Bedwetting Blues....

[PorcupineWhisperer]

Well it's been awhile since I have visited - I am amazed at how much has changed around the site. :smile:

I'm wondering if anyone has run across any good treatments for bedwetting? DDAVP and assorted combinations of Imipramine and Detrol have not been effective. As the difficult child in question is soon to be 14, I don't want to go with Pull Ups. There is a family history of bedwetting, so I know it;s not behavioral. Since difficult child is currently in an Residential Treatment Center (RTC), using an alarm to wake him isn't practical (as it it would wake the other sleeping residents).

At present he is being awakened nightly, which is fairly effective. Any ideas....

 

[smallworld]

Welcome back.

Is your difficult child taking any medications that would exacerbate the bedwetting problem (such as Lithium or Risperdal)?

I'm not aware of other options besides medications or alarms. If he's being awakened nightly and that's working, why try something else?

 

[PorcupineWhisperer]

In regard to medications: Depakote and Seroquel. As to why do sometihing else if waking him up is working - the goal is for him to be as imdependent as possible. Also as an adolescent there is the issue of self esteem. It's hard to go and visit friends overnight and still maintain the nightly wake ups.

Thanks for the reply. :smile:

 

[tammyjh]

Oh gosh, no idea. My daughter isn't a bedwetter, with the exception of once in a while, but her problem is that she's incontinent during the day quite a bit. Its an almost every day problem that has gotten worse as she's gotten older. I try to remind her to use the bathroom every hour and half to two hours and sometimes every hour but it doesn't seem to help. She's been quite hyper/giddy and the more giddy she becomes, the more likely she is to wet. We "think" part of it may be medication. related so we're working at weaning her off her prozac to see if the super extremes in moods decrease. Hopefully if that happens, the wetting will become less frequent. But, I don't know....she was headed on this track before the medications. so it very well be something that was developing anyway. Sorry to not be of any help.
Good luck!!

 

[gcvmom]

Depakote can cause bedwetting on rare occasion. difficult child 2 started it this summer. When he got up to 1,000mg, he suddently started wetting the bed after being dry for four years. Pediatrician poo-poo'ed it. Pharmacist gave me glazed over look and said he didn't know. Then I did more reading, and in the drug's literature, it states in black in white that enuresis is an adverse reaction to a small population taking Depakote.

psychiatrist had me alter difficult child's dosing schedule, so now he gets 250mg in the morning and the balance at night. Within two days of shifting the schedule, he stopped wetting the bed.

You might ask his psychiatrist about this.

Here's the link to the Abbott Laboratories drug labeling info for Depakote:

http://www.rxabbott.com/pdf/depakote.pdf

 

[timer lady]

PW,

Why the issue with the Good Nights? These products are for people of all ages (Depends comes to mind for adults.) It had done more for my son's self esteem than any other intervention we tried. It can & was a private matter between wm & his father.

I knew, heck I bought the things - but it had to be between dad & wm. I pretended I had no knowledge of this matter.

The fact there is a family hx would indicate it isn't behaviorial; more a matter of maturity. When this young man's body will start the internal alarm for him.

Just a question for you.

 

[smallworld]

I have also read that atypical antipsychotics like Seroquel can cause urinary issues. So it may be that the combo of Depakote and Seroquel is delaying your difficult child's ability to stop bedwetting. I'd recommend running the medication issue by the psychiatrists in charge of his care.

 

[PorcupineWhisperer]

In regard to medication adjustments, he is on a good medication 'cocktail' and I don't really want to mess with it. In the summer we tried adding in Imipramine and it triggered a seizure (not pretty).

TL (nice to see a familiar face ...er name :smile: ). The issue with Good Nights, is two fold. On one hand he wore them while at home prior to being placed in the Residential Treatment Center (RTC). Let's just say they led to some 'boundary issues'. Also because he is a Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD) kid, his emotional development is off. One minute he is talking about his girlfriend and the next he could be tantrumming like a very large 3 year old. My goal is to get him functioning as close to his chronological age (13) as possible.
Oh, and in regard to it being a father/son thing - when he goes home it will be to an all female household.

 

[mrscatinthehat]

I know that my easy child had some issues for quite a while on this. Waking her at night worked well but one thing the dr recommended was benadryl before bed. I don't know if that will mess with the other medications. I wouldn't think so but you could ask psychiatrist if he thinks it might help. The combo of waking her and benadryl helped her a lot.

Beth

 

[gcvmom]

Hmmm... I just may try that for easy child... she's been having secondary enuresis for the past two years after going three years dry. We tried DDAVP/desmopressin with no luck. I try waking her, and even after a midnight or later bathroom trip she wakes up wet. Someone gave us an alarm, but no one carries the battery for it around here :frown:

 

[Star*]

Hi PW,

I have another story to tell. I worked with a lovely lady from a family of 6 boys. ALL of her brothers wet their beds until they got married. Most were in their middle 20's. Her son wets the bed and they have tried EVERYTHING including the alarm, and then found out that shortly after her daughter got out of diapers = she wet's the bed also.

In looking back of course it wasn't ever discussed but her Dad and his brothers also wet the bed for a long time. I can't imagine having 6 boys 18+ in my home who all had enuresis, but - I shared because it may help you know this kid is not alone.

As far as the pullups or depends - You think if they were the adult ones he wouldn't get so bent? I understand it's hard near impossible to get them to comply with something like that in a group situation, so maybe he could be put into a semi-private room? My son was encopretic - to help his self esteem - they made a room just for him and one other kid so there was no embarrassment for either - and they kept mum about it to the others.

Good to see you again.
Star

 

[PorcupineWhisperer]

I know that his dad had the problem up through college. His Mom wet until approximately 13.
In a worse case scenario (if, I can't find anything more effective), his family will just continue the nightly wake ups once he goes home.
I don't think he would have a problem going back to Pull Ups but I think therapeutically it would be a significant step backward.
By the way Star, good to see you're still around .

 

[timer lady]

PW,

I totally understand the Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD) factor in this. You know my tweedles & their severe Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD). kt & wm still go from young teenager to toddler in an instant. I also understand the boundary issues.

Other than continuing using the good nights/depends & wake ups to help this young man with this issue, I cannot give you any other ideas.

As wm got older he became responsible for changing his bed; not because of the bedwetting - just because he was of an age where he could/should start helping with that & any other matter in his bedroom wet bed or not.

by the way, just as an aside, when wm had to start changing his bed & helping me with his laundry the bedwetting lessened. I never could figure if having to deal with the laundry was an incentive or it was just a coincidence. I may never know. :crazy:

 

[svengandhi]

My 17 year old wets the bed still, though it is decreasing. We used DDAVP when he was younger but when he hit 9 we gave it to him only if he was going on a sleepover.

We never used the pullups as a psychiatric we trusted told us it would be detrimental to his emotional well-being, particularly since he has 4 younger siblings who do NOT wet the bed, ever.

We did the walking him thing for many years. At the height of the bedwetting, what did help was limiting both his caffeine intake (including chocolate) and severely restricting fluids after 7 PM and then sending him to pee every hour till bedtime and then again at bedtime. We found that if we walked him by 12:15 AM, he would stay dry - any later and he would pee at some point even if he went when we walked him.

Right now, he is having a sleepover at a friend's house and he just called to say good night and we reminded him to go pee!

The only positive of this is that I don't think he will be spending the night with any girls yet - it would be too embarrassing!

 

[weatheringthestorm]

Both of my boys were nightly bedwetters and have only recently (last year of so) stopped. They're almost 16 (difficult child) and 13 (easy child). We now have only the occassional wet night. ALL the males on my side of the family were bed wetters. My brother wet the bed until he was about 16 (part of his problem was medications).

It's likely that your difficult child's bladder just hasn't matured as quickly as the rest of him. This was the problem with both my difficult child and easy child. You can take him to a urologist to be sure, that's what I did. I wanted to rule out any problems and it was embarassing for them so they wanted help. My oldest took the medications for a while and was mostly dry with them. Then we lost or rx coverage and had to stop the medications. Add this to the medications and well... you get trouble.

Both boys sleep extremely sound which didn't help. We tried waking them during the night,etc. It was a ton of hassle and not much help. difficult child sleeps so soundly we could barely get him up, into the bathroom, and pointed the right way.

We discovered that it wasn't enough to limit liguids after a certain time, we had to limit food too. They could have a snack, but not a drink and still wet.

Pull-Ups and Good Nights were life savers for us. It allowed them to have sleep overs, etc and none of their friends ever found out. I would have them pack the good night, some wipes in a sandwhich bag, and a plastic grocery bag with their stuff. They'd take their back pack in to change into pj's (a long baggy shirt helps too) and they'd put it on. In the morning they'd take their bag into the bathroom to get dressed, take it off, store it in the plastic bag, and bring it home to dispose of. They would also watch what they would eat and drink, make frequent bathroom trips, and stay up late. But, they got to be "normal" kids.

The problems really resolved themselves. Their bladders matured. We just managed the symptoms until nature caught up.

For both my boys taking Benedryll was a garuanteed wet night. It made them sleep more soundly and then they would wet EVERY time. Even though they've been dry for some time now Benedryll will still cause wet nights.

Best of luck to all!

 

[PorcupineWhisperer]

TL: As far as helping with the clean up and laundry effecting the problem - not so with this kid. We do laundry as part of his weekly therapy session (a shared activity to build attachment) and it really doesn't seem to have effected the frequency of accidents one way or the other.

WTS: Have taken him to the urologist - this "Dr." was a waste of time. He never did any kind of exam, pretty much went over options that we had already tried and had no real insight. I had to suggest that he order a sonogram of both kidneys and the kids' bladder (things were fine). I like the idea of the overnight 'survival pack'. :smile: -it may be something to consider down the line.

 

[TerryJ2]

Hi (I love your name, by the way, LOL!),
We use Desmopressin and it works, but our difficult child is only on Adderal so I can't help with-the medication side effects.
We used the bedwetting alarm. It sort of worked but it was a lot of work and very loud ... mostly our son has dietary issues and when he eats wheat and dairy he wets the bed.
Best of luck.