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Our son (about 7 years old) has a massive problem with bed wetting. He doesn't wake up at night, if he needs to pee.

see also Bed gets wet nearly each night although diaper is worn

What we do:

  • meal time normally ends 6:30 PM, he goes to bed between 1 and 1.5 hours later
    (no snacks after that and it practically not the case that he gets thursty again and then drinks something after the end of this meal time)
  • he goes to the toilet directly after the meal and then a last time directly before going to bed (between 7:30 and 8:00 PM normally)
  • he puts the diaper on directly before going to bed (to avoid that it is already used for convenience instead of using the toilet)
  • He still wears a diaper in bed
  • We wake him once in the middle of the night (between midnight and 2 o'clock), send him to the toilet and change the diaper!

Still there are some days where even the second diaper is not enough and clothes and bedclothes get wet!

I heard that the food he eats in the evening might influence how much urine is produced during the night and that sweet food could stimulate production of urine while salty food could decrease it.

Where can I find more information about those biological relations?

Remarks:

  • yes, I'm sure he puts the diapers on correctly, it's just that he really often produces a lot of urine during the night!
  • the specialised doctor advised us to try to increase the amount of drinking during daytime and decrease drinking during the evening meal, which is difficult.
  • I know that there is just a certain small percentage of children at this age (or older) with that problem (for the medical explanation see my older question: Bed gets wet nearly each night although diaper is worn). So that's "OK" for us, but we only try to find a practical solution which does avoid changing and washing bed clothes nearly on a daily basis, which takes a lot of time and effort.
    (Water usage and the cost for sure is an environmental and economical problem, but in this case not our concern.)
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    You comment in your other question that you have a specialist you talk to - you might want to include in the question what comments he/she has about the subject (or if you haven't asked him/her, do so and then include it in the question).
    – Joe
    Nov 11, 2014 at 16:02
  • This from WebMD may be helpful. Not the topic where one would normally think to begin such a search.
    – Sylas Seabrook
    Nov 12, 2014 at 9:49
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    It would be helpful to know the length of time between his last meal and bed, and his last snack and bed.
    – user11394
    Nov 13, 2014 at 0:43
  • @CreationEdge: good point, I've edited the question
    – BBM
    Nov 13, 2014 at 1:09
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    Good diagnosis is necessary because there are many reason e.g diabetes, weakness of bladdaer,some types of phobias,caffeine related drinks...so physically examination is necessary so please consult your family doctor.
    – Sagheer Ahmed
    Nov 14, 2014 at 19:45

3 Answers 3

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Certain foods directly influence the production of urine if they are diuretic. Diuretic substances are those that increase the production of urine.

I would advise to have your child avoid diuretic foods at dinner time. If you search for "diuretic foods" you'll get many pages, most with similar results(such as Bembu and Livestrong).

Diuretics are well-established in the medical community, and many foods and substances are known to be diuretics. There's not much I can find in the way of anti-diuretics (besides salt). So, this would seem to primarily be an issue of avoiding certain foods, rather than partaking in certain foods.

Many foods indirectly influence the production of urine based on their water content. Fruits and sauces, for instance, have high water content. About 20% of your daily water intake is from food alone.

Food influences aside, you may also need to monitor your child's bathroom usage earlier than immediately after the meal and before bed. If your child has a habit (conscious or not) of holding in his urine, then urine evacuated before bed might still be a "backlog" from the food and drink consumed before his evening meal. Once a child is old enough to know how to hold their pee in during the day, they're old enough realize going to the restroom might take time away from play, and go less often than their body tells them to. (Speaking from experience, here.)

Small bladder conditions aside, if his body is trying to catch up throughout the night with eliminating the remaining excess water from the day, then it'll inevitably lead to needing to urinate at night. Ideally, this would wake him up and he'd use the restroom on his own (easier said than done).

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About one in forty children aged 7 will wet the bed at night.

This website gives some information about bedwetting, including information about treatments.

http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Bedwetting/Pages/Introduction.aspx

sweet food could stimulate production of urine while salty food could decrease it.

Do not give your seven year old child salty food in the hopes of preventing bed wetting. That's borderline abusive.

Sometimes people make the mistake of restricting fluid intake by too much. This means the child never learns the signals of a full bladder. So, during the day you should make sure the child has enough to drink, but you should try restricting fluid intake in the evening.

Waking your child during the night is unlikely to help.

If you live in England you can try applying to get a reduction in your water bill. Most water utility companies have schemes where people with medical conditions that require a lot of washing machine use (eg people with eczema will use a lot of emollient which means they need to wash their bed sheets a lot) can get cheaper bills.

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  • thanks, Dan! It's not about the money for the water bill, but I do not want to change the bed sheets each morning (or even during the night), its a lot of work (and a lot of laundry as well, we have to dry it, wash it, dry it again...)! And yes, I know that waking him during the night does not help him learning to feel, if his bladder is full, but as I wrote it is necessary to avoid the first diaper to "overflow". We have to change it during the night to avoid a wet bed in spite the diaper
    – BBM
    Nov 12, 2014 at 15:37
  • don't worry - we are very reluctant with giving him salty food, I just wanted to know if it is possible that sweet food stimulates urine production. We try to restrict fluid intake in the evening, but it's difficult and I don't see systematic "results" yet...
    – BBM
    Nov 12, 2014 at 15:39
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    It takes 3000 mg of salt per kg of body mass to lethally dose a rat on table salt. Children who die of salt overdose are typically intentionally poisoned by adults who add pure, excessive amounts of table salt to their children's food and drink, whilst depriving them of normal drink. Allowing your child to have a higher sodium intake during the evening is not abusive behavior. You'd need to forcefully feed your child spoonfuls worth of salt. For reference, it takes about 30-40 ounces of potato chips (hundreds of chips) to get as much salt as 1 teaspoon of table salt.
    – user11394
    Nov 13, 2014 at 0:41
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I don't know about sweet vs. salty, but most food has at least some water content, and some food has a very high water content (think cucumbers). It's entirely normal to need to urinate some time after eating, even when you don't drink.

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