Bedwetting - Heuvelton, NY

Hi T. O.,
My 2nd child was dry very early in his life (about 2-1/2 for sure). Later in his life, he started wetting the bed which I found very odd. What I was then able to (eventually) determine was that some foods were causing him to wet the bed. The first food I discovered that caused this bed wetting was the orange drink at McDonalds! There is a book called "Is This Your Child" by Dr. Doris Rapp, M.D. that talks about bed wetting and food issues which I have recommended to many parents over the last 5 years with outstanding results. Most libraries carry it because it was on the NY Times Best Seller List. Many different foods can have that effect. I'm not sure if you are open to considering other causes, but my personal experience is that it is extremely worthwhile to look into that.
Sending you great blessings as you search for help.
Love,
L. L.

I have the same problem with my daughter and she is now 15. I had the same problem too. My father did too. If you find a treatment that works please share with me.

feeling for you,

L.

We had that problem until my son was 14 yrs old. We finally got to the point of not stressing about it. He just wore his "Special pants" to bed. When he had a big growth spurt at 14 he just stopped wetting. But until we just stopped stressing about it, our house was in turmoil and the other kids were being stressed by this problem consuming us.

Hi T.,

It sounds like you are such a great and attentive mom. I am surprised to want to respond to your situation but it struck a chord with me. I have been studying energy medicine and many related topics and have particularly found success in reading our body symptoms as they explain how we are feeling and thinking. I wouldn't be surprised if your daughter has some deep feelings that are difficult for her to express and it is manifest in bedwetting.

For example. My four year old son, without fail, becomes constipated when ever we go on a family vaccation or to a new place. Going to the bathroom is a power issue--especially with children. Once they go, it is a surrender to something, or someone and going to the bathroom makes them feel very vunerable. Often, when they do not know their schedules or what to expect they become constipated because that is something they can control. In the case with my son, whose most recent experience with this caused him sever pain, I decided to treat his concern by helping him know what to expect and feel like he's in control of something. I was able to calm him and we made a schedule together with pictures on it of what to expect that night and the next day. We checked off each picture together and planned together so he knew exactly what to expect. Just as I expected myself, he felt instantly better and we had no problems with this again.

What I'm trying to suggest is bedwetting may easily have a core in your daughters' subconcious mind and is really using this as a tool to scream out that something needs to be addressed. (Keep in mind I'm sure she is probably very happy and seems fine, but that is precisely why the issue is coming up at night.)

I highly recommend getting the book "Your Body Speaks your Mind" by Deb Shapiro

Check page 272 on bedwetting. You'll be surprised how insightful this can be.

Best of luck and way to go on being such a great and in tune mom.

V. H

my 5 1/2 yr old is still wetting the bed as well....she wears pull ups at night and we wake her up before we go to bed and make her go and she's dry in the morning....we are frustrated as well...how r your other children?...

T., my youngest daughter had the same problem. It began to effect her self esteem. We tried the hormones....worked for a week or two then stopped. We finally tried an alarm system from Pacific International Ltd. Very expensive, but it's a program where they support you in this process. We found it very effective....took two weeks, and no reoccurences. It was great.....You can find it on the internet. Hope this helps. N.

My son has kidney problems as well - but was mostly a daytime wetter - whereas my daughter who is ADD - is a nitetime wetter. We used the alarms as well (waste of money in my opinion). Though this is what I've done - hope this works for you.

My daughter takes medication now to control her nitetime wetting - she takes DDAVP and Ditropan. What meds have you tried?

I don't allow any fluid intake after dinner and also no eating after dinner - eating promotes drinking - drinking promotes wetting.

NO soda's or sugary drinks. Water is always best.

Make sure she goes to the bathroom before going to bed and if she's still awake for a bit after going to bed - make sure she goes again - even if she says she doesn't have to.

Due to my son's kidney problems, I bought him a watch that he programmed to go off every 2 hours to remind him to go to the bathroom. I even went as far as getting a doctor's note to let the school know of his problems so that he'd have no problem getting up whenever his watch went off and just going to the bathroom without 'flack' from any of his teachers. You can do the same with any type of watch that has an alarm feature on it.

Another thing I've tried is going for acupuncture through the chiropractor. It did work for some time, but my daughter didn't like getting the needles any longer - so we stopped.

Whenever she does go to the bathroom - she should sit for about 3 minutes - if not longer - to allow her body to 'relax' enough to go. She may feel like she doesn't have to go - but if given enough time to relax... she should be able to go. I know this may not be possible to do during school, but if the school is aware that she has this medical problem - there shouldn't be a problem with her sitting there for 3 minutes.

Again - these are things I've used - and they've seemed to work. My daughter still has her bad days - and my son has stopped wetting his pants during the day.

Good luck - hope this helps!

Hi T.. I recently had the same problem with my son. I can understand the frustrations because both of us were frustrated as well. He was afraid to go on sleepovers with his friends because he was afraid that he would wet the bed. We found that nothing worked for him either. We tried setting an alarm every so often to wake him up, limiting his fluid intake, even medication, and nothing seemed to help. The doctors said that we could just keep trying different things until his bladder grew. He is a very deep sleeper so that didn't help the problem either. However, I am happy to say that he hasn't had a problem for at least 6 months now. He turned 11 in Nov and is now a very confident sleeper. You may just have to wait. It will happen eventually. Good luck.