thread: Night training DS - help.

  1. #1
    Registered User

    May 2009
    west NSW
    462

    Night training DS - help.

    sorry if this is in the wrong place.

    so DS will be 6 in a month, and still wets the bed at night. He has to wear night nappies to bed, otherwise he will wet the bed, and not just once, but a few times. I have tried 'training' him. Limiting his drinks at night, taking him to the toilet before we got to bed, etc.....but nothing seems to be clicking. I bought a bedwetting alarm for him off ebay for $45, i used it for 2 nights, and the alarm either didn't go off at all, or would go off after he had completely wet the bed!

    so just wondering what i should do? when he does wet the bed, he doesn't even wake up. he is a heavy sleeper, and so will just keep sleeping all night, to the point where he will wake up completely dry, even though he has wet the bed a few times.....DD on the otherhand, if she wets the bed, she will wake up straight away and come and tell us......

    just how do i get it to click? what other things can i try? and when does it start being something i should take him to the doctor about? thanks

  2. #2
    Registered User
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    Jan 2005
    cowtown
    8,276

    www.continence.org.au

    DS still wets the bed on average 2 night a week, he's 5 1/2

    he isn't in a night nappy though we just have a conni mat on his bed as if it is in the middle of the night he wakes, but often its right around the time he wakes in the morning.

    My biggest problem is he manages to wet everything - doona, pillow everything

  3. #3
    BellyBelly Member

    Mar 2005
    Limestone Coast, SA
    2,671

    I wet the bed til I was 14. My mum tried EVERYTHING to help me to stop, naturopath, chiropractor, doctor, you name it we tried it, nothing worked, then a month after my 14th birthday I just stopped wetting the bed, dont know why, it just happened. Wetting the bed is very common in my Mums family, a couple of my cousins wet the bed til they were 16, they tried the alarms and stuff too.

    My DS tuns 5 next month and is still in nappies at night. I have tied a few times to help him 'night train', but he just wet the bed which I had to change several times a night. I know that one dy he will just grow out of it like I did, so I am just letting him wear nappies at night til he decides he doesnt want them anymore.

    Sorry that was no help what so ever, but wanted to let you kow that your son is very normal

  4. #4
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    Jan 2005
    cowtown
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    Widdly, DH was midteens as well.
    If one parent was late to be night dry, there's a 40% chance that their child will also be late to be dry at night.

  5. #5

    Mar 2004
    Sparta
    12,662

    I'm just the person you need
    I got a referral to a continence physio for my Mr6.
    The first things we did was bladder training.
    So.... for 2 weeks. 3 small glasses of liquid (about 200ml or more) before school. 2 poppers for school (if they have a no sweet drinks policy contact the school to explain that the popper is so that he will drink it all). After school another 3 glasses of liquid before dinner (1 glass with dinner can be included in those 3). After dinner no more liquid.
    Also a teaspoon of benefibre every morning because lots of bedwetters have constipation and getting rid of that can make more room for the bladder.

    Keep it up for 2 weeks and keep a chart. Every day that they drink all that liquid they get a small reward (we did a jellybean but it could be anything they want - negotiate it). At the end of a week if they manage all 7 days they get a reward (mathcbox car, leggo whatever you negotiate). During this time the aim is just to increase the liquid so their bladder has a larger capacity. Don't bother with the getting them up to pee. Just use a nappy.

    For a lot of children that will stretch their bladder and they will reduce the bedwetting.

    If they are heavy sleepers which my boy is then you get the alarm. The brand we got is the malam alarm. The alarm goes off if it gets wet. DS is in charge of the alarm. He tests it each night by putting a wet finger on it. Only he is allowed to turn it off. The alarm goes between a pair of undies and his nappy. When the alarm goes off he has to turn it off and go to the loo (even if there is nothing left he has to go to the loo so his brain makes the connection between loo and alarm). Often parents have to wake the children because they sleep through the alarm. After going to the loo he puts on dry undies and nappy and goes back to sleep.
    We've been using it since last Thursday and on Sunday he stayed dry on his own for the second time ever. The first night he peed 3 times, last night he peed once and he already stops the pee and holds it for the loo when the alarm starts. He's come a long way in a short time.
    The pysio says that the alarm works in 3 weeks for most children when it is used properly. Then after they stay dry for 21 nights in a row you pack it away and if there is a relapse you pull it out again.
    You do need to be positive about it because if the child doesn't want it to work and the parents aren't encouraging it takes longer.

    We saw our GP for the referral but our physio does take self-referral clients.

    Just leaving it is an option but DS wants to be dry overnight because he wants to do sleepovers.
    Last edited by Phteven; April 11th, 2011 at 11:30 AM.

  6. #6
    Registered User
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    Jan 2005
    cowtown
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    Thanks for the information
    DS is pretty random which is what I don't get. He can and regularly does go 5+ night dry in a row. But he can also have 3 wet nights in a row, or a day about.

    He is a heavy sleeper, and he does have issues with constipation, but he also drinks at least a litre of water a day.

    Maybe we need to see a physio too, to get some recommendations for our circumstances. DS wants to have and go to sleepovers but he's starting to get upset about it.

  7. #7
    Registered User

    May 2009
    west NSW
    462

    awww thanks everyone i appreciate it! yeah, i was a night bedwetter as well, up until i was maybe 7 or 8 i think? my parents used the alarm on me. it just sucks that i spent $45 on an alarm that doesn't even go off until he is absolutely soaking, if it goes off at all. i slept downstairs with him a few times, and i would wake up to go to the toilet, think 'oh i better just check him' to see that he's soaking wet and the alarm hasn't gone off at all!!

    anyway....yeh im not pushing it with him, i think i might leave him for a bit longer, and then maybe try again. but he's happy to go to bed in night nappies.

    thanks everyone for your advice

  8. #8
    Registered User

    Sep 2005
    In the middle of nowhere
    9,362

    I'd be sending those sellers a nicely worded email about the quality of their product I think.

    babe. My Miss very nearly 5 only stopped a couple of months ago too. I was so despondent, especially when the MCHN said it was 'abnormal', and yet when you canvas a few parents and they are truthful, there are far more kids that really are the same.
    I agree with Widdly on the familial thing. DH's family are similar. Really letting go of it as a worry of mine was hard. She is a really heavy sleeper too, and if I forget to take her to the loo in the middle of the night she still has accidents. She too was also happy enough in her nappies.
    For us it was an accident. One night I just forgot to tell her to put one on before she went to bed and voila! Only the night before her nappy had been soaked. That teeny bit of confidence was what she needed, but that time I could tell she was ready in herself. Before that it was just for me rather than her belief in herself.