how can i stop my child from wetting the bed?

Answer 1

How old is your child? Bedwetting can be normal up to about age 9. Have you taken him to the doctor? I'd suggest you get a urinalysis and an ultrasound to rule out medical problems. Then I'd suggest you see a chiropractor and start DHA supplements.

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.

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 2

I honestly don't think you can altogether wouldn't it be nice if you could .
You can help your child get better , and eventually grow out of it though .
Here are some hints
Keep the bedding away from the window , as cold night air seeps through glass and curtains causing bed wetting .
Keep an eye on what they drink , no sugary drinks before bed ,and only enough water or milk to wet the whistle . lets say half a small glass .
put a plastic bed sheet down , with a woollen underlay over the top.
Do not growl them if they do wet the bed , I know it can be frustrating . Between midnight and about 2.00am get you child up for a wee . and make sure they go before they go to bed
Use training pants of a night time , they come in large sizes , and at least the child is waking up dry , and you don't have all that washing to do .
Lots of positive reinforcement .
I'm sure Ive got more ideas but that is the basics .
Incidentally my daughter wet the bed regularly until she was eight , she still wets the bed once every 6 months or so usually when she is cold
Good luck but don't expect any miracle to take place overnight .

Answer 3

How old is your child? My son sleeps like a log. NOTHING will wake him up. Bladder urges included. This stopped about 6 months ago and he is almost 8. There are still nights about once every 2 months or so that he'll pee in the bed, but that is because he'll drink alot before bed.

Limit drinks as bedtime nears.
Get a vinyl sheet cover.
If it happens often, wake them up once a night to go.
Do NOT shame them.

I've talked to several doctors, and this is not uncommon, if it's always been this way. If it never did and just started, something else could be wrong. Go to pediatrician.

I had a problem with my bladder and had to have surgery when I was nine, thankfully that's not what happened with my kid. If they're ok medically, they'll grow out of it. Maybe the bladder needed to expand or something - I don't know.

Be patient and let them know that it is not their fault, because it isn't.

Answer 4

It's really hard you can try not giving him or her a drink get them up to the toilet first time before they get into a deep sleep
Depends on the age of the child some one you can just carry to the toilet older one you can just get them up and walk them most of the time they don't remember they got up
You could try to find out if there is any reason (not always a reason) however there might be if there's been a big change going on around them? could be scared of the dark or somethings worry them
I no it's hard sometimes not to get frustrated and upset but best not to show the child this as they may stop for a little then have a relapse
One thing to cling on to they do eventually stop Good luck!

Answer 5

when my daughter wet the bed the doc said don,t stop her drinks as it,ll still happen and when i tried waking her through the night it really upset her trying to make her go the toilet,so i put a plastic sheet on and left her to it then suddenly she just stop doing it and wakes up and now goes to the toilet and she still takes a drink to bed,it took a while but she finally stopped it,if still in doubt talk to a doctor or health visitor as their are special alarms you can get that go off when your child wets the bed

Answer 6

Well what time does your child go to bed? Mine daughter who is 3 goes to bed at 9. She is not allowed to drink anything after 7 and right before bed I have her go to the bathroom. Try that and see if that help.

Answer 7

dont give a drink before bedtime, give it about an hour before, and take your child to the toilet just before getting into bed, try not to make a big issue of it, a lot of children do this or is there a reason the child is frightened to get out of bed during the night, do you leave the bathroom light on, i always did and that helped

Answer 8

My son who is 18 years old now use to wet the bed nightly until he was 11, so every morning at 7;30 am i would wake him up and tell him to jump into a bubble bath i'd run for him. I'd then go into his room, strip his bed and wash it down and re make it. Eventually the bed was dry and he stopped because he wanted to go on a school trip and didn't want to be embarrassed, and he succeeded.

Answer 9

Cut off fluids after dinner...make sure they go before bed...if it is still a problem...you might want to lok into the big kids pull ups...sometimes bed wetting can't be helped. Their bladders don't grow fast enough to keep up, and it results in bed wetting. Don't get angry cause chances are they can't help it

Answer 10

How old is your child? My daughter did it until she was 2 1/2. I would not give her anything to drink after 7pm, and I would send her to potty before bed. Then I would wake her up during the night to go to the bathroom. Finally, she learned when she needed to go at night, and then I started giving her stuff to drink until 8pm. You have to take time with this. It took almost 5 months of washing her pissy sheets everyday. Don't give up, he/she will get it....eventually. But if the problem persists, I would take them to the doctor to have this checked out. Good luck!

Answer 11

how old is your child? Has your child achieved day time but not night time control? If so, it's very possible your child has the genetic condition that results in kids needing a pullup until about age 12. It runs in families. Whatever you do, don't make your child feel bad about this - they don't control it, don't want it. If you've yelled or punished in the past, acknowledge you made a mistake, apologize, and move on wtih pullups.