Wetting the bed!

My son just turn 4, he still has accidents from time to time. He has a constipation problem and when he's needing to go he lays around trying to hold it refusing to pee or poop in potty. Long process miserable for us both. However the last week or two he's got to where at night no matter what or even when he naps for a while. He soaks the bed! I mean bed sheets head to toe all the time!! What can I do!! He wakes me up twice a night with soaked clothes and bed sheets. I try to make him go potty before bed..

Actually if you google it, bed wetting & constipation go hand in hand. The fullness of the colon puts pressure on nerves that make it so the child lacks sensation to pee, so they aren't as likely to wake for the urge.

I would absolutely say you would resolve this just by resolving his constipation.
Here is some info on that: http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/01/when-bedwetting-isnt-an-accident/

<blockquote><b>Quoting justanothamotha:</b>" Actually if you google it, bed wetting & constipation go hand in hand. The fullness of the colon ... [snip!] ... his constipation. Here is some info on that: http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/01/when-bedwetting-isnt-an-accident/"</blockquote>




But if this doesn't work sometimes their bladder isn't growing at the same speed as their bodies. My son is a emotional bed wetter and now at the age of 12 has stopped. Just put a diaper on him at night until you can figure out what is causing it.

He's on med for constipation which he takes daily. He eats fiber everyday.. And juice. He's always had the problem since birth but just recently started wetting the bed or when he naps it's constant. He soaks through a pull up and all over everything!!

Quote:


Reporting online in the journal Urology, researchers found that 30 children and adolescents who sought treatment for bedwetting all had large amounts of stool in their rectums, despite the majority having normal bowel habits. After treatment with laxative therapy, 25 of the children (83 percent) were cured of bedwetting within three months.
“Having too much stool in the rectum reduces bladder capacity,” said lead author Steve J. Hodges, M.D., assistant professor of urology at Wake Forest Baptist. “Our study showed that a large percentage of these children were cured of nighttime wetting after laxative therapy. Parents try all sorts of things to treat bedwetting -- from alarms to restricting liquids. In many children, the reason they don’t work is that constipation is the problem.”
Hodges said the link between bedwetting and excess stool in the rectum, which is the lower five to six inches of the intestine, was first reported in 1986. However, he said the finding did not lead to a dramatic change in clinical practice, perhaps because the definition of constipation is not standardized or uniformly understood by all physicians and lay people.
“The definition for constipation is confusing and children and their parents often aren’t aware the child is constipated,” said Hodges. “In our study, X-rays revealed that all the children had excess stool in their rectums that could interfere with normal bladder function. However, only three of the children described bowel habits consistent with constipation.”
http://www.wakehealth.edu/News-Releases/2012/Bedwetting_Can_be_Due_to_Undiagnosed_Constipation,_Research_Shows.htm

All I can tell you is that if it were my kid, based on the things I have read, I would look for another opinion on the status of the constipation issue and ask for an x-ray of the colon. It is sooooo easy to rule that out as a culprit, I'd think it would be worth the try. It is true that various things mature at different rates, and that may be possible, but if I were dealing with a bedwetting issue with a child that I already know he's had constipation issues, I would think it might be a real possible contributor.


As far as soaking through everything, how much is he drinking? Doe she have a cu toff time for fluids prior to bed? Does he get anything to drink during the night, such as a sippy or whatever?

And at night, I would wake him up to pee. There is likely a pattern here of the "earliest" time he generally wakes with a wet bed. Set your alarm for BEFORE that time & wake him & take him potty. So if he generally never wake before it's been 3 hrs, wake him at the 3 hr mark & take him to pee & then set the alarm again for 3 hrs later. It isn't fun, but it's better than changing sheets & clothes twice a night.

He does have cut off time for liquids.. He takes Miralax.. It's helping.. He's currently going ok.. Still wetting bed at night.. I wake him up once a night to potty he still does it.. I'm Alittle stumped however I have heard lots of kids around age 4 have this phase they go through. My niece & I having done this too.

Okay, this is what I can tell you - my nephew had severe constipation & when they did an x-ray his colon was so distended, he had to take enough miralax to keep it just short of diarrhea. His colon was stretched out to the size of a softball & his mom didn't think that was a problem until she saw it with her own eyes. So he had to take so much that he would have NO firmness to the poop at all or it would just build up in there & he'd have no sensation to go until it got full & then he wouldn't evacuate it all, just enough to alleviate the sensation...because he couldn't tell he still needed to go. He had to do that protocol for an entire year before his colon was fully back to normal size.   He started at 4.

I have known kids to wet the bed for sure. I am not saying that is unusual at all. I also know 4 is a common age & the age when my own child peaked in bedwetting. My concern that it could have an underlying issue is you saying he does it more than once in the same night (because with a cut off on liquids & already emptying his bladder before bed & during the 1st time wetting, he shouldn't have a lot still to go) AND that it sounds to be all the time, rather than a few nights a week or something. I have also never known a 4 yr old to regularly wet during a nap. And if he is having daytime accidents, it is a thing that is also associated with constipation induced bedwetting. he just has a lot of earmarks that would make me ask for the x-ray. It is obviously your call, just don't dismiss it before looking into it. Just because a family has a history of bedwetting doesn't mean it doesn't have a correlation to a different medical issue that may have also gone overlooked in the family & is the source of the familial issue with bedwetting.

In the meantime, my suggestion would be to buy a couple of wet proof mattress covers. You put one on the bed obviously, put a sheet one & then a chucks pad (they are incontinence pads that are absorbent). Then layer it again - starting with wet proof cover, another sheet & another chucks pad...so that when he does wet, you just strip off what is messed up & the bed is already done instead of trying to mess with changing sheets at 4am.  

<blockquote><b>Quoting justanothamotha:</b>" Okay, this is what I can tell you - my nephew had severe constipation & when they did an x-ray his ... [snip!] ... just strip off what is messed up & the bed is already done instead of trying to mess with changing sheets at 4am.  "</blockquote>




Amen!! I had numerous X-rays when I was small had the same problem birth to age 6! All doctors locally have yet to do an X-ray.. Won't do one at that. I'm going to get him an appointment at Children's Hospital with a specialist and have them check him out good.. And see if they think this problem is causing the bed wetting problem or what! Thanks for the advice & kind words