wetting the bed

Gloria - posted on 11/23/2012

Were you really serious when you said should you beat him ???? REALLY he is sleeping he has no idea what he is doing what's so disturbing about it ... you can buy plastic for his bet that goes under his sheet, if he pees wash his sheet wash his clothes make him take a bath ... WHAT'S THE BIG DEAL ... YES it is a process but damn cut the kid some slack

Laurie - posted on 11/23/2012

I agree with the rest of the posters - it is probably an immature bladder and not something that he has any control over. One suggestion I heard on this site a while back to make midnight clean ups easier and less stressful was to sheet the bed with plastic and sheets twice. i.e. mattress pad/blanket if one is used, then plastic, then a fitted sheet, then more plastic, then another fitted sheet. That way when he wets the bed, you can strip off the top sheet and plastic and dump it in the laundry room to deal with in the morning and underneath is a clean and dry set of sheets and plastic. Saves having to remake the bed in the middle of the night.



You might also try simply waking him up to go just before you retire for the night. I assume he will have been sleeping for 3 hours or so at that point so emptying his bladder then might be enough to get him through the rest of the night without accidents. Wake him up gently, take him to the bathroom without turning on the lights if possible and then straight back to bed with no talking so that you wake him up as little as possible so he can go back to deep sleep fairly easily. Of course if you try this a couple of nights and it doesn't work or he won't go back to sleep afterwards then you may just have to put up with stripping the bed when he does have an accident or having him in pull ups to keep the bed clean. My son, who will be 5 in a couple of weeks still needs pullups every night. He doesn't fight them and when he does wake up dry (couple times a month at the moment) he usually gets a more elaborate breakfast of pancakes as a reward.



Another thing you might want to consider as it appears from your description that he goes for weeks at a time without wetting the bed and then suddenly wetting it again for awhile is to keep track of what else is going on in his life that may be stressing him. Maybe he started a new after school activity that he finds a little scary. Maybe he is having problems at school with the other kids, the teacher or the work at that particular point in time. I used to wet the bed fairly regularly up until the end of grade three as I didn't really fit in with the other kids at school. Grade four was at a different school and the bed wetting stopped pretty much as soon as I started the new school and found that I fit in much better than before.

Dove - posted on 11/23/2012

He's normal. So normal in fact that many peds don't even consider 'treating' a child for this until they are 8. If the bed wetting is consistent... let him sleep in pull ups. If it is just random... stick a folded towel and a spare pair of jammies where he can get to them in his room and he can change his clothes and put the towel over the wet spot until morning... or he can wake you to help him do that.



My oldest was out of night time pull ups (by choice) at 4.5 and I dealt with wet beds on occasion for 4 years. It's really not a big deal. Eventually they either start waking themselves to pee or their bodies mature enough to hold their pee all night. Some kids do this by 2 years old... others not til 12 or later.

Jen - posted on 11/23/2012

Never ever punish im because I guarantee you, he's not doing it on purpose. Anyone who thinks a child does it on purpose has never woken up in a cold, wet bed.



At 6, it is very likely that his bladder simply hasn't matured enough to hold his urine all night long. His pediatrician or a urologist can easily confirm this for you.



Some kids just have bladders that mature more slowly than others. It runs in my family. My great uncle never stopped and the only thing that stopped it for him (till he died) was to sleep sitting up in a chair. My grandmother (his sister) stopped at age 11. My mother stopped at age 10. I stopped at 13, my one brother stopped at 10. My son's father stopped at 16. Trust me, NO ONE does it on purpose. Warnings can't help. Think of it this way, if you had stomach flu and were vomiting, could you really stop it if you were warned not to do vomit? No.



Just reassure him and yourself that he will stop eventually. Invest in plastic sheets. Stick to the alarm system because even if the urinating is at different times, you can get his bladder to start emptying at a more constant time which will make it easier for you and your family. I can never emphasize enough that kids do not do it on purpose, do it for attention or anything else. Eventually he will outgrow it, I promise.

~♥Little Miss - posted on 11/23/2012

*sigh* beating your child is NOT going to stop him from bed wetting, in fact it could make it worse. Clearly his bladder is not signaling his brain yet. This is completely normal. Some kids don't stop wetting the bed until 7-8 years old. His bladder needs to mature. You being disappointed in him won't help either. What will? Making sure he does not feel bad about it. What else? Making sure you are invested in some good water proof liners. There is no need to be disappointed in your child. It is not his fault. Nor is it yours. His body just needs time to catch up.



Punishing him for something that is out of his control is cruel. That is like punishing him for having freckles.

Michelle - posted on 11/23/2012

It's very common, especially if they are heavy sleepers. Sometimes children will wet the bed until they are into their early teenage years.



Make sure you have a good mattress protector so you don't have to air out the mattress all the time but don't punish him for it. He will eventually grow out of it.