Bed Wetting | ADHD Information

My son just turned 6 about a week ago and he still has to wear a pull-up every night.  He wets every night so it's not like he's just having accidents here and there.  It's like his body has just never learned how to do it.   I know our kids potty train late (mine did!) but do they also have the wetting at night problem?Have you told the doctor about it? There could be things you could do to
encourage him to learn.

My son never had a bed wetting issue. He did hyperfocus and miss cues
which lead to accidents while he was awake.My daughter was almost 8 before stopping.  I, who am not Adhd, wet the bed until age 8. At 7 I bought a bed wetting alarm and a mattress cover that held a pint of fluid. I got them both from the bed wetting store online. They also have tracking sheets that you can print out. I ran across mine last week actually. It took me three months, and I see that I was getting up all hours of the night for about 1.5 months, which then decreased. I put him to bed in underwear with an alarm attached that flashed and made series of really obnoxious sounds. This woke up the entire house, and I did it during the summer. The alarm continues to go off if it has contact with fluid. Then a year after the bedwetting was solved he began wetting during the day, so every weekend and after school daily I attached the alarm to his underwear (awake!) to address this. I figured he was 8, so no tolerance was the way to go.Was he having accidents before he was on meds?  I only ask because my son started to wet the bed when he on Concerta.  I think it had something to do with him sleeping so deep that he wasn't waking up to the signals his body gave him to go pee.  If it has always been a problem even before meds, I would definitely talk to his dr.  Some kids have things going on that don't allow them to hold it through the night.  My nephew is 8 and he has to wear a pull up at night and his mother did when she was young.  They had something going on and I forget what it was called, but worth asking a Dr. about.  Good luck to you. 

I read an interesting theory about bedwetting that said our bodies slows down the production of urine when we sleep but in some kids this is slow to develop and leads to bed wetting.  I know my daughter, even with only a small amount or no  liquid a few hours before bed, would wet up to 3 times in a night.  So in her case, maybe this was true. 

There was also a study that said tonsils/adenoids could cause bed wetting.  Unfortunately even after her very large tonsils and adenoids  were removed (because of really bad snoring and sleep apnea) my daughters bed wetting continued.  But tonsil removal has worked for some kids.

We also used a bed wetting alarm.  It was pitiful to witness the first time it went off because she got so scared, but did learn to deal with that.  It stopped her from wetting after using it a few weeks & we continued with it even after she had stopped wetting for a few more weeks.  However, each time she would eventually start wetting again so after several cycles of this we gave up on it.

Does your son have accidents during the day?  My daughter would.

Thanks for the info!  My son doesn't have accicents during the day anymore.  He did when he was younger (maybe 4 or so) but they weren't "big" accidents.  It was like he just held it too long and some came out before he got to the bathroom.  He doesn't do that anymore.  He potty trained late though-3 yrs 9 mo.  We tried everything and it made no difference.  Then one day he just did it himself.  I figured with the bedwetting he'll do the same-just one day stop all on his own. 

My son is almost 13 and still wets the bed nightly.  He has adhd and tourette's so stimulnats are not an option.  He is  ODD and I am so tired. Been researching serotonin and how his levels may be low---  I feel like the dr on all of this.   He was coaught- on camera- stealing from his siblings piggy banks.  Why the camera-- becaseu he would NEVER admit it.  We had to have proof- He tryed to make excuses until he realized it was worthless.  The video showed it all.  Then he started hitting his heaed and saying he wanted to kill himself. 

I am so tired of hearing people say it's the parents fault and that we are just raising bratty kids.  I cry often about him and just want to find the "miracle drug" that helps him.  I know in my heart that it is a chemical imbalance in his brain.  But finding the right med that helps has been the most awful experience. Anothe trip to the ped. nerologist is in our near future.

Count your blessings-  the meds that help my son cause awful tics so therefore we know it's chemical but the one that helps causes other issues.  I wish I was a neurologist and figured out what would help kids like my son.  My younger son is ADHD and OCD.  He is so much easier to deal with without the odd.  They fight like cats and dogs though.  Pray for me!!!

Hi, my almost 10 yr old adhd son wet the bed till he was about 6 or 7 and I'm talking almost every single night and at times, several times during the night. Now it is only occassionally.  As my son has a kidney issue, we were seeing a specialist and he reassured us it was not unusual for kids still to bedwet at that age. Looking back, I can clearly recall always having a problem with wetting the bed until (and even  in) my teenage years. 

Best wishes.

 

Tara

 

Tara4us, did your son's kidney problem have anything to do with the bed wetting?  Some people have suggested that I take my son to a doctor so I was wondering if it was just "natural" or if it was the kidney problem.

Sunny641, have you tried Tenex/Intuniv?  It can be taken by itself or along with a stimulant.  My son takes it along with a stimulant to couteract the side effects.  He has anxiety and sensory problems that are aggravated by stimulants.  The Tenex curbs those issues to the point that he is able to continue taking the Ritalin.  It's also supposed to help with tics. 

Logan's Mom,  The renal specialist my son see's is the one who informed us that the bed wetting was not unusual and it didn't matter what we did (ie: cutting out fluids at night etc.....) until some part of his bladder (can't recall its name) was fully developed my son would continue wetting the bed.  We had at least 2 sets of sheets and mattress protectors on his bed as some nights he wet the bed more than once.  My son is going to be 10 soon and basically stopped bed wetting around 6 or 7.  He has wet the bed on the very odd occasion in the past 2 years or so..........once he wet his bed and I mean really wet it and then during the night he's gone into the spare bed and wet that one as well.

It seemed like he was never going to grow out of the bed wetting and then suddenly it just happened and no, it had nothing to do with his kidney.

I was a bed wetter until early teens so I would say my son probably inherited that little trait from me (I do beleive it can be hereditry as well).

In saying all this, maybe next time your at the doctors, mention it.

Good luck

Tara4us

Thanks for the feedback.  We tried Inuniv when it first came out and it made our DS so moody.  He started doing things he never did before.  He even took a knife to school during those few weeks he was on intuniv.  He is on chlonidine now and it doesn't affect himt the way intuniv did but it does not help his focus and figitiness.  We will be seeeing the Ped neurologist soon!!

 

tara4us, thank you for the feedback.  I had heard that something has to develope in their bodies before they can go through the night but I wasn't sure it was true.  I'm going to mention it to his doc, but we'll probably just have to wait it out.  Hey, if that's the worst that we have going on then we're lucky! We got our grandson's bedwetting under control when we cut out high fructose corn syrup and foods containing a high amount of salicylates from his diet.   My son's issue described above was not related to medication. And the ped was useless. He recommended typical potty training things, repeatedly, as if I was not getting it. However, my ADHD nephew had the same problem and wound up having a physical issue as the cause, as rosalie68 suggests. You would need a urologist to rule that out I think.

Thanks everyone for your responses!  For some reason I wasn't getting my email notifications so I didn't realize I had responses!  I agree with everyone that I need to discuss it with the doc.  He just had a check up too but I forgot to ask about it! Duhhh!

It's hard to say if it started before or after meds because he started meds so early (just before he was 4 years old). He didn't potty train at all until 3 yrs 9 months so he started meds about the same time. He takes a dose of Tenex right before bed to help with the mornings before his Ritalin kicks in and I always wondered if that put him in too deep a sleep???  I'll just have to check with the doc...

Thanks everyone!

My son has been on tenex with all of his adhd meds, but the only one that caused the actual bed wetting was the concerta.  The Dr. also disagreed that Concerta was the cause but it started when we gave it to him and when we pulled him off a month or 2 later the bed wetting stopped.  My mother in law said my nephew had an under developed bladder and that they normally won't check them until they are 8 or 9.