I had a question about Nighttime bed wetting. My older non-D daughter wore pull-ups until about 5 or so before she woke up dry. Our pediatrician said some kids are deep sleepers and not to worry about it until they're older. My 6 year old Type 1 still wears pull-ups because of nighttime wetting and I'm not sure if it's just that she's a deep sleeper or if it's D. Of course, when her BGs are High, the wetting is more.
Does anyone else have experience with this? Did you work to get them out of pull-ups or let them grow out of it?
My 6 year old D kid is still in pull ups too. She definitely is still a heavy sleeper. I think for my kiddo it has more to do with the sleep than the D. We’ve had quite a few dry nights In a row and last night I was treating a slight low, I don’t think she ever got much above 140 after all the carbs and yet she woke up completely soaked. I think it was a combo of too much to drink (juice for corrections) and too deeply asleep to notice.
My daughter was a serious bed wetter until diagnosis (at age 9) , and then after diagnosis it gradually improved. It took about four or five months and then completely ended. The high blood sugars make them need to urinate, and the age/heavy sleeping contribute to the bed wetting. So with a combination of good control of blood sugars and "outgrowing" the very deep sleeping of young childhood things should improve!
i would say it is a combination of her D and just growing a stronger bladder! my older son wet the bed occ. until 6 ish it has been a while, he is now 14 and it was just something he needed to grow out of, he was diag. with D at 10, no bedwetting but up to pee, classic signs. however if your daughter's bs's are running high there is is good chance that she will have a problem. my son drinks a lot in the evening and only gets up to pee if he is high, honestly it is the only time i test him at night because he is such a bear about it but if he is up to pee then he is awake enough to test and probably needs a bolus! as frustrating as it is i would keep waiting it out and try to limit fluids at night unless she need the fluids because she is running high, catch 22 but guaranteed she will not be wetting the bed at 10 or probably even 8 she has a lot going on i'd ride this one out, best of luck! amy
Hi there, my 7 year old non-D son wore pullups till he was 6. He just was a deep sleeper, but I always tested him anyway to see if he had high BG and never was it above 100. My 5-year-old son who has T1D stopped wearing pullups at 4 1/2 and only ever has bedwetting incidents if he's really, really high and drinks a lot of water during the night as a consequence. Fortunately, he's a light sleeper and has trained himself to waken and go to the bathroom... which is almost always a signal to me to test his BG and give a correction.
To a certain extent, the child's ability to control their bladder through the night is genetic — my pediatrician said that, knowing my son's father wet the bed till he was 6 was a pretty good indication that my kids would likely do so as well. But that doesn't mean you can't coach them a little toward learning control. What I did with my older son was, I made sure he went to the bathroom right before climbing into bed each night, and did not allow him any water at his bedside. I also gave him incentives toward wanting to have underwear instead of pull-ups — like saying, "if you can go 3 nights in a row without wetting, you can wear big-boy undies instead of a pullup." and then, the rule was, if he continued staying dry, he could keep the undies, and if not he went back to pullups until he managed 3 days in a row. Also, I had a plastic mattress-protector on the bed under the sheet, and I told him that once I was sure he wasn't going to wet anymore, we'd remove the protector (and I did that with great fanfare when he'd been without wetting for several months).
So my guess is that in your CWD's case, it's probably a bit of both — deep sleeping + the D makes her more prone to it. You can try the "training" techniques I used and see if that helps a bit, and of course we're always after better BGs at night... maybe to a basal check to see if perhaps her basal insulin is too low to prevent nighttime highs? But beyond that, I wouldn't worry about it too much. She'll likely grow out of it.
Our little guy, now 6, is a bed wetter. We have worked with him since taking the pull ups away about 6 months ago, on getting up to go potty at night when needed. He is a very heavy sleeper and it takes forever to get him up to go potty. Most of the time it includes yelling and screaming and timeouts, by that time he is fully awake and will finally go. I understand when he has high numbers that he will have to urinate more often, but that does not mean that we should use our bed as a toilet. He doesn't want to go back to pull ups, but we are doing 1-2 loads of bedding a day in laundry. I don't see him anywhere close to getting any better anytime soon. He would just rather lay in bed and go. Frustrating!!!!
It is frustrating. Have you tried the disposable bed protectors? I just discovered them, and we keep them on the bed until she has an accident, then throw away. The other protectors were so hot it bothered her, and she sleeps much better on these. I agree we shouldn't use the bed as a toilet, but I think if your little guy is a heavy sleeper, he must not be doing it on purpose? I know EA sleeps very deeply, but I see a lot of maturity in other areas, so I think this is something she will grow out of. Already, she's been waking up dry more often.
