Garrett has always wet his bed, but lately it has taken a turn for the worse. Now he’s actually sleeping in his urine and soils himself sometimes twice a night. (We've told him on several occasions that it's okay to change his clothes when this happens, but for some reason he prefers to sleep in it.) Two days ago, he got up in the middle of the night and fell asleep on the couch. The next morning I discovered a urine-soaked blanket along with a big couch stain. Even animals don’t sleep in their own urine.
We cut off all liquids by 6:30 pm and NO milk, because we were told it can make kids sleep deeper, which means they might not feel the “urge.” We do wake him up every night before we go to bed for a potty break. It doesn’t seem to help. I know in the orphanage there were caretakers available around the clock at night to watch for “rocking” children. I’m assuming they woke Garrett up before the bedwetting occurred.
Both Bob and I are beside ourselves. Bob is still livid from last night’s episode. I’ve got an appointment with our pediatrician and put a call into our therapist, because we don’t know whether it’s a medical or psychological problem. Help!!!!!!!! Please!!!!!!!!
9 comments:
Don't worry. They do have something they can wear that wakes them when they start to pee. My oldest bio daughter wore a pullup to bed until she started 1st grade (age 6). Our youngest bio daughter still wears a pullup at night and she is 4 1/2. Their pediatrician just said their bodies are still developing and they just weren't ready. He did offer a prescription to help, but by the time school started Olivia was dry, it was like her body was instantly ready to be dry at night. I also try to limit liquids before bed. Claire has even wet herself during nap time.
Has this suddenly come up or has it happened regularly since he's been home? I hope the dr can help you out.
my sister had the same issue with her son when he was 6. I would defintely put him in pull ups at night....but try the alarm thing too. I'm sorry, i know this is frustrating but until he he can learn it on his own, pull ups can be your best friend!
I am so sorry! My sister had a similar issue with her son and he finally grew out of it. Doctor said he was just a really deep sleeper. I think he was 8 or 9 when he quit. He was even too big for the older kid pull ups...I forget what they are called but they do have them for bigger kids. I would try the alarm if you could find it. The doctor can check a few things but otherwise, he may just have to grow out of it. ugh! Maybe just lay out a towel and a change of clothes and tell him that he can cover the spot and change his clothes then maybe have a pallet or sleeping bag at the side of the bed. Maybe if you give him the benefit of the doubt and just show him how to take care of himself when he has an accident, he will take the initiative to at least get out of bed. But, I guess if he is a deep sleeper, he may not know it. I had a friend that could sleep thru some scary/crazy stuff, it is possible. In the mean time, they make some good waterproof mattress covers and maybe just a single easily washable blanket (maybe he could help you do the wash?)to ease your load...bummer about the couch. We have gates up still to prevent Nick from getting anywhere else except bathroom and us...can you block off the living room?
Hope to talk to you by phone soon! :)
Try "Goodnights", they are much better than you avg. pull-up. Both our boys wet the bed. I use a cloth pull-up when we are here at home but use Goodnights if we are away. I have a friend who's child wore some kind of alarm(I forget what it's called) & that helped her stop. A few of my SIL's used to be bed wetters & they finally grew out of it.
I am sorry to hear about the bedwetting it can be frustrating.
My two luckily (got the night time training the same time as day time, I am lucky I know) However my best friends son had a really hard time. He just turned 12 and only stopped in the last year (from 7-11 it would only be 4-5 times a year but still)
The Dr., told her that a) boys are known to have more of a problem with bed wetting than girls b) sometimes their bladder does not grow as fast as their body and hence accidents c) as he got older involve him in the cleaning up process. i.e. get him to help strip the bed, put the laundry on, help re-make the bed d) while it was frustrating as he** for the parents to have these accidents all the time it was not intentional on the childs part to do this.....and for the parents not to take it personal (this is harder said than done but probably true)
Wishing you good luck. My friend was going mad for a long time, she too cut out the drinking at 6 but it did not appear to help.
Yep- I agree with others. I know 2 bio kids who wet the bed well into their early teens regularly, and even occasionally in the late teens. Their parents took them to get them checked out to make sure everything was normal and such. Everything was normal. As for "sleeping in it" or not, it was simply a matter of the kids not really waking up enough to care- it's easier to keep sleeping and clean up in the morning. Nothing wrong or psychological. It was just the way it was. The only "punishment" (if you could even call it that, which it never was), was that the two kids had to wash and change their own bedding. No biggie. Eventually they grew out of it, and it's all fine.
My two cents- don't react. Just teach him how to run the washing machine and dryer, and how to make his own bed. Obviously he'll need lots of help early on, but I believe that the more mad and frustrated you get, the less likely it is to stop.
P.S. Their mother was a bed wetter too until late teens, so that's why it was never treated harshly in that family. Perhaps just a genetic thing?
Again, everyone grew out of it completely by adulthood.
My friend also used the alarm thing when her son was in 1st grade as he still wet the bed. the alarm is something they wear in their underwear and at the first sign of wetness it wakes them up--the idea is to program their brains to recognize the urge. The other part of that system is that the child has to be motivated to want to stop and the child's agreement and participation are key to success. With good motivation from the parent and the child, it does work well.
Seeing a doctor is a good step--when my friend used it, it was recommended by her pediatrician and she only recommended because my frined's son wanted to stop and was frustrated himself that he couldn't.
I wanted to chime in on this with a few ideas.
First try really hard not to get upset. I know it's hard and bed wetting is very frustrating.
Next take him to a pediatric urologist. A medical problem, food allergy, the emotional turmoil of the language difficulty etc could all be contributing.
Some Bladder Exercises that may help.....
Bladder Exercises are designed to train the neuromuscular structures of the lower urinary system. I'll recommend two. The first one is to have Garrett start and stop the stream of urine when he pees. Have him do this several times a day when he goes to the bathroom.
The second one is a potty schedule. What you do is have Garrett go potty every hour the first day or two. Even if he does not have to go. Tell him to try without straining even if it means just standing there for a minute and nothing comes out. The idea is to train his body to eliminate at the toilet. A second nature sort of thing. The next day you go every 90 minutes. Then 2 hours. You get the idea. Work up to having Garrett hold his urine for 5 - 6 hours depending on how much fluid he has taken in. At the end of the exercise the idea is to have him feel what a full bladder feels like and couple this with the elimination in the toilet and the routine of standing in front of the potty. Again we are NOT looking for this to be on a conscious level. We are looking for it to be second nature.
Please let us know how Garrett does. There are so many facets to bed wetting but it can be conquered!
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