My daughter is 7 years old and is nowhere close to being dry at night. I have tried everything I can think of from making her go potty before bed, to waking her, to taking her to her dr to limiting drinks before bed but nothing works. I have been assured that she is perfectly healthy and its still common at her age. The issue I have is the laundry. I am SOO overwhelmed having to wash every single morning its starting to wear on me. I stopped getting pull ups about 6 months ago because they just didnt work and would leak ALL the time. I even tried the ones for older kids but with her being not even 40 lbs yet (she is very skinny for her age) the smallest size is WAY too big for her. Is there anyone else here that is dealing with this too and can offer me any suggestions on what I can use if the pull ups dont even work? Thank you everyone!
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Thanks Dori, I have tried pretty much all the "cloth trainers and pull ons" with the same result. Either they arent absorbant enough or they just dont fit her right. ITs hard enough finding clothes to fit her, let alone something she can wear to bed to help with the laundry. One thing I do want to point out is that she could care less that she does it and wont lift a finger to help herself stop. She isnt motivated at all to want to stop. I dont get mad at her but I do when she fights me over going potty before bed or sneaking drinks.
The alarm was a waste of time as she just turned it off and went right back to sleep when it went off. Your right, she DOES need to wear something to help with all the extra laundry and smell. She can still fit in the reg 4-5T pull ups no problem, they jus
t dont work and leak ALL the time! Thanks again!
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Thanks everyone. I am reluctant to go back to pull ups or goodnites bcause of the issues I have had with them in the past. I think the best option at this point would be just to have her wear a diaper to bed and limit her fluids. I just need to talk to her and let her know that its not a punishment and its just something that needs to be done till she outgrows it. There are many times when I had her wearing a pull up that I would find her in a soaking wet pull up before she was even asleep when I went in to check on her. I cant tell you how many different excuses she has for that. Thats also something I need to work on with her. At night when she is sleeping I can cope with but not when she is fully awake and just doesnt want to get up to go....thats totally different. I am not holding my breath that she will stop soon because I see no light at the end of the tunnel. I know her dr assures me that its still very common at her age, its just something I need to work through until she stops. It makes me feel better as a mom knowing that there are others still struggling with this issue as well. Its just difficult finding the right product she can wear to bed that doesnt leak. The smallest size goodnite practically falls off of her and didnt help at all. She thought they were too bulky as it is and didnt like wearing one but didnt have any issues with the reg pull ups (night time ones too) and even liked the designs on them more then the goodnites. If I decide to put a pad in the pull up, more then likely she would complain about it and just take it out. Thanks again everyone and I welcome any ideas or suggestions that anyone would like to offer. Have a wonderful day!
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Thanks, I am sorry that you had to struggle with that before pull ups, that had to be alot of work for you...beleive me, I know! I know she cant help it when she is sleeping but when she is still awake and makes the choice not to get out of bed to go for whatever reason, thats when I get irritated with her. She knows she has to go but chooses not to. If she were asleep fine, its an accident. But like I said, she wont help matters by at least trying to go potty before bed and instead, fights me tooth and nail. Same thing with sneaking drinks. I have to watch her like a hawk after dinner.
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Try using good nites They are at walmart for about 9 a package. My daughter is now 8 and still wets. She is real skinny for her age also, so I understand it being hard to find clothes. She wears the s-m and are a little big on her. I hope this helps.
The fact is that I refuse to wash bed clothes every day. I chose to buy pullups and keep the bed dry. We use the overnight huggie pullups. They work for us. The package is a darkish red and they have Disney Princesses on them. The other brands do not absorb as much and they leak. Try putting a sanitary napkin, overnight kind, inside the pull up. Or a Depends pad in the smaller size. They will absorb some of the urine too.
You can also buy piddle pads that dog owners get for inside trained dogs. We put one of those under the kids when we travel and they fall asleep without a pullup on.
I think S H.'s advice about the waterproof bed pad is your best bet :)
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_18?url=search-al...
A.,
My boy is 8 and wets the bed. It helps to know that he will eventually grow out of it. My brother wet till he was 14. It is due to the child sleeping very deeply.
My son also would soak through the pullups. I stopped buying them for a while because they were so expensive and I still had to do laundry every day. But I ended up trying a brand called Nitepants. They come in pink or blue packages that have a denim-like print. I buy them at Smith's (Kroger) and they are $7.99 for 15. I find that they do a pretty good job, better than the pullups brand and they are cheaper. He still leaks a little- his jammies and bed are dry but there is still a pee smell. But at least they are absorbing the bulk of it.
It also helps to place a water resistant pad on top of the sheets as well. I have a few large ones that I bought for babies' cribs and it makes it so I can just wash the pad and blankets rather than changing all the sheets every day.
The other thing that honestly helped was to calm down about it all. I used to get very frustrated because my son didn't seem to care either. But now I am a lot more laid back about it and it is easier on me and him. He is slowly having more dry nights (very slowly, but enough progress that I think he will outgrow in a few years). Don't bother with a potty pager alarm, they are a waste of money. (Ours "miraculously cured him" - for a month, till it broke. Then we had to return it, wait for a replacement, try again, and after a few weeks, he was used to the alarm and would just sleep through it. My brother did the same thing.)
**added** If it helps, my aunt had 8 children and at one o\point, 4 of them wet the bed consistently. Can you imagine?! There was no way she could wash that much laundry. When I get grumpy about laundry, I just think of that, how much worse it could be. Now would also be a good time to start having her daughter assist with the laundry as well. My son takes his dirty bedding down to the laundry, I wash it, and he puts it back on the bed.
My stepson wet the bed occasionally until he was 8 or 9. The absorbent pad works for the bottom sheet, but the top sheet and blankets still would get wet (maybe it would be different for girls?). You said that she won't help herself to stop. My stepson was the same way. I used to remain calm about it, not yell or accuse, I would just have him change and wash his own sheets. I showed him the first time and from then on he needed to do it himself. We stressed that it wasn't a punishment, but that he made the mess and it was his responsibility to clean it up. I noticed a decrease in the amount of accidents pretty quickly. They didn't go away completely until he was 9, but it got a lot better. Good luck!
Possible sleep study - would that be a possibilty?
Maybe go to a hospital supply like Binson, (or a very good pharmacy, a good pharmacist would know of these places that have equipment for needs that are not in a regular pharmacy) and they may have large washable pads (like the hospital ones) and put those at bottom level area and maybe only that would be washed other than the whole bed linen. Good luck!! My son regressed for a year and it was frustrating.
My friends son was in junior high before it stopped for him. He is doing just fine.
My 2 oldest girls wet the bed till puberty before there were any pull-ups. We had plastic mattress covers and I did laundry daily. It sucked! Their dad and his sibs had the same problem and they inherited it. They're both in their 40's now and one of them had 2 boys that did this, so they had to go thru it too. One tried an enuresis clinic and the alarm caused great anxiety for her son so she quit using it. I'd say to support her and help her take responsibility for it as much as you lovingly can but she will grow out of it and it may not be for years so don't make her crazy over it. She can't help it even tho it's a royal pain for you.
Have you tried having use the bathroom more often during the day? My son is also 7, and still wearing pull-ups to bed, so we're dealing with this issue too (although, for the most part, pull-ups keep his bed & pj's dry). He can make it through an entire visitng the bathroom only 2 times. I think maybe his body is confused -- dry all day, but then needs to ____@____.com're working on having him go more often during the day, so hopefully we can retrain his body-clock. As I said, we're still in this, so I'm not sure that it will work, but it's worth a try!!
Use a Waterproof, bed-pad DIRECTLY under her when she sleeps.
I do that with my kids, who are 4 and 8.
Then, if soiled, I do NOT have to wash the entire bedding or sheets. ONLY the bed pad.
I got mine from Amazon, ever since my Daughter was a Toddler. I have SEVERAL. That I rotate as needed.
Easy.
Pull-ups, leaks. It does not hold much.
Use regular diapers or night time diapers.
Also, you may need to change her one time a night. Bigger/older kids, do By nature, have more pee quantity. Not baby sized quantity. It is relative to their age, per output.
My son, uses size 6 or 7 diapers. He is a big tall boy, who is about that same weight. It fits him fine. Huggies or Pampers.
Some kids bed wet later.
Night time dryness, is not something biologically attained, until 7 years old. Some kids later. My Husband was wetting the bed, even older than 7, for example. When he was a kid.
Is she a DEEP sleeper????
I didn't read the other responses because in your questions & 'what happened' it is very clear you know a ton about bedwetting and really just need laundry help. We used these pads with our son. They worked great till we moved him to a queen bed.
http://www.amazon.com/Quilted-Waterproof-Mattress-Overlay...
The body needs to produce a hormone to aid in nighttime dryness. Have they checked her for that?
You could try an inexpensive bed or body alarm to see if that helps train her body. It goes off at the first sign of wetness.
You could also look into Antsy Pants. They are reusable (cloth) and fit a wide variety of sizes and they have them for overnight with highly absorbable inserts.
She needs to be in something. It's taxing on you laundry wise and it can be good for her self-esteem to wake up wet every morning.
There are nighttime pullups that I used with my daughter. My daughter has special need and wasn't potty trained until 9 so I know the nighttime ones will fit an older child. Another thought would be put a pullup on her and have an adult poise pad in the pullup to help with absorbtion issue. My daughter was also between 40 and 50lbs and the 4t-5t were a good fit with both the nighttime ones and the regular, especially with the pad in there. I understand that this is quite common at that age because of growth and bladder changes and is not really anything to worry about. Good luck with this and hang in there!
