mattress.

My son is 6 and still wets the bed every night...well, actually he wears a night time pull up so that he isn't waking up soaking wet once or twice a night (tried that for 3 weeks...HORRIBLE, for him and me). My pediatrician is not overly concerned and I definitely am not. His father and I both wet the bed until we were 6+ and it is a very genetic thing. I suggest you do NOT try to wake him up or allow him to go to bed with out a pull up. Both of these things will disrupt his sleep and affect his daily mood/behavior. Put him in a pull up, take comfort in knowing that this is completely normal, and keep in touch with your pediatrician. Best wishes!

Do you stop fluids 2 hours before bed time? Also make him get up and go to the washroom, and save on washing sheets daily. Stopping fluids should help.

Just put a pull-up on him and stop worrying about it. Save yourself the frustration and the laundry, and your son the sense of failure. There are all sorts of good products now, and if you're worried about the expense, you can re-use the dry ones the next night. You'll both feel a lot better, and a lot more relaxed. Some kids just aren't able to hold their water all night, even into their teens. It's physiological and there's nothing to be done until those parts of their brains and bodies grow.

Its something he has to outgrow. The alarms suck. My mom tried that with me. Good luck

Are you sure you really want to change this? Here's why I ask. My daughter wet the bed every single night, never a dry night once. Around age 7 1/2 we went to see a pediatric urologist at CDH who recommended the "try for dry" program (I think if you google it you can find it on line). It is a combination of dietary changes, fiber/laxitives, Rx muscle relaxant, and an alarm. I wasn't crazy about the program, so we didn't do the whole thing. The dietary changes I don't really remember, but one thing was no ice cream in the evenings. There's something about ice cream after dinner -- they had impressive statistics that cutting this out would make a huge difference. We didn't eat ice cream so that wasn't something that worked for us. I didn't want to give my child a muscle relaxant, but the idea was that the bladder needs to relax and expand to hold more fluids. Also, in a child, the bladder and the large intestine are close together, so if the bowels are full there's less room for the bladder to expand. I think we upped the fruit and had a little miralax in our breakfast beverage. We used a Malem brand alarm and it worked fine. The first week, I would hear the alarm go off from my room down the hall, get up, and wake my daughter up to go to the bathroom. The second week, she would wake up when the alarm went off, I would help her shut the alarm off, and she would go to the bathroom. The third week, she woke up before the alarm went off. By the end of the 4th week, she stopped wearing the alarm. But: I quickly stopped seeing this as a success. Yes, she was not wearing pullups any more. But, we had traded a good night's sleep for one where my daughter was getting up 2 or 3 times a night to use the bathroom. She was constantly tired, never well rested. When she was a baby, I had read the book "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" by Dr. Mark Weissbluth. In the book, there is a sentence or two about how persistent chronic bedwetting in older children can be a sign of sleep apnea and often resolves itself immediately upon removal of the tonsils and adenoids. Well, two years after the whole alarm saga, we had my daughter's tonsils and adenoids removed for completely different reasons. Within 2 weeks of the surgery, she was sleeping through the night, never getting up to use the bathroom, completely dry in the morning, with tons more energy that lasted throughout the day. Her adenoids were so big that her voice was dramatically different after the surgery but fortunately that has gone back to normal! Anyway, just something to keep in the back of your mind if anyone ever thinks your son's tonsils may need to come out. The surgery itself was not easy, and the recovery was quite hard, but the improvements to her quality of life have been worth it.
Edit: There is a prescription medicine that can stop bedwetting, but doctors use this as a last resort. I don't remember the name of the drug, but the doctor called it the "sleepover pill." Basically, if your child is invited to a sleepover, or some other place where wearing a pullup is not possible and bedwetting is unacceptable, there is something they can take that will prevent it, but it is not for everyday use. My husband remembers this as "the little red pill" since he was a bedwetter too.

One grandson is 10 and still has accidents, another wet until he was in second grade, my 7 yr old girls still has accidents occasionally, the 4 year old boy actually is the only one that has had dry mornings regularly. He still gets to wear a pull up because I just do not want to do extra laundry every day. My time is worth more than that.

A bag of nighttime pull ups-enough to last 2 weeks-less than $10 at Walmart.

Laundry soap for 2 loads of extra bedding/laundry each day plus water, laundry soap, fabric softener, dryer sheets, bleach to sanitize, etc...plus the time it takes to do it. I really don't want to take time to google it and figure out how much each load of laundry actually costs. Plus each washer and dryer will cost differently.

My point is that you should go buy some pull ups, let the little guy sleep, you get some sleep, and wake up refreshed and when he has several weeks dry try regular big boy underwear.

Something different to do is to change his diet, and add supplementation.
ONe of the reasons kids have problems with wetting the bed is due to their diet. Some are just more sensitive than others.

Sugar is usually the culprit. Let me explain why. You know how a drunk can't walk a line if requested. That is because the alcohol turned to a lot of sugar and it effects the muscle control. That is what sugar does, it makes us weak. You might get a big burst but in the end sugar weakens us. Period.

A diet change would be my suggestion. When he eats sugar, or simple carbs, they turn to sugar. Get rid of the treats, or use them very sparingly and in the early part of the day. ( ideally, get rid of it)

I worked with a client years ago, that simply eliminating the icecream after dinner was the trick. OH! and one more thing. B complex vitamin, in a perfect balance, taken at least twice a day. They help a boy metabolise sugar.

Get to the source of why this is happening. Talk with him. By now, he might be willing to make some changes in what he eats, if he knew it could be possible to stop wetting the bed. and make a reasonable amount of time commitment to the process. If it doesn't work the first time, don't throw the baby out with the bathwater, work at a diet rich in veggies, and protein, and even limit the amount of fruit. He might just be a bit more sensitive than most to sugar.

One more thing, the sugar could make him so tired that he can't wake up.
Big spirt of energy and then complete exhaustion. When he is sleeping he is in the complete relaxed muscles, "coma" like sleep ( again, much like a drunk... they party hardy and then pass out)

Let me know if you need any help in selecting the perfect supplement for his needs.

Whole Foods has some bedwetting holistic tablets that helped my daughter stop wetting. We had done the prescription meds (no help at all) and the alarm (which helped make her more aware but didn't solve the issue) also. But it was the holistic pills that solved the problem and honestly were the easiest. BUT she was a month shy of 8 yrs old when it stopped finally - and it was only because she was upset over it that I even did anything at all about it. I always told her it was no big deal and she was the one who felt embarrassed and upset over it.

He is normal.

Night time dryness, can even take until 7 years old to attain. It is a BIOLOGICAL and physiological development, of the bladder/brain and nerve connections.

Some kids are just later in attaining that.
My Husband, bedwet until he was older than that, too.

USE a waterproof bed-pad under him. That is what I do with my kids. I put it DIRECTLY under them. Not under the sheet. Then IF they have an accident, only the pad gets wet. And I just change it out and put another one under them. Easy. The sheets do not get wet.
It is imperative, to use a water proof bed-pad.
I got mine from Amazon, when my daughter was a Toddler. I have 4 of them and still use it with her and my son. My kids are 4 and 8.
No biggie.

I used to work in this field. Five is considered my most docs to be sort of an "average" age to stop bedwetting. Most people assume it's much earlier. I just say this so that you understand that six isn't all that old to still be bedwetting. People produce a hormone that condenses urine when you sleep - that's why your urine is a darker shade of yellow in the morning. A lot of people think that kids wet the bed because they aren't waking up to pee at night. But think of the kids you know who don't wet the bed - are they waking up to pee at night? No. They're sleeping through the night and they are holding their urine. As the body grows it produces more of the hormone, called vasopressin, that condenses the urine. That said, it does seem that children who are heavier sleepers wet the bed for longer - there may be some link between sleeping heavier and having less of the hormone, but that hasn't been well studied yet. Anyhow - talk to your pediatrician or family doctor about it for his or her advice and just to rule out any major physical causes. Otherwise, the best advice is just to wait it out. Personally I feel that pull-ups are the way to go in this situation so that your son isn't smelling like pee and embarressed to be wetting the bed and you aren't having to do a ton of laundry. Also try to load him up with liquids earlier in the day and then limit liquids before bedtime. I used to work for the Simon Foundation. This is a link to a page that I wrote for them with some additional tips about bedwetting: http://simonfoundation.org/About_Incontinence_Types_Incon....

You are not alone. My kids are 3, 6 and 8 (as of last week). None yet stays dry through the night on a regular basis. Gamma G's advice below is exactly my philosophy too - just let your son wear a diaper or pullup, depending on how much he wets, and don't worry about it. I say "let" him, not "make" him, because I leave it up to my kids whether they want to wear a diaper/pullup or go without. If they want to try going without, and they have an accident, I simply clean up them and the bedding (waterproof pads are essential!) and don't make a big deal about it. Of course I don't chastise them for wetting the bed (or their diaper/pullup), but nor do I praise them for staying dry because then they will feel like they failed when they don't stay dry. I absolutely believe that it's a biological/hormonal thing, and each child develops differently on their own. When the time is right, they'll stay dry every night.

I used to pick my daughter up, sleeping, and put her on the toilet. I'd turn the bathroom light on so she'd wake up enough to go pee. I did this at about 11 pm (right before I went to bed). It did the trick for us. She never remembered it in the morning.

no liquids 3 hours before bed-
some boys have small bladders and it usually resolves around age 7.
just be supportive and don't turn it into a shameful situation.

best wishes!