Bedwetting EVERY night at 7 years old

[Computermama]

I'm dealing with this with my 5 year old. She does have the odd dry night, but not even one every month. My 9 month old has more dry nights than her big sister. If she falls asleep she'll pee. I've tried eliminating drinks, but DH forgets and so does she. Even waking her up in the middle of the night is hit and miss - half the time waking her up 2-3 hours after bed she'd be wet already, and frequently even if she was dry when I got her up and she went on the toilet, she'd still wet between then and morning. Its an exercise in frustration.

She's an extremely deep sleeper. I could probably have a dance party in her bedroom and she'd either not wake up or she'd not remember it in the morning. She gets that from her Daddy. Also I remember being old enough to change my own sheets and bedwetting, so she comes by it honestly.

[mmmom]

Originally Posted by DesertRat Honestly, we haven't really tried anything. I suggested not drinking water before bedtime but we haven't been consistent with that. And the couple times we tried to wake him up to go to the bathroom he just won't wake up. Because of the way he pees automatically anytime he falls asleep, I've assumed it's mostly out of his control. I haven't wanted to discourage him by setting him up to fail. But maybe that's been the wrong approach.

I don't think it is the wrong approach at all. We don't want our children to fail, especially at something they honestly cannot do. When we tried the calendar with my dd she was occasionally staying dry so I knew she would be able to get at the very least 7 dry nights out of 30.
I myself was a bed wetter and can remember being in my teens and still having the occasional accident. It was horrible but honestly there was nothing I could do about it.
I think it sounds like the only thing you can do right now is make sure he is using the toilet right before bedtime and then try waking him in an hour or two. Our doctor suggested waking after an hour, when they started staying dry after that hour, wake them after 2 hours and so on.
Good Luck I know how frustrating it is from both sides

[DesertRat]

I talked to him this morning and said that we could take him to the doctor to see if there's something he can do it help. BUT, that the doctor would ask what we had done to try to help him first. He said, "I haven't really tried anything." He admits that when he wakes up in the morning he'll just pee in his underjams, so he said he'd stop doing that. He also said sometimes he wakes up at night but just pees in his underjams. (I'm not sure how often that really happens though). He said he'd start getting out of bed. And, we're going to try to be consistent about about stopping fluids at about 5pm. I told him I'd pay him 50cents for every morning he's dry since that's how much underjams cost, roughly.

So, we'll try this for a few weeks. And then reevaluate and take him into the doctor. At the very least, if he peed LESS in his underjams it would be a relief as he soaks blankets and sheets a couple times a week.

[mmmom]

Originally Posted by DesertRat I talked to him this morning and said that we could take him to the doctor to see if there's something he can do it help. BUT, that the doctor would ask what we had done to try to help him first. He said, "I haven't really tried anything." He admits that when he wakes up in the morning he'll just pee in his underjams, so he said he'd stop doing that. He also said sometimes he wakes up at night but just pees in his underjams. (I'm not sure how often that really happens though). He said he'd start getting out of bed. And, we're going to try to be consistent about about stopping fluids at about 5pm. I told him I'd pay him 50cents for every morning he's dry since that's how much underjams cost, roughly. So, we'll try this for a few weeks. And then reevaluate and take him into the doctor. At the very least, if he peed LESS in his underjams it would be a relief as he soaks blankets and sheets a couple times a week.

Sounds like a good place to start.

[countrySt]

My 7 year old still wets the bed and the doc said it was a sleep problem. He sleeps to deeply. Bed wetting alarm won't work for him either.

[Suzi]

dsd stopped wetting just before her eigth bday. And it was because she was such a hard sleeper. You could turn the lights on, change the sheets and she would have no idea. At other people's houses she didn't sleep as hard so she didn't have accidents. You could tell she was tired the next day tho.

[SillyLily]

Both my girls wet the bed until 6. It was very frustrating, and I felt like it was because they sleep so hard (really hard!). But it got to the point where they were obviously wetting more than once at night because it would leak out and make the bed stink. We began to suspect that there might have been a little bit of laziness involved.

What worked for us? Bribery. They each swore up and down that they "didn't wake up" to go pee at night, but low and behold, bribery worked within a month for both of them. My older daughter was bribed with a very nice new mattress and some toy or another. My younger daughter was bribed with an American Girl doll.

[linz2491]

My son is almost 12 ( next month) and is a nightly peer. So hard

[apboyles]

My son is only 2.5 but I always stop liquids about two hours before bedtime (he does get one last sip/drink before bed) and we always take him to the potty right before laying down so we know he is on empty. I think that some consistency would really help you guys.

[canadianbakers]

Originally Posted by apboyles My son is only 2.5 but I always stop liquids about two hours before bedtime (he does get one last sip/drink before bed) and we always take him to the potty right before laying down so we know he is on empty. I think that some consistency would really help you guys.

I think a 2.5 yr old night training is a lot different than a 7+ yr old who isn't able to stay dry for nights. It may require a lot more than just no drinks after 5pm and go pee before bed.

DS1 has troubles with bed wetting sometimes. It does seem to be getting fewer and farther between but we definitely notice it if he sneaks a bunch to drink after suppertime (especially if it's juice or milk, for some reason?), if he doesn't pee right before getting in bed, or if he's just had a busy day and sleeps really deeply that night.
I also notice that he'll have more bad nights leading up to/during growth spurts - maybe deeper sleeping then too?

DH and I have thought about going to the Dr about it, but because reminding him of these things helps, and because it isn't every night (for example, it has been weeks since the last wet night, but that few weeks ago we had 3-4 nights in a row), we haven't done anything more than reminding him.

I would see if doing anything (like the bribing, paying him for dry nights) helps. If it doesn't, check things out with your Dr and go from there.