We took our son to a family psychologist at age 4 due for ecoperesis (soiling) and day wetting due to constipation. We have had 95% success with a few regressions, which were considered normal, in the past 2 years. We therefore left night time training until the last 6 months to not put any further undue stress on him. He seems to want to train at night...asking for an alarm clock to be set in the morning to wake him up. This has proved to be somewhat successful in waking him (and making it to the toilet on time), but sometimes the alarm goes off after the wet event has already occurred. He doesn't seem to wake independently even when he has wet the bed.He is drinking a good quantity of fluid during the day...not really able to hold on much when needing to go to the toilet though. But just before bed, on a few nights he says he's really thirsty. I am a bit reluctant to give him too much thinking we are just in for another wet night.
It really is a personal decision as to whether or not to use DryNites. Many parents (and children) choose to use DryNites to reduce the stress associated with children waking-up in wet sheets as well as the added laundry burden. While there has been some debate about the use of absorbent pants, the general consensus is that DryNites neither speed up nor prolong the bedwetting process. If he is happy to wear them, then I think they are a great option and are very effective means of managing children’s bedwetting. While it’s fine to reduce the amount he drinks in the evening, you need to offer him drinks when he is thirsty as failure to do so may lead to constipation, which will only contribute to his bedwetting and may lead to daytime accidents. In the short-term make sure he continues to drink water regularly throughout the day, eats lots of fresh fruits and vegetables and limits fizzy drinks – particularly before bedtime. Given his obvious desire and motivation to become dry I would certainly look into introducing a conditioning alarm. These work differently to a normal bedside alarm in that they are designed to go off in response to your son’s wetting. Essentially bedwetting or conditioning alarms work by helping your son learn to recognise the need to pass urine and either wake-up and go to the toilet or learn to hold on until morning. They come in two main forms. One is a body alarm with a small sensor that can be worn inside his DryNites. The second type of alarm is a bell and pad alarm that is placed like a mat over the bottom bed sheet of his bed. It may take a few weeks until he begins to respond to the alarm and can take up to 3 months to achieve continence. Ideally you should not try and do this on your own, the more support and guidance you receive from a medical professional the better the outcome.
Regards,
Dr Cathrine
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