Anyone medicate their child for night wetting?

[erin_c_odonnell]

Are you using pull ups or goodnights? It makes a huge difference in amount it holds.

[Hitchkids]

I was put on meds for it in elementary school and I hated them. But even before the meds, I still went to spend the night at trusted friends homes who's parents were aware of the issue and willing to deal with it. I never had a friend make me feel badly over it (and I never had an accident when not home either). Perhaps he can try sleepovers at close friends' homes if the parent is comfy with the issue. That might help him feel better. Truly the only person who ever made me feel badly about the issue was my own mother because she hated the extra laundry. No one else ever made an issue of it or teased me at all. I think maybe the other kids should be given a chance to handle the situation since in my experience, other kids never cared.

[jen_batten]

I read one time that a nightly dose of aloe vera juice helps night wetting? Don't know if that if true or not, but you might want to check into it. I'm interested to know about the medications too though, because from what I understand it tends to run in families. My Dad wet the bed until he was 7 (ish), and my brother wet the bed until he was like 11 or 12! My son night trained just fine (he's 6), but my DD is 4.5 and shows very little sign of slowing down night wetting. I'm hoping it stops before too much longer, but I may want to start looking into my options now...

[jac1976]

Originally Posted by TrishB My mother was very hesitant when I was a child and because of that, I never felt comfortable sleeping at anyone else's house. It really hindered my social life until I asked my doctor myself at 16 years old. The medication was great! I was on it for a few years and now I am fine. There were no ill side effects that I know of. My sister is considering putting her almost 8 year old on it now, too. I would not hesitate to give it to my daughter at 7 years old if she has the same problem I did.

Thank you for sharing your experience. I wouldn't even be thinking of using the meds except for the fact that it is clearly bothering DS (more so ever since DD has been dry at night, which started about a year ago.) I'm glad to hear they helped you and had no ill effects.


For those people who asked about what we use at night, when we wake him up, and alarms, here is what our experience has been. We have tried just about every night time diaper (both disposible and cloth) and nothing works to contain it all. We've even put adult "boosters" in there and it still doesn't work. We haven't tried a specific pee alarm, but he has tried to use a regular alarm in the past and it doesn't wake him up. He is a VERY sound sleeper. He won't even wake up once he's wet. He will sleep in urine soaked sheets until either 1) we discover that he's wet through and wake him up to change the bed or 2) he wakes up in the morning. Now we just make him go when we are on our way to bed. The doc really said we shouldn't do more than that because it will just disrupt everyone's sleep and make all of us tired. (We were waking him up at 11, 2, and 5, but he would STILL not be dry.)

[babylovinmama]

My heart goes out to you and your DS, mama. My DD, who is 10, still struggles with staying dry at night, she wets most nights. We are currently using an adult dipe on her, the Good Nights were just not enough.

From the medical side, we have used the medication, though only for the week in the summer she was away at camp. One of the concerns with the meds is that they have to be getting in enough fluids during the day in order for it to work. The whole process of trying to get them to be/and keep them dry is very inter-connected.

DD specifically struggles with constipation, which is the source of her inability to stay dry at night, and her leaking during the day. In order to combat that she needs a high fiber diet to keep her system running, if you will. However; the high fiber diet will not work without enough fluids. The fluids work in two ways; 1) to increase her bladder size so it can hold more and doesn't need to empty as often, and 2) to help to keep the stools soft enough that they can be easily flushed out of her system and are not pressing up against her bladder, which contributes to day time leaking and night time wetting.

DD has been seeing a nephrologist for a few years now. She has struggled with the desire to be dry and wanting to just be like everyone else. She has a hard time getting in the right amount of fluid and sticking to a high fiber diet, which clearly has led to set backs. It can be hard on the whole family.

All of that being said, her docs have assured us that with all children, regardless of the reason for the wetting, there does come a time when their bodies just figure it out. For some kids that may be at 8 and for others it may be 11 or 12.

I hope this info helps and you are able to find a good solution for your DS and your family.

[pumkinsmommy]

The alarm makes a vibration and a noise at the first sign of wetness. It makes the child/child's brain put 2 and 2 together. Using a reg. alarm clock would have no way of connecting the two. The child I had personal experience with was such a sound sleeper that we could never get him to wake up to go on the potty in the night. He would just sit there. The alarm(called a starry) worked. He used it for 6 months and it broke. Before his mother could get him a new one, we realized he didn't need it anymore.