My Son's Bedwetting Is More than a Problem!

Poor little guy! I have not had experience with bedwetting at that age, but have you ever considered using a diaper doubler inside his Goodnights? It might soak up a lot of the fluid.

I know that it is a problem that he can't help. But he can help his own anger for being woke up. You need to wake him up anyway. You are going to lose sleep one way or the other. You might as well lose sleep while keeping your son, his bed, and even you dry and clean. I would wake him up and make sure he does his business PERIOD. I recently took care of a little guy that had a wetting problem. His mom told me to wake him up. He went to the bathroom, gave me a hug and went right back to sleep. I even woke him at Midnight and 3am.

I've been getting up 3-5 times per night most of my life. If I didn't, I'd definitely be incontinent. He has no business being mad and you need to discipline him for it. If I were you, I'd set up some sort of reward chart. When he gets mad, he gets stickers taken away and when he has a good attitude he gets stickers and so many stickers he gets to buy a new toy or go someplace special. Front him a few stickers or something in order to start him off on a good footing.

We use the overnight Huggies with Buzz Lightyear and Woody on them and have no problems. It may be several years before he gains overnight success. Just put waterproof pads under him when he lays down. we bought some at a pet supply store in bulk and they work fine and are disposable. That way if he leaks he is on something you don't have to wash.

I feel your pain. It's not going to help waking him up, it just makes you tired and cranky. Let him sleep and he will finally grow out of this.

I can honestly tell you that restricting his fluid intake will only make him dehydrated and the urine stronger and then a UTI makes it nearly impossible to stay dry. When his body catches up with him he will stay dry because the muscle in his bladder will develop and it will hold the urine until morning. There is NOTHING that will stop this, except some medications, and disciplining him will only crush his self esteem.

So, my advice, get some rest, he can get up in the morning, take a shower, and be a happy little boy who doesn't have issues in adulthood over bed wetting and toileting issues.

One thing I did with my daughter is put an overnight depends, cut in half, in the front of her pull up. She slept on her tummy and that caught all the drainage going in the front.

At 5.5 he needs to stay in his bed-if he can get up to go to your bed he can be "trained" to go to the bathroom! And I agree with the mom that had her child change her sheets and clean up-not as punishment but to help him understand he can take care of this on his own. If you have not purchased special wet-proof under the sheets whole bed covers then you need to look for those-his mattress will never last after he grows thru this. These sheets are generally not rubber but a heavy plastic fabric. Try on-line for better prices, you might look at places like Wal Mart, Target or some of those spots too. This is a package deal mom-give him the equipment to help himself and he will take it from there. No matter how long it takes him to outgrow this-yes it might be into his teens-but that is ok-he is there and you can make it better by teaching him how to deal. I know how hard it is to teach them how to grow up but believe me mom he will love you more for his independence later.

I was a bed wetter till I was 12ish. I can tell you it sucked. We tried pill after pill after pill. Finally we started on a nose spray (sorry I have no idea what it is, but perhaps if you mention to you dr, he might know) And my wetting slowed down and slowed down till finally it was never a problem. I'm not sure if it was the fact that my body finally adjusted (my dr thought it was the fact my bladder hadn't caught up with the rest of my body growing, but gave us the nose spray to try too) or if it was the spray. But I do like the idea of the doubler.

My friend dealt with this with her son. She found out he had a smaller bladder. Not sure what the options, if any, were. Good luck

i agree that if he is taking the time to wake up and walk into your bedroom, then you need to tell him that he needs to go potty, change his pull-up and clothes first, then come lay with you. i think that may also help correct the problem a bit too!

also, grumpy or not, i would wake him up at night. even if it is just before YOU go to bed.

I was a bedwetter until high school. My mom made me change my own sheets in the middle of the night from the time I was able. I would recommend you do the same for your son, especially if he's also wetting your bed. He needs to feel the natural consequences, not as a punishment, but as an incentive to try to wake himself up or at least, not wake you up.

I know you said he will get angry, but I truly think that night-lifting (waking him up to go in the middle of the night) is the interim answer until your son's development catches up. I had the exact same problems with my son except he was almost impossible to wake up in the first place. I sometimes had to carry him into the bathroom, stand him in front of the toilet, even aim for him and then shake him awake and make him go.

My son's bedwetting was primarily caused by being such a DEEP sleeper. Thankfully he grew out of it and quit wetting before he was fully 7 1/2 (which is a normal age for growing out of this problem). Since your son is producing SO much urine at night, he might also be a little deficient in the hormone that causes a reduction in urine production while we are sleeping. Ask your doctor about having his hormone levels checked. Also try asking about a sleep-study if you believe he is still sleeping very deeply. My 8yo still sleeps like the dead but manages to nearly sleep-walk through getting up on his own in the night to go now.

If all else fails, ask your doctor about Desmpressin Acetate. It's an anti-diuretic nasal spray that will help his body to retain fluids during the night instead of dumping them into the bladder (reduction of output, not cessation of output). It didn't really work well for my son, but I think that's because his wetting was caused more by a developmental delay in his local nervous system in the area (he wasn't getting the signals in time, even during the day sometimes) and the deep-sleep combined. It just may work for you though.

Don't give up and don't let him feel bad. It's still very normal at his age. He doesn't have any control over it. Him not feeling bad about it is a blessing. Believe me, better this than for him to feel HORRIBLE about it and let it destroy his self-esteem.

Best wishes!

T.,
My daughter had this problem too. It will eventually bother him...he will be afraid to sleep over at friend's or have friends stay at your house because they might find out. She also was (is) a very sound sleeper. We tried waking her up several times a night, restricting fluids after dinner, etc. and nothing ever helped. My doctor had a flier for a bedwetting system and we tried it. It had an alarm which sounded (was VERY loud) when she started to wet. Believe it or not, it did not wake her up for the first few nights, but did wake up everyone else in the house. It made a hugh difference. Within a couple of weeks, she was hardly having any accidents. This program puts a lot of the responsibility back on the child...getting things ready before bed, just in case there is an accident, reward stickers if they cooperate (even if they had an accident, they still get rewarded for being cooperative in the middle of the night). I would highly recommend this!

Good luck!

I applaud you for recognizing that he may just need more time. All of my kids wore pull-ups until they were at least 8. They were all checked to make sure there was no underlying issue related to their bladders/urinary systems. I have since learned that gifted children often have this issue. They are so intense during the day that they sleep HARD at night. I get so upset when I hear of parents making their kids change their own bedding after wetting it. There should be no shame in what they're going through. They can't help it! That being said, I would agree with the chiropractor idea and the disposable pads under him at night. There is the nasal spray that normally isn't used on a nightly basis. (mostly for overnights with friends or at Grandma's - that kind of thing) We tried it with my oldest and it didn't work real well. However, with all the urine your son is producing, the doctor may want to try it. What finally worked for my oldest is the bedwetting alarm. Of course, I had to put a monitor in his room so that I could hear it if it went off at night....he'd sleep right through it. It would still require your son to wake in the middle of the night, but since it senses when there's urine, it helps to train the body to recognize the signal. My second son just ended up being dryer and dryer at night until he made it through on his own. I wish you the best of luck!!!!!

i know you said that you had his urine tested for problems, but did they check his 'parts' my cuz had a son w/ this problem and he needed surgery and then he was much better. good luck, sorry

Ashley S. may be right. I've been seeing chiropractor-kinesiologists for almost 20 years and heard them talk about how bed-wetting can be fixed. I'm sure you have several CPK docs in the KC area.

Have you ever thought of seeing a chiropractor? Sometimes there is a nerve in a child's pelvis that is being blocked which causes nocturnal enuresis (night-time bedwetting). This can be caused by a lot of different things...like falling on their butts, wrestling with friends, and just being a kid!
It sounds silly but I read a few research articles about chiropractic being really effective in treating this. I personally think that something that has is very safe, has no side effects, and isn't a drug to be constantly giving my child is worth a shot. To find a doctor in your area that specializes in treating kids, go to icpa4kids.org...there are also a lot of articles there.
Good luck.

I don't know if this is what you're looking for, but my son is not quite 5.5yr old and he goes potty before bed, then between 11pm-midnight (when my husband goes to bed) he carries him to the bathroom, pulls down his pants and sits him on the potty, my son goes without waking up and we don't deal with the angry awake child or worrying about him having to fall back asleep. One recommendation, make sure to hold his shoulders, my son fell off one time, because he was sound asleep. Then we carry him back to bed, he rolls over and is gone, and we haven't had a leaking issue (except when he's sick, fever makes everything messed up). Good luck.

From personal experience, does he development issues at all? It was a problem with maturity catching up with everything else. A medicine called Torfanil (spelling ?) was given and it helped. Eventually with time this was no longer an issue.

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I had the same problem with my now 6 yr old boy. What worked for us is that we had him wear regular underwear. We put a leak-proof matress cover over his matress AND we made him get up atleast once during the middle of the night (for him it would be about midnight) and had him stand at the toilet until he urinated. Then he went back to bed and we tucked him back in, kissed him goodnight the 2nd time and then he made it through the rest of the night. He didn't like get woken up in the middle of the night either but after a while he didn't mind it. Then after a few weeks of this we would let him sleep throughout the night and he would wet the bed and wake up "very uncomfortable" and eventually would get himself up and stopped wetting the bed. Be sure you not only limit his fluid intake before bedtime, but also what he drinks during the day. Avoid sugary drinks, soda (especially those with caffiene) and lemonade. Lemons and caffiene are natural diuretics that can cause the kidneys to produce a lot of urine even through the night.
You also need to consider that it can take boys till the age of 6 to master bed-wetting, so get started now. If he continues to have this problem, then you may need to look into any problems or fears he may be having (since he still likes to sleep with you) or for any other medical reasons that could be causing him to wet the bed.