I’m going to do something I don’t usually do–namely, put up two separate posts today, because Kristen at We Are That Family is hosting a “backwards edition,” where we ask questions we need answering, and I have a really annoying one.
Can anyone offer me perspectives on a 5-year-old who still has to wear a diaper at night? He’s been checked for hormones and it came back normal. We have, at various times, tried no fluids after 6p.m., no sweets, and getting him up at our bedtime. But none of it works. The doc gave us something called “dry bed training,” but it is so middle-of-the-night intensive that we haven’t had the energy to try it yet.
Perspectives, anyone?
8 Responses
My son had this same problem. A couple of tricks we did. After supper I had him use the bathroom every hour along with no more liquids. He could hold it FOREVER, and it seemed because he could hold it so well, he wasn’t able to get it all out at one time.
Then on top of that we did a buzzer system that I bought online. It helped because it woke him up right as he went just a little bit. The first night, he would keep going, but hubby and I would wake him up and then by the 2nd or 3rd night he would wake himself up.
The kit thing said it could take 6 months! YIKES!!! But, by doing both of those things he kicked it in 3 nights!
I sure hope this works for you! I’d love it if you’d drop by my blog and let me know if it helps then. Wait for a weekend, when both you and your husband are able to help, because we were sooooooo tired after that first night!
Yes, the tired is the trouble factor–b/c the little ones still get us up at night as it is. :/
I’m Stephanie… I have 5 kids and only one of them was dry at night right after being potty trained. My oldest (boy) wasn’t dry at night til he was 7. My 7yr (girl) is still not dry at night. I will tell you what my Ped. told me. First it is hereditary so if you, your hubby or even grandparents were bed wetters it’s in the genes. Also if your little one is a hard sleeper then he can’t feel the need to go…so in his relaxed sleep state…he goes. We can literally pick our kids up and move them from one spot to another and they won’t wake up. I was worried that if we used a pull up at night we were enabling ours to go in bed, but the Dr. said if they sleep that hard they don’t know what they have on so it doesn’t matter. The feeling of having to go potty isn’t strong enough to wake them. And lastly hold me that they (Dr.s) don’t really concider it a problem till around 9 years old. So we haven’t doen anything medical yet b/c they all stopped around 7ish. I know it can be gross, but I would encourage you not to make a big deal of it to your little one. It isn’t usually something they can control, and so it can be a sensative issue for them. We just act like it’s normal around here. We do limit drinks after diner and “go” right before bed. But we don’t make a big deal about it. I hope that is an encouragement to you. And don’t be discouraged by parnets who’s kids are dry all night right away. Sometimes those whose kids don’t struggle with being dry at night don’t understand and look at it as a control issue when it’s really not. Yours will get there. It may just take longer. Have a great week.
I agree with Stephanie…I don’t think at his age of just 5 that it is something to worry too much about. I think he’ll grow out of it.
I also agree with Stephanie. My five-year-old is exactly the same way. He sleeps so heavily that he just can’t wake himself up to go to the bathroom. We’ve tried waking him up at different times in the night and he just can’t wake up! My husband even took him to the bathroom while he was still basically sleeping once. We decided it’s just not worth it right now. Our Dr. has said the same thing Stephanie’s Dr. said. It just takes some kids longer than others.
Okay, all right…maybe this is a lesson in humility for a mother! I guess it’s just that if it happened *once in a while*, it would feel different than every single night. Thanks, everybody.
Oh, Kathleen, I know exactly how you feel! I so wish I could post about this topic, because we have tried EVERYTHING. I have read tons and tons about this topic… But, I don’t want to write about it on my blog out of respect for our sweet 10-year-old daughter.
But, guess what? We have found WHAT WORKED for our daughter!!! Good news!!! I have 2 friends in town that sent their daughters to a chiropractor, and were “cured” of bedwetting. I knew about this information for about a year before I did anything about it. I just couldn’t get my brain around how a chiropractor could help with bedwetting. (sorry, if any chiropractors are reading this…I just didn’t know!)
Finally, after seeing a Urologist, who put my daughter on lots of medication (which I was NOT interested in long-term, only for camp, and spend-the-nights), I figured I had nothing to lose–but some time and money. My daughter had started being very insecure about the bedwetting, so the money paled in comparison to that.
Okay, I could go on and on…but please FEEL FREE to e-mail me with questions if you want. I will just say that before going to the chiropractor, my daughter was wet 85% of the nights. Within a week or two of chiropractor visits, she went to 95% DRY. And now–she is 100% DRY. It is truly amazing to me. And a real blessing to my daughter’s self-assurance.
Disclaimer…I have no idea if this works for everyone…but it worked for us. Make sure you go to a chiropractor who is knowlegeable about bedwetting. From what I understand, it is a newer technique.
I am very interested in this. Please email me. barjak6@comcast.net