6 year old still wetting bed every night

I'm posting this about my friends son, she is starting to get very worried about him, I have no kids and just anecdotes about other friends kids.
Anyway her son is 6 and a half, 7 in September this year. He was always a late starter so to speak, didn't talk until nearly 4, still goes to speech etc. He also didn't take to toilet training at all. In fact it was only when he was starting school & was kind of told he had to lose the nappies before school that he actually started using the toilet.

The problem is night time, if he doesn't wear a nappy he still wets the bed. She can get him up during night for the toilet, he always goes but still wets the bed.

He went 35 nights dry recently, up until 2 weeks ago, now he is back wetting the bed every night. Nothing happened around that time, as far as she is aware.
She is just so down now and very worried, not to mention frustrated.

Anyone here go through anything like this? Did it work out? Any idea what the problem was?

Popescu

Some children have a very low tolerance for cow's milk which makes them wet the bed during sleep. Cutting it out might help.

December2012

She should bring him to GP to rule out or investigate any urinary / kidney / bladder issues.

100200 shih

My guy was 8 before he stopped and he had pulled ups going to bed every night till he stop. My doc was not too concern about the bed wetting.He is now 12 & there is no problems. My daughter was out of nappy's by 3.5, day & night,each child is different.

Dozen Wicked Words

Good suggestions already by other posters, but maybe the lad is just a very deep sleeper.

My 6 year old son still wets bed at night, maybe 2 or 3 times a week, he can have a run where he wets for a few consecutive nights. He's a bright, normal lad, I'm not in the least bit worried about his bed wetting, nor is he. We get him up in night to no avail. Don't like him using the pull ups, too much like nappies, so we use the white squares that huggies or pampers make for the bed. I was the lad the OP mentions age, bit older even, and was still wetting the bed. Grew out of it soon after and am not embarrassed about it, I think it affects more kids than people might think.

If he was having nightmares or stress related bed wetting I would be more concerned, but he could be wetting because he gets into a nice deep sleep?
I would definitely recheck if he was worried by anything that had or is happening, otherwise I wouldn't worry too much.

Nonoperational

It's quite normal, just make sure any underlying things are ruled out and he will grow out of it and there is nothing to worry about.

Thanks everyone, good to know that it does go on with other kids his age and older.

She just thought they had turned a corner when he went 6 weeks without bedwetting!
Hopefully it will get better soon.
The gp told her they won't begin to investigate unless he is over 7 years old.

Roselm

bubblypop wrote: »

Thanks everyone, good to know that it does go on with other kids his age and older.

She just thought they had turned a corner when he went 6 weeks without bedwetting!
Hopefully it will get better soon.
The gp told her they won't begin to investigate unless he is over 7 years old.

Yeah the PHNs will do a schedule with mum and the child once they're 7 as far as I know.I think it involves gradually getting the bladder used to more and more liquid (as this is what happens overnight).Seeing as he's so close to 7 it might be worth your friend ringing the local health centre and getting back in contact with her baby nurse as they might be able to give some advice at this stage?

paperclip2

She could ask her GP for a referral to a the local Enuresis clinic. My lad was still wetting every night at age 7 and was referred last October. It turns out he had an overactive bladder that was also a little bit small for his age. We had a lovely nurse who gave lots of reassurance and our treatment programme involved increasing his fluid intake on a daily basis, avoiding certain types of drinks and taking cranberry juice twice a day to calm the overactivity. Every four weeks we had to monitor his input and output over a two day period to see if bladder capacity had increased.

Another problem with our chap was anxiety. He felt a lot of stress over bed wetting and this just made it worse so he needed lots or reassurance that it wasn't a big deal and that he was working really hard on making it better. We were also advised to take him out of pull-ups which we did.

It took about three months but he is dry now about 27 nights in 28 and his confidence is so much better. It took time and a lot of extra bed sheets but it really worked.