My daughter is 5 and a half and has a strange pattern of bedwetting - she was dry at 3 then she had to start wearing eye patches to correct her sight. She started bedwetting every night from 3 and a half til 5. The patches stopped and the bedwetting stopped - we thought "great - that was the problem ... all fixed". However, 6 months later she has started to bedwet again ... its been 4 nights in a row and I dont know what to do about it... I have asked her if she is worried or upset about anything she says no. I just dont know what to do about it. My son is 11 and never had this problem - he was dry just before he was 3 and has never had an accident.
I work in a foundation stage class and I am often asked if there is any problem at school that may be contributing to a child's sudden regression with regard to bed wetting, usually there is no specific problem or cause at school, however it may be that your daughter is simply not having enough to drink during the day (has she access to water at school?) If she is dehydrated then she may be in retention and the messages may not be getting through to her brain that she needs to go to the loo. Ask at school if they can keep an eye on how much she is drinking and ask them to encourage her to drink more if it looks to be an issue.
Do not be tempted to put her back in training pants this will only confuse her, simply tell her calmly that it is fine and not to worry, she is probably just as upset and embarrassed as you are and it is important that these feelings are minimised. Keep a spare mattress protector, clean sheets and pyjamas handy so that she can be changed quickly and with minimum fuss during the night if necessary. Good luck.
The fact that she has been dry and the coincidence of the stress with eye problem does tend to point to an emotional situation rather than a physical one. Many problems are diagnosed physical when they are emotional and very very few problems are ever diagnosed psychological when they are in fact physical.
Solution:
This probably sounds a bit crazy to you, but instead of thinking what your daughter might be upset about, ask yourself what you might be upset about recently? At the same time as the bed wetting- what was going on for you in your life, in your home or at work...Apart from your daughter wetting the bed of course!
David
I remember when I was five years old and there were two reasons why I wet the bed after I had learned not to. One reason was because the bathroom was at the end of the dark scarry hall and I would rather pee in the bed and be cold all night (well warm at first then cold from being wet ha ha ha) rather than go down the dark scary hall that could have scarry monsters at the end of it by the bathroom. Maybe if she has to go in the middle of the night she is too scard to go by her self. Try making sure she is comfortable.
The other reason I would wet the bed is that I had a dream I was in the bathroom and would start peeing only to wake up and realize that I was in bed. And that happened a few times but I eventually learned how to wake my self up and go to the bathroom.
The last idea I can come up with is probably rare but might be the problem. My brother wet the bed until he was 15 years old, hes much older than me so I dont remember exactly what the reason for it was but I am pretty sure it was kinda like a physical disorder. He also walked in his sleep. One time he was sleep walking and went into the kitchen and peed in the oven. luckily I was only five so none of that concerned me any, but maybe she is having some type of problem like that.
