5YO Bed Wet

[david_hadas]

My 5 YO successfully stopped bed wetting several month ago. It took us about six month of hard labor and we used a simple reward mechanism (every wet day added a black sticker to the calendar and every dry day added a colorful sticker of her choice to the calendar).

What actually did the trick was that we added her smaller brother to the game (he is 15 month younger) and as a result he turned dry and she followed.

In the recent month she started wetting again every night (almost) after several month in which she only had a glitch or two per month. Now the calendar trick is not helping (we started a calendar again, and after it did not help for a week we added the dry younger brother... it gave 1 dry night and from there all wet

We do not suspect medical as she had three good months. We do talk about it and share the problem with her. My wife and I are uncomfortable with the devices that wakes the kid at night if he pees (just doesn't sound right to us)

I am looking for additional ideas on "games" such as the one above or other thoughts on the meter.

 

[GODS_TEAM]

Few Questions for you
Are you cutting her intake of fluids by a certain time.
Are you getting her up before you go to bed to use the bathroom.

 

[kimmee]

my mom had to keep waking my brother up in the middle of the night for years. now he is fine. Try no drinks after dinner time, then bathroom before bed then when you go to bed bathroom stop for her, also take her to the washroom if you get up in the night as well.

 

[david_hadas]

We already have regular habits of no fluids and bathroom before bed.
We are not sure if waking her up is good or bad. If we wake her up every night, wouldn't we take the responsiability from her?

 

[kimmee]

no because, she will get used to being woken up and will end up waking up on her own over some time. The Doctor told my mom to do this for my brother not sure if it works with all kids but its wroth a try.

 

[Seba]

Kim, you are right. I had to do that with my son(your brother) for about 2 years His body got into the habbit of waking up and going to the washroom, so now he does it on his own.

 

[VOW]

Have there been any stressful things happening in the household? Does she have a different teacher at school? Is a close relative sick? Usually, when there has been a lengthy dry period, and then a lapse, it's because the child is upset about something, or there's been a major change in the household.

Rather than do the restrictions of liquid in the evening, I'd have her checked by the family doctor, to make sure she doesn't have a low-grade bladder infection. And then I'd ask about the prescription nose spray. The stuff WORKS. And it's much less stressful than any "games" or waking her up in the middle of the night.

One reason why I don't believe in restricting liquids is that this is the wintertime. The inside humidity of most homes is VERY low, and any nasal congestion will cause the child to breathe through his or her mouth. Mouth breathing is extremely uncomfortable, and not being able to drink just makes the suffering worse, IMHO.


Peace be with you,
~VOW