My 7 year old son still wets the bed at night, and I feel like its becoming more of a problem as he gets older. Has anyone tried the bed wetting alarms that are suppose to wake them up when they start to wet?

I'm after some recomendations as they can be quite expensive and I'm wondering if he will even hear the alarm, he is such a deep sleeper. We walk him asleep to the toilet at 10.30p.m - he does his thing (asleep!) and we take him back to bed. Often he will still wake up in a wet bed.

IMO don't bother with the alarm. My now 14yo son wet his bed until he was 10.5, then over the space of about 3w he just stopped. We talked to 3 different GPs about it over the years and they were all of the same opinion, just let him grow out of it. The reasoning they gave for discouraging the alarms is because there is a hormone that either is or isn't made (can't remember which) which regulates night time dryness. Until that hormone is made (or stopped being made), nighttime wetting will happen. No amount of behavioural interventions will change that. And it can often make the child feel bad about something over which they have no control.

When he was 10, we were offered a nasal spray which can sometimes be effective for short term situations like a sleepover or school camp. The problem is that the child needs to not have had any liquids for 2 hours prior to using it, which totally did not work with our dinner/bedtime schedule. On talking to the GP about that, she said that many families have that same problem, which is one of the reasons it is not more widely used.

My son wore huggies drynites until he stopped wetting. He didn't like them at all, but he felt it was better than waking up in a wet bed (as did I). They would regularly leak, as my son is also very tall for his age and therefore his bladder is larger, but that was minor in comparison to what the mess would have been without the drynites.

The deep sleeping is part of the problem, and nothing can change that.. its just a growing out of thing.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/05/2017 12:59PM by Jenna.

I can understand how you and your son must feel, Ingrid. One of my twin grandsons wet his bed until he was about 5. When my son mentioned it to me I told him that part his system was just less mature than that of his twin brother. Son and daughter in law didn't make a big thing of it and followed much the same pattern as Jenna. In his case time was the answer.
Going back many years, when my daughter was about 4 and was wetting her bed, I asked my older sister what she did for one of her daughters. She gave me the name of a pharmacist in Christchurch who sold a bottled product, that had been successful for many. Thinking back it was probably a herbal remedy but in the case of my niece and my daughter it worked. Maybe it was just a coincidence, I didn't question it.

My brother wet the bed until he was 13 or so. Mum and dad tried everything available at the time but nothing made a difference.
One of mine wet the bed most nights until she was about 8. Then all of a sudden she just stopped.
She wore pull ups until that happened.

I know it is stressful and socially awkward but I really haven't heard of anything that has been successful at making a difference.

Fortunately my son is not at all bothered about it - I even gave him a small bag with a pull up and his Pjs in it for a sleep over and he was quite happy to secretly put it on before bed. Its more to do with the washing every night - and I'm also wondering if we are making it more of a habit frog marching him asleep to the toilet at 10.30p.m every night.

Its good to hear all your stories - I figured it was more common than we realised!

My stepson was a bedwetter from ever since I knew him at 4 years. He was also a very heavy sleeper. I don't know how many mattresses we got rid of and bought another. The washing machine was used every day. His bedroom stank. When he was 12 years I'd finally had enough and put a plastic sheet under the bottom sheet he slept on. He did his usual bedwetting but this time, instead of the urine seeping into the lower layers of bedding keeping him warm, he woke up swimming in it. He was so horrified that he never wet the bed again. I was called cruel by my husband but he wasn't doing the washing and working full time as well.

Regarding the washing - have you tried something like this?

[www.brollysheets.co.nz]

They are pretty costly, so I made 3 of my own from one single bed size waterproof mattress protector, sewed on wings from an old bedsheet. The wings tucked under the mattress to keep it in place. This went over top of the bed sheet, so when he leaked, I only had to change the top mat/pad and sometimes the top sheet. Doesn't help of course with the PJ's and everything else, but not much you can do about that.

I always had 2 mattress protectors under the fitted sheet, because I never wanted to deal with a urine soaked mattress, they're just too expensive for that. I used this style, because they are waterproof, but can go in the dryer and aren't slippery plastic or anything like that. It seems to have worked, because despite 7 years of bed wetting, the mattress never once got wet.

[www.thewarehouse.co.nz]

Which is a much cheaper version of this one from Farmers - which was the only available when I was buying them.

[www.farmers.co.nz]

Regarding the taking him to the toilet before you go to bed - doing it isn't creating any kind of habit. His brain simply isn't mature enough to be dry yet. At 7yo, waking up wet won't change that, and will only create more washing and possibly upset him. We did the sleepwalking toilet thing because it did at least lessen the amount that was going into the drynights and helped prevent overflow. Didn't always work, and when he got older he got really agitated when we got him up and it turned into an unpleasant time, so we stopped for a few months before trying again.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/07/2017 10:29AM by Jenna.

Thanks Jenna

Yip we have brolly sheets - and sometimes I put him in a pull up when I've had enough, but often I find the duvet, the brolly sheet - and possibly the ceiling! is wet lol