my 12 year old son still wets the bed are diapers a good idea?

Question

his doctor suggested this i allredy have a plastic sheet protecting the matress the doctor think its just slow bladder groth i had the same thing till i was 15

Answer 1

They will help the bed from getting wet. But I suggest you take him to a Urologist or a Psychologist to see what is causing the problem.

Answer 2

You didn't mention specifically if he has always wet the bed or if this is something new. If he has always wet the bed, then why are you waiting until now to question whether to use diapers or not?

I would suggest a "pull up" type of pants as opposed to a diaper. At least this wouldn't seem so much like being a baby and he might handle it better emotionally. I would think waking up in a dry bed would be better for him mentally than to continue waking up soaked every morning.

If this is a new thing that is happening, then I agree with others that you probably should take him to a psychologist or similar doctor besides just the medical doctor, there may be some underlying reason for him doing this.

Most importantly, don't make a big deal out of it, don't embarass him any more than he probably already is. This age is very delicate in that respect and anything you do that will traumatize him will just carry forward to later in life.

You also may need to consider that if this is a new thing, maybe he wants to wear diapers for some reason. Sit down with him and talk it out, don't be judgemental. If he really is wanting to wear them, find out why, maybe let him do it for a while and see what happens. He may just decide that this isn't what he really wants after all. It could be just a phase.

Good luck, I wish you both well.

Answer 3

With all due respect to the doctor, you will need to take him to a specialist. Sometime doctors are not able to understand ALL the issues within fields out of their reach. You will most certainly need to take him to a urologist to see if there are any medical issues to contend with, and what you can do. knowing that it is a medical problem and that there is a cure or hope can give your son, who is probably mortified, a boost of confidnece. Your urologist can also tell you if there is no medical problem, in which case you need to think about taking him for therapy to dicover any emotional baggage which can be causing this. In all events, you should seriously consider a phycologist to help him overcome the shame which he undoubtfully feels. Did you know that a large percentage or serial killer were teased for bedwetting and that support and concern may have helped them avoid becoming what they became. You have to be careful to show him your love and to avoid letting him see your frustraion. A phycologist will certainly help in this regard. I would definitely not use the diapers, but a sheet is a good idea. Avoid situations which will cause him shame, such as sleep away camp or pajama parties. Best of luck!

Answer 4

There are pills out there to help that .If I can remember correctly, they are called DVAP. Well it is something like that.Ask your doctor about them. My son is also twelve and he finally stopped just a few months ago. Please don't put him in diapers or depends. If any of his classmates find out, they will tease him and it will hurt him so bad. My son had a little boy stay the night and the little boy said he wore them too, so my son felt comfortable and went ahead and wore one. The next school day the little boy told all the kids and he lost a lot of friends. They teased him for a very long time. This was last year and he still is effected by this.So please don't put him in them. Talk to your doctor about the pills because they really did help. I hope I have helped you.If you have any more questions, feel free to contact me.Good luck!

Answer 5

Talk 2 him. Is he having problems in school. Is he being bullied. Maybe a plastic sheet under the mattress cover would be ideal. Do not make an issue out of it find out the underlying cause

Answer 6

No. He won't wear them and it's going to scar him for life. (But then again, he is your son. Ask him.) Perhaps he has some kind of bladder infection? At 12, he should be potty trained.

(My brother wasn't potty trained till he was 11. He eventually grew out of it. Maybe it's just a phase.)

Good Luck!

Answer 7

no, but it may be wet dreams at this point

If it truly is a wetting problem you need to take him to a dr. as it may be something serious underlying this. Have it checked out.

Answer 8

no way. it would hurt his feelings not to mention embarass him. buy a waterproof mattress cover for his bed and make sure he has lots of clean dry clothes to change when he needs to.

Answer 9

How upset does he get by waking up wet? How much does he do to take care of the mess on his own? Is it every night or just sometimes?

Diapers...no. Goodnights or maybe a more "adult" product might be helpful. Talk to your son and see how he would feel about it. If he is sick of waking up in a puddle each night and having to change his sheets and clothes? He might appreciate a good night's sleep.

Is this a new problem or has it been going on for a while? Has the doctor suggest anything else to help him? Has he had any tests like a urinalysis or an ultrasound? Get a referal to a urologist and make sure nothing physical is wrong. If he hasn't been tested yet, have a urinalysis and an ultrasound done. Consider putting your child under chiropractic care.

Here is my son's story -

Our stuggle with enuresis

Keithen turned 7 years old in February and still wets the bed at night and sometimes has accidents during the day. Here is a little about our journey with enuresis.

When my son turned 5 he was bedwetting every night and having at least one, usually more, accidents each day. Our family doctor did a urinalysis to make sure he didn't have any infections or anything and that came back normal. He referred us to a urologist. The urologist put him on Ditropan. He also ordered an u/s. I filled the perscription and waited a bit, unsure if I wanted to give it to him. We decided to wait on the u/s, feeling pretty sure that this was not physical but instead a discipline one. (Didn't care if he was wet...wouldn't stop what he was doing to go...engrossed in play...we saw a pattern to when accidents happened...etc.)

That wasn't working so we tried the meds - I think we did a total of 3 doses of Ditropan. He HATED it. There was no pretty color or flavoring to it to make it palatable to kids. It smelled very strong and tasted nasty. The side effects were horrible. He would get dizzy and he fell asleep in the middle of the day. With the start of Kindergarten coming up soon, I felt the side effects were unacceptable. I didn't want him getting sleepy like that when he was in school and he was simply not himself on the medication. We stopped them - like I said I think we tried 3 doses. We struggled through the rest of the year on our own.

Around his 6th birthday, someone on the Mothering boards suggested chiropractic to me as a treatment for enuresis. We were open to the idea and decided it was worth a try. Through a network of local mothers, we found a chiropractor with special training in treating kids.

We started treatments 3 times per week. This did seem to help. The first time that he woke up dry, I honestly cried. I was so happy for him to see that he was making progress. And I was so relieved that maybe we had found an answer. At our next appointment I had to choke back tears of joy and relief as I told our chiropractor our good news. I even asked to give him a hug because I was so deeply grateful for the help he had given my son.

Shortly after staring treatment, he was waking up dry about once every two weeks - a huge accomplishment compared to how things had been! And his number of daytime accidents decreased. Around this same time we had a checkup with our family doc and with his urologist. We refused to try the meds again because of the side effects. We reported that the chiropractic treatment was helping and agreed to do an ultrasound. The ultrasound came back normal.

As his chiropractic scans got better and his accidents decreased, his visit frequency decreased. After a couple of months of chiropractic treatment, our chiropractor suggested that we try DHA supplements. These made a HUGE difference for us. This was probably the point that nighttime accidents went down to once a week or so. Daytime accidents at this point were reduced to ones that seemed undeniably behavioral (only wetting while playing on the computer). We were doing so much better!

You may wonder why the DHA supplements were recommended and how they help. Children with enuresis have increased levels of prostaglandin E2 and nitric oxide. Omega-3 fatty acids are known to inhibit the synthesis of prostaglandin E2 and renal nitric oxide. Bed-wetting children have an underdeveloped region of the brain that controles nighttime micturition (as noted by their inappropriate startle response). Omega-3 fatty acids play a critical role in the development of and function of the CNS including micturition control and startle response. Nations with the lowest prevalence of bed-wetting children consume more than double the fish/seafood as compared to the nations with the highest prevalence of bedwetting children.

A week before his 7th birthday, I was frustrated once again. He had backslid. He was no longer cooperating with taking his DHA and he was wetting the bed almost every night. (He still wears pullups to bed.) He had been having a daytime accident several days per week again. I still think those are mostly behavoral - tied in to computer/gameboy/etc. - activities where he is super focused. Chiropractic visits are now only once every 2 weeks as his body looks good, so I don't think the increase in accidents was due to a physical problem.

We have gone through periods of taking his Gameboy away waiting for him to go a week with no daytime accidents. A month after he turned 7, things seemed to be looking up. He was having occasional dry nights and was having more dry days than wet ones.

I think I do need to get him back on the DHA on a regular basis as the drop in the DHA levels in his body may be creating some of our problems (at least the night-time part). I may have to find ways to sneak it into his food if he continues to avoid taking the pills. We had to stop seeing the chiropractor back in April because we couldn't afford it anymore. He has definately regressed since then. :-( I wish we couldn afford to go back to regular adjustments.

Last year in Kindergarten he only had 2 or 3 accidents at school all year long. This past year, in first grade, I think he had 2 or 3 accidents at school which were "giggle pees" when he was laughing too hard with a friend in gym class and at a class party. I'm relieved that it hasn't been a big problem for him at school. I remember that my cousin was "that kid" in grade school who was always being sent to the class for clean clothes. I remember the stigma that it can carry to be the "stinky kid" who wets his pants. I am thankful that he doesn't seem to be dealing with that at school.

I hope our experience helps some other families out there who are struggling with this problem. I know I am eternally grateful that we found chiropractic and the DHA supplements to help our son instead of going the traditional medical route with the prescription drugs.

Answer 10

give him,her confidence,give iron and bcomplex preparations, it will surely help.dont give him water to drink 1 hour before bed