Pull-ups at 8 Years Old

I haven't been through this, but my good pal has. Here's a link you might find helpful:

https://www.kidney.org/patients/bw/BWalarm

The big thing with alarms is how involved you will be - it can take months.

I remember you saying you were thinking of taking anxiety medication. This would mean loss of sleep for you - getting up with him. Something to consider.

We did the alarm and found it horrible and pointless. It goes off only when the kid is already wet, so what's the point? We still had wet pajamas, wet underwear and wet sheets. Our pediatrician recommended that we see a pediatric urologist, even though medical issues had been ruled out, which we did. He was great. He assured us that nocturnal enuresis ("nighttime bedwetting") is extremely common, particularly in boys, and that he had patients far older than our son who had the same problem. He said it's totally developmental, like when their molars come in and when they get their growth spurts. There's nothing to "train" a kid to do.

After discussion, and after we shared this was interfering with our son's social life (no sleepovers, no camp), we chose to use a medication called DDAVP. I'm not big on meds for no reason, but the side effects were virtually nil, and it was one pill per night at bedtime. It took about a week or so to kick in (I think - it was a while ago), but then he never had another wet night. He stayed on the medication from age 7 to age 11 or so, and then he decided to go off. After about a month or so, the problem came back, so he went right back on until he was 13. Then he went off again and his body had developed enough for his brain to get the "full bladder, wake up" signal.

The urologist told us he had patients up to age 18 using it sometimes. He also felt it was far more important that our child get a good night's sleep for brain development than to spend years waking up wet or being awakened by us to go pee at 1 AM.

It was very easy to send our child with 1 pill in a blank pill bottle to sleepovers, and we just gave the parents a heads up that he needed to take it before bed. Some parents knew what it was for, and others didn't. If questioned, he just told his friends he had allergies. Easy as pie. When he went to sleep away camp, the nurses handled it - and there were so many kids on different meds, it attracted no attention whatsoever.

I'd get a second opinion - my son is 27 now, and I'm shocked that your pediatrician, nearly 20 years later, is acting like your son can control this.

It's so very common I'm surprised your pediatrician says you should be pushing him at all.
Better to talk with a urologist about it.
Some kids have bed wetting issues till they are 11 or 12 yrs old.
Ask your parents (and your in laws) if you, your husband or siblings had bed wetting issues - it tends to run in families.
I'd stick with pullups at night until he wakes up for a straight 2 weeks in a row dry.

http://www.med.umich.edu/yourchild/topics/enuresis.htm

http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2011/09/27/the-many-possibl...

http://www.everydayhealth.com/specialists/pediatrics/hamm...

Our son wore pull ups at night until he was about 9 and then I just made sure we had a water proof mattress pad on the bed he slept in. As he got older he slowly began to wet the bed less often. He was 17 or 18 when he finally began waking up at night to go to the bathroom and stopped wetting the bed. He was a VERY sound sleeper! He is a normal, we'll adjusted young man who is enjoying his first year of college and living in a dorm. I used to worry, but looking back it just isn't a big deal. Good luck! I'll be praying for you all.

Find a new pediatrician! Your pediatrician must have been absent the day they covered this in medical school.

Don't buy an alarm. Let your child sleep. Your child will stop wetting at night when their body is ready. A lot of kids wet the bed until 12 and I know of a few kids that wet the bed until 16... yes 16.

Is he wearing Pull-ups at night? Or does he wear them all day? If only at night, time will take care of it. If during the day too, I think he needs to see a doctor. Good luck.

i don't think it's wrong to be hoping your kid gets past this soon.
but when the rubber meets the road, what's the harm?
i'm assuming that he's fine during the day, just sleeps through it at night, right?
because we are fortunate enough to live in an age where we have brilliant solutions like pull-ups, i say use 'em.
khairete
S.

Pushing him is wrong, it would make bedwetting a big issue increasing the related stress, this could do everything worse. I would be just supportive, so the opposite. In addiction to medical checks (like for constipation, diabetes or physical bladder problems) there is nothing you can do to stop a bedwetting without medical cause. For many kids it stops just when they hit puberty.
Alarm, waking up in the night for a bathroom trip or desmopressin work for somebody, for others not at all. For my oldest daughter nothing worked. So for a lot of kids it's only a question of time, beyond giving that a try, just keep him in pull-ups until he is dry for few weeks straight.

Often kids who have trouble with bedwetting at night aren't producing a certain hormone that is needed to slow down urine production when we sleep. You can get a prescription for this hormone. Ask your doctor about this!

I co-parent two boys with a VERY dear friend who is a single mom. That's the way WE see it. I'm Mom2.

her oldest, wore Pull Ups AT NIGHT until he was 13 - then his body decided to work. It was like a light bulb. He was so relieved and happy. We had tried the alarm and medications for him. NONE worked. It was just time.

WHY is your son still in pull ups during the day? Does he have a medical condition that prevents him from being able to make it to the bathroom on time? If there are no medical reasons for the day time use? You need to stop allowing him to use them.

At night? Many times body's don't work until 12 or 13.

There is nothing a person can do to start the chemical reaction in the brain that needs to happen so the kidneys will recognize the kid is asleep and slow down the production of urine.

He's asleep. He's NOT in control of his brain and kidneys when he's asleep.

Some kids wear pull ups til they are nearly teens. They make overnight pull ups for bigger kids and you still should put a water proof mattress pad on his bed. A nice padded one so that it won't be like being on a plastic sheet and hot.

You can limit drinks, won't make a difference. You can put an alarm on his bed, you will lose less sleep because it will wake YOU up and it will also make double laundry for you because instead of having a wet pull up to toss each morning you'll be using sheets and blankets and mattress pads to absorb his urine each night, and you get to wash it each morning. Every single morning.

Keep the pull ups. It's so much easier for everyone to have a full nights sleep and to not have tons of extra laundry.

If you're worried about the cost of the monthly package of pull ups consider how much YOUR time is worth, how much is it to run a load of laundry with pee sheets and stuff. I used to do 2 loads each accident with the sheets, mattress pad, blanket, and comforter if it was cold weather and then sometimes his pillow would be wet too so add in another load for that.

How much is it for a box of pull ups, $20 per month?

Extra laundry loads each day, extra laundry soap, bleach, fabric softener, extra dryer loads, dryer sheets, your time taken away to do 1-2 extra loads of laundry each and every day.

Not even a question for me. I buy pull ups.

At 8 it is time for further intervention, the alarm bed is a good first step.

My daughter used to have the occasional accident, it'd be maybe once a week or so, at night. What worked for me was having her go to the bathroom before bed even if she insisted that she didn't need to go, and also making sure she had no drinks for 2-3 hours prior to going to bed. She was also stressed with school and the discipline choices of some teachers. Once those factors changed, it helped a lot.

We did have a relative that had a small bladder and needed to go to the bathroom more often than normal kids. It was just the way her body was equipped. She had to have a doctor's note every semester explaining to the teacher her constant need to use the bathroom. Have you had your kid's bladder tested for that?

My daughter will still moisten her underwear maybe once every 2-3 months, and will immediately get out of bed, go to the bathroom to pee, change her underwear, and go to bed. Not really a big deal, and the less of a big deal you make of it, the less stressed your kid will feel. Agreed about not disciplining your child for bathroom accidents. It's going to make it worse.

I never had my son used pull ups. I feel like its a crutch and its ok to go to the bathroom in his pants. I make sure my son goes to the bathroom before bed. Even when he says he doesn't have to go, he ends up going.

Is your son scared of the dark and uncomfortable walking to the bathroom at night? Maybe keep the bathroom light on, shut the door a bit so its not so bright.

I would talk to another pediatrician, there might be an underlying problem.

LannieJ is correct about the chemical, but there is a pill that can artificially give them that hormone, the pediatrician should have mentioned that.
Please have TESTING done though, my daughter ended up having kidney reflux and that is what made her wet the bed. She ended up having surgery at 9.5 yrs old and now only has about 10 % of one kidney and about 80% of the other. It was only cause she was still wetting the bed that we investigated things, and it saved her life. That is what Gary Coleman died from btw.