The Community for Catholic Moms

Nighttime wetness

My 6-year-old daughter has been having problems staying dry through the
night. Occasionally she does stay dry, but the majority of the time
she's wet when she wakes up. I used to put her in thick underwear at
night but she has very sensitive skin & would have a bad rash in the
morning. I ended up switching to Pullups which has helped with the
rash, but obviously doesn't help her stay dry. My daughter has sensory
integration issues, so I think that might be part of the issue. She's
100% daytime trained & has been since she was 3. She's also a solid
sleeper, so she's probably not alert to the sensation when she's going
at night.

I've asked our ped about it & she said to stop using the Pullups
& put a Chux type pad in her underwear when she goes to bed. Also,
she said to have her help with the clean up (getting new underwear &
pad, changing bed sheets, putting dirty sheets, underwear, and pad in
bucket, etc.) She also said the potty pager alarm helps, so I'm going to
check into that. I'm trying to figure out at what point is she wetting
herself. The doctor said to wake her up a couple of hours after she goes
to bed & have her go potty. The drawback to this is it doesn't
really train her to wake herself up. I wake up 2 hours before she does,
so I'm going to see if she's wet at that time or if she's dry (maybe
she's wetting herself as her body starts waking up but she's too sleepy
to be fully aware of it). The doctor also said there's medication that
can be used (DDAVP) but only works for that night that you take it. She
didn't recommend taking it very often since it tends to dehydrate. She
said monitoring/cutting back on fluids don't stop nighttime wetness that
much.

So, right now I'm going to check into Chux pads, look into the price of
the potty alarm, and figure out when she's wetting herself (at night or
early AM before her body is completely awake). I'm also curious about a
connection between dairy sensitivity and nighttime wetness. I read about
the connection & my daughter does have some dairy sensitivity
symptoms. I'm not sure if I completely believe the connection, but it's
something else to check into.

I thought I'd post a question here to see if anyone else has
ideas/suggestions for getting thru the nighttime wetness issue
especially when dealing with a child that has special needs. Does
anyone have any input about the dairy sensitivity/nighttime wetness
issue. Also, where can I purchase Chux pads or something similar since
I've never used them. Thanks.

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Permalink Reply by Kristin Detloff on September 14, 2010 at 9:33am

You should be able to find Chux pads at a Walmart or similar store. I would look in the area where the Depends are and if they carry them you should find them there.

My oldest is 4 1/2 and we have similar issues with him. I do suspect he is mainly wetting in the mornings when he is getting close to waking up. At this point we're still kinda just letting it go hoping it will work itself out.

Although I don't know that this would fit with your daughter I do know several people who found great success with seeing a pediatric chiropractor with children who were night wetting in later ages. However in those instances the night wetting was due to a pinched nerve (or something like that) that interfered with the childs ability to get the message that they had to go at night. (at least that's what the parents described to me in each case) Seems if this is the case the child will eventually grow enough the pressure on the nerve will go away but until then chiropractic worked to keep them dry at night....

I really wish I had more thoughts for you but it sounds like you have things well under control! I think it's a great idea to check her in the morning if you get up that much before she does! Maybe that in itself will take care of the problem!

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Permalink Reply by Tima on September 16, 2010 at 2:52pm

Hi Julie,

Sounds to me like you have been given pretty accurate information. We have similar issues in our home, with both children. We have our older one on a program through Pacific International This program includes a mat & bell as well as, Case Worker assigned to the child. It uses the approach that it's a problem with the child's sleep pattern. First they attempt to rule out that there is any physical problems. The only draw back is that it can be expensive.

It's taking some time for our son even on this program, but there are definitely improvements, and dairy sensitivities as well as, to much sugar consumption can impede with dry nights.

Hope all goes well! Thanks for starting this thread.