Sleepwetting

In article ,
dragonlady wrote:
No suggestions, except that at this age, my son always wore Depends
while at sleepovers or camping trips, to avoid wetting someone else's
bed.

I volunteer with two sessions of a Quaker residential summer camp,
ages 9-12 and 12-15, with 25 to 30 campers in each. In each level we
have one or more campers sleeping in GoodNites and one or more using
DDAVP or other medication to control sleepwetting. I help train our
counselors in appropriate responses and support for sleepwetting,
sleepwalking, etc.

BTW, the common wisdom that sleepwetting happens far more often among
boys than girls [some say two to one] goes back to mid-20th century
reports including US military draft records. It now seems more likely
much closer to even M/F until puberty when girls show a greater
decline. There is also a small percentage of girls who with puberty
start sleepwetting. Sleepwetting may be under-reported to
pediatricians among pre-teen girls whose mothers see it less as a
problem to get help with and more as a common stage of development
they know how to manage.

He was 14 before he was consistently dry through the night. There were
no medical problems -- it's just that some percentage of kids are not
capable of staying dry through the night until they are into puberty.
We, also, tried all kinds of things -- and settled on just waiting. The
biggest problem is that this isn't talked about much, so kids with this
issue end up feeling very, very alone.

From my experience with youth groups, I expect about 10% of
11-year-olds sleepwet, but in small groups I've had anywhere from
none to half.

Studies suggest that 15% of children age 6 and up who now sleepwet
will outgrow it in the next year even if nothing is done. That is
about one in seven. A similar percentage have a medical condition or
physical cause not yet identified. For the rest [about 70%]
sleepwetting results from a developmental delay in an anti-diuretic
hormone cycle that reduces urine output at night. Many people
naturally compensate for this delay by waking up when their bladders
get full. For those who don't, there are programs and activities to
help them learn to wake up dry. There may also be dietary and
environmental causes. For more information, you can see articles I
have posted on the Sleepwetting Forum at
http://www.spont.com/sleepwetting.html

My only advice is to not sweat it -- assuming that the doctor says there
are no medical problems, he WILL outgrow it in his own time.

Not all do. In ages 18 to 25 about 3% sleepwet. Many college housing
programs are aware of this and now handle it as a disability issue.

Tom
--
Tom Farley
Spontaneous Combustion Storytellers and Writers
Sleepwetting Forum - http://www.spont.com/sleepwetting.html
one of the moderators for the newsgroup news:misc.kids.moderated

When I was a counselor, there was one kid who wet the bet a lot. We just
took the sleeping bag to the nurse's place and got it washed while the kids
were at breakfast. No big deal. One of the kids wet the bed because he
didn't want to get out and pee (not much of a big deal for a boy -- just use
the nearest tree at night). So I just brought the sleeping bag to the
nurse's and got it washed. The next night, he waited as long as he could
before calling one of the counselors. Boy did he have a full bladder: He
could have put out a camp fire with his stream.

Jeff