General Chat

When I was a young lad during the 1940s in London we were very poor and lived in a couple of rooms..Mum and Dad did the best they could do for all the kids..3 brothers and 2 sisters but at night time we all slept in the same bed Top and tail !!!!
Trouble was we all peed the bed and on my birthday for a treat dad said..''What end would you like to sleep in tonight son ??

I said ''Please Dad,,could I sleep in the shallow end''

Aitch,

Just to let you know after considering all sides I've decided to use pull ups. I couldn't see anything wrong in using them in the end (unless someone knows a reason for not using them) I thought 5 years old was too old for wetting the bed but reading through makes me realise it isn't. I've been using the pampers mats for a while and thought I could save myself some money by not buying nappies. Unfortunately I am now spending the money on the these mats. I have one washable waterproof cover. maybe need to get another one so when one is in use the other is in the wash. Save some money but these covers aren't cheap. My other cost £40 from mothercare.
I will go to the Doctors but what puts me off is getting an appointment. It's a tricky business.
Star charts were suggested. I used these when I was potty training him but they didn't work. I did the one thing I said I would never do and that was to use chocolate as a reward. But it did work and now he doesn't need chocolate anymore.
last night I did try sitting him on the toilet but he didn't wee. Instead he wet the bed twice in the night. sigh! Didn't make a big deal. Just changed him and the bed and gave him a goodnight kiss.
Decided to not cut out drinks. I can't do it.
This will be my last post on here but thought I'd let you know what I was going to do.

Thanks to you all
Janet
xxxx

Shirley & Caz & Tina, after reading all the replies I even considered going back to the night time pull ups because i couldn't really see a problem with them. maybe peer pressure did it. I suppose the prob came if he went away with school.

Sue, maybe I won't do the lifting after all! :-)

Webster, thanks for your advice too. The school nurse is based at out Drs surgery. They don't have them at school all the time liked they used to do they?

I'm replying slowly to all. gotta go again get kids. back later

Janet xx

Wow! I didn't expect so much advice. And with both sides of the argument. That's why I love popping on here.
Anyway back to the topic.
Paul, To my knowledge he isn't being bullied. I talk to him daily and ask him how who he's played with and how he has been. I'll ask him again though just to make sure. He finishes school fri.

Suzanne, would never have thought of doing that.

Going to answer you all gradually. Post again soon.

Janet xx

I found that when I swapped my son's bed around..either within the same room or swapped rooms, it seemed to disorientate him a bit and he woke more easily to go for a pee..he was 5 and 1/2 at the time.

Suzanne

I agree with maryjane-sue..
It could be an emotional thing. Rather than a pyhsical.
Maybe has a problem at school....bullying?
Or even yourself..Are you having a stressful time of things at the moment?..It can transfer to the kids.
Worth looking into.

Good Luck
x

"Do go to the doctor, but ..in my opinion... don't take it to school"

Just to clarify...when i said speak to school nurse, i didn't mean the lady that works in the medical room at school.. each and every school child in a state school is allocated a school nurse who works for the local health authority in exactly the same way that ever pre school child has a health visitor. School nurses are usually based at community clinics and if you dont know their number your health visitor is the person to speak to to get it. One point though is that most school nurses only work term time so will be breaking up today. we have only one school nurse that works all year round and she covers emergency issues of all the others eg child protection in the holidays, so september would be your best bet. In my area it is the nurses that order the alarms etc so certainly worth a phone call xx

Hi Janet,

Im just going to read the thread as it is of great interest to me. 3 of mine were dry by 3, one by 5, but my 9 year old is still soaked every night, bar the odd one. He has just been on his first over night school trip and was so worried.

He wears pull ups. He has been to the clinic and was given a nasl spray, it did no good at all, I believe the next step is a bed alarm.

Out of 24 children that went on the trip, aged 8 to 11, 3 have continence problems at night.

Good luck as I know how you feel!! btw we have found limiting fluids and lifting has not helped.


Caz xx

You can buy those older kiddie nappies which go up to 9 years of age I think, but with a five year old you could just as easily get the biggest pull ups (shops own make), a bag would last a few weeks, much better than washing sheets every day and no wet pj's, so lessons the embarrassment for your boy. It will just be you and him that knows he wears them. I agree with Forgetmenot about refusing them drinks before bed time and this has recently been agreed with by health peeps, and as you say it is cruel if they are thirsty. Also as others have said big praise when dry and just ignore when wet. He will get there in the end. shirley.xx

Hi again,
I didn't think about going to the Doctors about this as I didn't think it was that much of an issue.
Thank you for the web site address. I'll take a look when I've got some more time.
The school nurse isn't much good from what Ive heard so I am loathe to approach her.
My son loves orange juice and fresh orange juice. Maybe that's where I have been going wrong. He loves melon too. I wonder if that is a diuretic too. However even before he started drinking fresh juice he was still wetting the bed.
From reading all your replies I think I am best going to the doctors and take it from there. just to make sure. I am also going to have to hide those fruit shoots I bought and try and monitor what he's drinking. I haven't done it so far.
As there are so many ideas I will post again later. I've got jobs I need to do and I want to reply more but not got time. i didn't expect so many replies.
thanks again. i'll try and pop back later on. if not will be tommorrow.
Thanks to you all.
Janet xx

Janet,,

You will find you can take him out of bed gently with out too much talking,,,,,,,sit him dont stand on the loo and he will possibly go..put him back to bed undisturbed and he wont remember a thing,,,,,,,,,:}}}

Def worth a star for a dry bed,,but dont make a big fuss of a dry bed either as if he does have wet patch the little man will feel awful...

Hi everyone,
In reply to all on the first page (will post again in reply to second page in a mo) thank you to you all for replying and for your brilliant ideas.
I didn't realise that boys could possibly wet their bed until quite late on. I was very surprised as 9 years old was said even older than that. I thought 5 years old was quite old to be wetting the bed.
I did make the mistake of making a bit of a big deal of it and know I shouldn't have done. I won't in future.
I'd like to reply to you all individually but it will take me awhile and I'm worried my computer will switch itself off again.
I take on board what you all said and the pitfalls of some things tried.
I'm going to have ago at waking him up before going to bed and sitting him on the toilet.
I use pampers mats on the bed but going through lots of them.
I'll try the praising for a dry bed. In fact I'll make a note of all ideas and try each if one doesn't work.
I have a daughter who was completely dry by about 4. She did wet her bed the odd time but not as much as my son.
I'll go read page 2 now and reply once read through.
Many thanks again
Janet xx

Interesting. All mine except the baby (3 y 4m), were dry by 2 1/2. The smal boy was in hospital over Easter and my daughter suggested we try him through the night in there. He was fine (maybe because he was a little dehydrated) and continued being fine until the last week of May, then we had wet beds for a week. Whats worse is some nights he comes into our bed about 4am and one night, when I was half asleep I lifted him in, wet pjs etc... I wasnt too impressed at myself...LOL

As we were going on holiday a week later I bought some 'pull-ups', he calls them his pj pants. He almost instantly stopped but we kept them on him for the week he was away. When we got back he was grand for a week and then he started wetting the bed again. We are back to the pj pants, that he is not wetting....again!

With my now 10yo, I ued to wake him when we were going to bed and lift him into the bathroom, make him stand for a wee (so he knew what was going on) and take him back to bed.

I think both boys are like their Dad in that they sleep walk & talk so I dont think this helps in this situation.

I wouldnt restrict fluids too much either. Jamie has about 50ml of water just before bed if he wants it. Normally he has had enough with his evening supper and doesnt request a bed time drink.

You might want to check with your GP just to be sure and 'flag' it as a possible problem so that if you do need a referal in the future you have a proven history of trying to seek help.

Good luck,

love Theresa

I had the same problem with my 5 year old earlier this year. Read in a book that alarms were the best but to try a star chart first. I know it sounds silly but i started a star chart and gave her a star whenever she had a dry night. She went from no dry nights to a few a week and within a month was completely dry and still is. I don't know if it would work for your child but it worked for mine, don't know how or why but it did.
Good luck anyway and remember it's still normal to be wet at 5 years old.

Karen x

i was told that drinking orange juice at night acted as a diuretic,

think no drinks after 6-00 and not orange juice as the last drink before bed might help....

Having had two who did and two who did not wet the bed, I disagree with the lifting.
the are still half asleep and my daughter still wet the bed... after me lifting her.

My doctor told me NOT to stop the drinks as it actually aggravates the bladder.
There are so many theories, but it does not stop a bed wetter wetting the bed.
A rubber sheet will not MAKE THEM think it is okay to wet the bed.

And most of all NEVER EVER chastise them for it.
They are not doing it to annoy you and they are upset about it themselves... no need to make it worse for them.

Do go to the doctor, but ..in my opinion... don't take it to school.

Good luck with it all of you and the best I can say is, they are not doing for spite, and they will grow out of it in time.

Deanna X

For more advice check out ERIC (Education and Resources for Improving Childhood Continence)

http://www.eric.org.uk/

they have a great leaflet about bed wetting under the parents section, click on information packs and it is available there as a PDF named 'Bed Wetting Guide'

have you mentioned it to the doctor, sometimes it can be a medical problem, my advise like the others say dont make a big thing of it, It must be awful for him.

Hiya.....see you already have lots of advice so i hope you dont mind me poking my nose in too lol

first thing to remember is that it is really really common and most PCT's (School Nurses & Health visitors) dont consider it a problem until your child reaches the age of 7 years, statistics show that
* One in six five-year-olds suffer with it
* One in seven seven-year-olds
* One in 11 nine-year-olds
Children learn how to control their bladder themselves. There is very little, if anything at all, that parents can do to 'teach' a child how to 'hold it'

Some kids just cant do anything about it so it is important not to show your cross, just be matter of fact 'oh dear well lets get you changed' no blame, no feeling ashamed or your child may start to try and hide the fact they have wet in the night

It is worth chatting to your school nurse but as i said at the beginning usually only if a child is still wetting the bed at the age of 7 will they intervene. Then there are various ways they can help, including an alarm that has already be mentioned by someone else.

xx

someone mentioned the buzzer alarm that you can get so i would ask the doctor about that, where you can get it etc.

My daughter wet the bed every night until she was five, then she had measles and she completely stopped, i can only think that the temperature made her a bit hydrated so she didn't need to go and she formed the habit of not going.

Ann
Glos