bed wetting 5 year old

pinkfloyd34

my five year old girl wets the bed every night, have done a search on it and didnt throw up any threads for kids, googled it and it said it is common enough 1 in 6 kids but they do eventually grow out of it but i just wanted to hear from other parents who have experienced this problem and who might have any tips, i try to get her up every few hours and bring her to the toilet but doesnt work to good, also the google search said it might be cos she is in such a deep sleep or a under developed bladder, im so tired of washing bed clothes, and it isnt doing her confidence much good, just wish there was a solution for us both

Nevyn

Have you taken her to the dr about this?

farmerval

Hiya, our little boy was the same, the thing that worked best was a reward system, he got a star on a star chart for each dry night and after ten stars he got a prize that he had picked out himself. It took time, he's seven now and only has an accident every 3 or 4 months usually when he's been up very late and is exceptionally tired. One thing we noticed was that he was much better away from home, on holidays etc. Now he goes to bed about 9 pm and when we go up around 11 - 12 we take him out to the toilet and that's it for the night. It is noticable now that he's in a much less deep sleep than when he was younger.

littlebug

On a practical note- bed mats. there are pampers and huggies versions of them. The constant washing is tiresome and though the bed mats are expensive I wouldn't be without them now. I leave dry clothes by her bed that she can change into in the night if she needs to and she lifts the bed mat off her bed herself most mornings.
We've tried a lot of things over the last few years (now 7)... lifting, not lifting.... restricting fluids, increasing fluids. We tried desmotabs with limited success. She is well fed up with it herself I have to say and is really at the stage where she wants sleepovers with her friends. Our our next port of call is the public health nurse to see if we can look into any of the bell/ alert things.

I would say that at 5 your daughter is still very young and it may still just come right without intervention but do try to help her not feel bad about it. I'm pretty sure with my girl that it is a bladder problem. We had a lot of difficulties with day time training also.

pinkfloyd34

Thaedydal wrote: »

Have you taken her to the dr about this?

no but will mention it next time im there, thanks for the replies, might try the star chart and if that doesnt work i'll know its abit more serious

BluesBerry

OP it all depends on the child she could be a heavy sleeper

hears how I did it I kept reminding her that she had to get up herself and put emphases on her getting up I woke her up once in the night 3 hours into her sleep (usually around the time she wet) completely woke her up trying to break her sleep pattern she walked in the bathroom with minimal help from me every second night if she did wet I changed her as soon as I could so she didnt like the feeling of wet clothes eventually when she wet it woke her because she was uncomfortable it took 2 weeks for her to wake herself
she gets up in the night but now most nights she sleeps through the whole night dry and she was praised and rewarded for having a dry bed

Thats just my story but every kid is different it takes time and children do this at their own pace you could bring her shopping and let her pick out some bed linen of her favourite cartoon charter and everytime she has a dry night she could get a new cushion/bed accessory for reward so when she is in bed she can be reminded that her new cushion etc was because of a dry night just keep reminding her that she has to get up herself

we'llallhavetea_old

i don't know why but i'm a bit weary of the star chart. if your daughter is wetting the bed every night maybe it would be too distressing for her if she was unable to clock up the ten stars?
i feel for you and you're daughter, definitely see what the doc says. you must be going out of your mind every night, and i imagine its quite distressing for the child. i have my fingers crossed for you both

farmerval

The satr chart is to try and involve kids in a positive way, if she is having any or some dry nights it may help to be positive and rewarding for having good nights. It's involving her in a positive fashion, the reward can be agreed or picked by her and the target can be set at a realistic level. With James it wasn't the bee all and end all, but when he had dry nights it just gave a bigger boost to him. Just as a side note, and again this may only be relevant to James, lately he gets up early on Saturday and Sunday mornings to play his nintendo, this drives us mad as he has to be dragged out of bed for school days, so for the last two weeks he's not allowed play nintendo before 12 o clock, and now he stays in bed 'till 9.00 or 9.30 and gets the sleep in he needs.

pinkfloyd34

trouble is she hasnt had a dry night at all, well one or two but thats only when i did wake her up before she wet herself so the star chart might not be a good thing, just wondering now should i put her in pull ups until she is ready herself or is this taking a backward step and will it achieve nothing? if it is a thing that its deep sleep then why gamble every night that she might get up herself or im lucky to get up and bring to the toilet before she wets herself, i think it is time for the doctors input

we'llallhavetea_old

yep, definitely ask the doctors, ye never know they might have a miracle solution.

maybe put her back in the pull ups, if anything it'll help with the sheet changing. the pull ups keep the sensation of wetness don't they? keep taking her out of the bed though, like, do it a crazy amount of times in a night. just keep chuggin at it, it'll come right eventually.

littlebug

pinkfloyd34 wrote: »

trouble is she hasnt had a dry night at all, well one or two but thats only when i did wake her up before she wet herself so the star chart might not be a good thing, just wondering now should i put her in pull ups until she is ready herself or is this taking a backward step and will it achieve nothing? if it is a thing that its deep sleep then why gamble every night that she might get up herself or im lucky to get up and bring to the toilet before she wets herself, i think it is time for the doctors input

That was the problem we had with the star chart or rewards.... she never actually got any.

Your daughter is still very young though pinkfloyd. I did go to the dr when mine was that age and was reassured that it was all still within the normal range. He did check her urine for infection (negative) and said that if we wanted to try the desmotabs we could. We decided to try one month.... it made little difference so we stopped as the next option was to double the dose and they're very expensive... and I just didn't like the thought of them.

At her school health check when she was six I mentioned it on the form and got a call (or letter- can't remember) saying to contact them again in another year if the issue hadn't resolved itself. I've also heard from others that they generally don't tend to do anything about it until they're 7 or 8 as long as there is no medical problem.

I wouldn't put her back in pullups at that age though.... at 5 she wants to be a big girl so I would think that would feel like a punishment.

we'llallhavetea_old

littlebug wrote: »

That was the problem we had with the star chart or rewards.... she never actually got any.

Your daughter is still very young though pinkfloyd. I did go to the dr when mine was that age and was reassured that it was all still within the normal range. He did check her urine for infection (negative) and said that if we wanted to try the desmotabs we could. We decided to try one month.... it made little difference so we stopped as the next option was to double the dose and they're very expensive... and I just didn't like the thought of them.

At her school health check when she was six I mentioned it on the form and got a call (or letter- can't remember) saying to contact them again in another year if the issue hadn't resolved itself. I've also heard from others that they generally don't tend to do anything about it until they're 7 or 8 as long as there is no medical problem.

I wouldn't put her back in pullups at that age though.... at 5 she wants to be a big girl so I would think that would feel like a punishment.

you're right, never thought of it that way, you don't want her thinkin she's being a hindrince.

Billiejo

Before you do anything else take urine sample to Doc and rule out infection.
Then dont limit her fluid intake or the internal signal line where the bladder learns that it's full wont be recognised by the childs brain.

dory

I'm going to come at this from a different angle as my experience is as the child not the parent.

First of all, medical opinion varies a lot, so take any one doctor's thoughts as another option, not the full picture. Desmotabs worked well for me after I doubled the dosage. I know it's not ideal to give it to someone so young, but I was getting on in years at that stage.
I would have hit my mother if she suggested a star chart. Having a dry night is the best reward of all. It's not like us bedwetters don't realise how terrible it is. I still have nightmares about waking up wet and that smell. Last thing I would have wanted is a chart reminding me of my failures, and I also realised that the dry nights were a complete fluke, I didn't do anything different.
I now know as an adult who has slept through two earthquakes that deep sleeping was my one and only fault. I didn't drink more or less than my brothers, I wasn't too lazy to get and I certainly wanted to be dry.

There's no perfect solution, I would just try everything see what works for you. I never tried the alarm clocks but I really don't think it would work. They take time and over time kids grow out of it anyway. Drunk adults (and sober ones occasionally) do this too, any amount of star charts or alarms would not help the situation as alcohol puts you in a deep sleep. You need to find a cure for deep sleeping.

If I had my time over I would take the bedsheets and Huggies. Talk to the child so she knows it's not a punishment. I'm sure you'll find she'll do anything to be more comfortable in the morning.

Good luck with it, and it's great that you're taking it seriously now at 5.