Advice needed re. 8-yr old still in nighttime pull-ups

[Anonymous]

Try a bedwetting alarm. Our ped said it was very effective.

[Anonymous]

Underlying constipation even if they are going to the bathroom everyday is usually one of the big factors and one of the first that should be fully ruled out. (note: sometimes this is correlated to other medical issues). That can take over a month to "fix" and get the muscles back in condition. Different doctors recommend different approaches with miralax. Some of the books of this subject recommend a lot at once for first weekend, others cap a day twice a day (am & pm). Some doctors are not concerned what liquid you mix it with. my kids will tell you needs to be very cold and stirred well. They don't like it. I wouldn't do water but something that is a bit better to drink. You don't have to worry about right before bed - especially on low dosages (cap 2x a day). Even on the large dosages - just would just make sure that that they can access the bathroom during the day. Its why best to start on a weekend (friday night) . Make sure they drink plenty of fluid with it - which may sound counterintuititive, but it can dehydrate.

The things that work for training for most kids under 5 years old - do not usually work for this. Highly agree, You should research this and read the book -its no accident - on amazon. Understanding medically what may be the cause is important and will help with a child this age so they understand they are treating this medically. The alarm definitely is very helpful, but if there are underlying conditions, it can be frustrating so you may want to sequence this.

[Anonymous]

Op, did you ever try to night train the child? It's not clear from what you said. Before I went through all kinds of medical interventions, I'd either try removing the pull ups (which may have become a convenient habit for him --as they did for my son) or try the bed wetting alarm. As for removing the pull ups -- my son had simply never learned to not pee where he was in bed (in his pull ups) b/c there was no downside. Once we let him experience the downside by putting him in underwear, he learned to drag himself to the bathroom in a week. When he was learning--and peeing in bed, we got him up, turned on the lights, had him help change the sheets and change clothes and he got the idea that it was a lot of effort to clean up if he peed in bed....with in a few days, he stopped peeing in bed and the pull ups were gone and bed was dry every night. The pull ups were just giving him an easy way to stay in bed. (Make sure there is enough light that the child isn't afraid to get up --sometimes it's a fear of the dark that keeps kids in bed when they have to go.)

The next thing to try is the bed alarm.

At this point it's not clear if you son can't wake up or just hasn't had a reason to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Even the daughter wearing them at 6.5 is a red flag. Unless there is something physically or mentally wrong, this simply shouldn't be happening.

The American Academy of Pediatrics says that 20% of 5-year-olds, 10% of 7-year-olds, and 5% of 10-year-olds may still wet the bed. What do you know that they don't?

http://patiented.aap.org/content2.aspx?aid=5444

Yes, and since it runs in families, it makes total sense that brother and sister would both be late night trainers.

My DS was in pullups until almost 8. What we did, over the summer, is put him in PJs, then wake him up about 11 or midnight to use the bathroom before we went to bed. A summer of that, and he was dry by the school year, even though he'd been wet ever night before we started the midnight waking.

(I was a bedwetter, so I knew not to be alarmed, and that he wasn't being lazy. He was simply a hard sleeper, as am I.)

[Anonymous]

Ferber actually has a good chapter on bedwetting. There are training methods (like alarms) that might work well. Personally I would go for those before giving Miralax unless you have reason to be sure that he actually is constipated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Even the daughter wearing them at 6.5 is a red flag. Unless there is something physically or mentally wrong, this simply shouldn't be happening.

The American Academy of Pediatrics says that 20% of 5-year-olds, 10% of 7-year-olds, and 5% of 10-year-olds may still wet the bed. What do you know that they don't?

http://patiented.aap.org/content2.aspx?aid=5444

That this lady has a problem if all her kids are peeing the bed at that late age.
And the lady is awful slow at addressing the problem.
That in her post, OP says she figured her DS would get it together after her DD did so.
Not very proactive parenting of an obvious issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Even the daughter wearing them at 6.5 is a red flag. Unless there is something physically or mentally wrong, this simply shouldn't be happening.

The American Academy of Pediatrics says that 20% of 5-year-olds, 10% of 7-year-olds, and 5% of 10-year-olds may still wet the bed. What do you know that they don't?

http://patiented.aap.org/content2.aspx?aid=5444

"May still wet the bed" is miles from "wakes up with a soaked pull-up every night." The former implies occasional accidents that are totally normal. The latter is clearly a huge developmental issue.

Do they even make pull-ups that are bigger than 4T/5T?

OP you need to take your son to a urologist and GI specialist. This is very outside any realm of normal.

[Anonymous]

I wet the bed until I was 9 yrs old. My father apparently did too. It runs in families. I was just a very heavy sleeper and even if I didn't have anything to drink after dinner, I still did it. The bed wetting alarms didn't completely work for me. I remember having to wake my mom up at night to have her help me change my sheets. I finally stopped doing it. It isn't something the child can control.

[Anonymous]

My kid takes Miralax everyday (due to low muscle tone) to keep him from being constipated. Ask a doctor to recommend a dose for you.
My child is 40 lbs and gets 2 tsp. of Miralax in 6-8 oz. of chocolate milk. Just one month ago, he was getting 2.5 tsp/day, but things changed and we had to reduce the amount. (poops coming out too fast). He had been on 2.5 tsp for about 3 years, so I guess things change as you grow up.

He is 7 now and can tell us what is up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Even the daughter wearing them at 6.5 is a red flag. Unless there is something physically or mentally wrong, this simply shouldn't be happening.

The American Academy of Pediatrics says that 20% of 5-year-olds, 10% of 7-year-olds, and 5% of 10-year-olds may still wet the bed. What do you know that they don't?

http://patiented.aap.org/content2.aspx?aid=5444

That this lady has a problem if all her kids are peeing the bed at that late age.
And the lady is awful slow at addressing the problem.
That in her post, OP says she figured her DS would get it together after her DD did so.
Not very proactive parenting of an obvious issue.

All two of her kids, of whom one isn't actually.

Our kid #1 wasn't dry at night until 8. No constipation. No pull-ups. Not "lazy". No issues. She just peed in her bed at night, unless we got her up around 11 pm to pee in her sleep. And then she got older and stopped doing it. No urologist. No GI specialist. No bedwetting alarms. She just got older.

Our kid #2 was consistently dry at night at 19 months, including getting up in the night to pee.

I don't take "parenting" credit for the second kid, I don't take "parenting" blame for the first.

[Anonymous]

My oldest was completely dry, day and night, at age 3.5.

My youngest was completely dry by day by age 3 but continued to wet the bed, every night, regardless of what he wore to bed, whether he drank anything before bed, and whether we woke him to pee in the night, until he was almost 8.

My brother was an occasional bed wetter until about the same age. My father was a regular bed wetter until puberty. Not even his father's ridicule and spankings made a difference.

The alarm worked for my son.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Try a bedwetting alarm. Our ped said it was very effective.

We had a friend whose kid was a heavy sleeper. This worked wonders.

Also get a sheet protector for the mattress.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Try a bedwetting alarm. Our ped said it was very effective.

Absolutely. Google Wet Alert or Wet Alarm. Works like a charm ini just a couple of weeks.

[Anonymous]

My ten year old still wets the bed. He sleeps through the alarm. When we wake him to use the bathroom, he isn't fully awake...it's like sleepwalking. He's such a heavy sleeper.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It depends on his height and weight. When we did it, it was 7 capfuls into 32 ounces of liquid drunk over 24 hrs but this was for a five yr old.

You should buy the book, It's no accident..., on Amazon. There is a kindle version too and it has the formula for clean outs. GL!

I agree. Based on recommendations from DCUM, I got the book and found it very informative and helpful. I like that it's science based. It's done wonders for our DS. Also, I don't know why the PP recommended against Miralax. It's a near miracle.