I am a 15 year old bed wetter?

Question

My parents yelled at me about it maybe until I was eight or nine but now it's like they've given up on me. I've tried pills, arm clocks, you name it. But nothing seems to work. I've heard you grow out of it at one point, but I want to stop the problem now because it's taken over a big part of my life. I don't drink before bed and I go to the bathroom numerous times between dinner and bed, which is hard because I have some symptoms of diabetes and I need to keep hydrating, but I can't. Another thing is that often I'll have sudden urges, like my brain isn't signaled fast enough, like it takes a while for my bladder to know I have to go. I'm not sure if that's part of the problem either. However that affected a big part of my life too because there were points in elementary school where I didn't make it in time because I instantly had to go to the bathroom.

Answer 1

I'm sorry to hear what you've gone through.  I had exactly the same problem in elementary school as you describe.  Everyone thought I was just too lazy or not paying attention to when I needed to go to the bathroom... but the fact is, my bladder just wasn't aware of the need to go until about 5 minutes before it was too late.  I also wet the bed every night until I was about 12, and continued to have occasional accidents at night for a long while beyond that.

The doctors always told me pretty much what they've probably told you... that I had an underdeveloped bladder and would "grow out of it" one day.  Well, I did, kind of, but not really completely, since I still have a lot of the same symptoms, just not bad enough to wet myself anymore (except for on rare occasions at night).  I still have to go frequently and once I feel the urge, I have to go pretty quickly or it will get really uncomfortable, although I can almost always make myself hold it if I *really* have to.  It's all part of the same problem... the bladder muscles are still immature to some degree and can't relax and stretch out like normal once the bladder first gets full.  Think of the bladder like a water balloon... normally once you fill it up and stretch it out repeatedly, it becomes easier and easier to stretch it out to hold a lot over time... but if the muscles are immature, it never gets stretched and so all it can do is fill and empty repeatedly with much smaller amounts of liquid, and much less margin for error.

What to do about it... that's not easy.  For me they recommended stretching exercises where I would try to hold on to my bladder as long as I could after I first felt the urge, first for 5 extra minutes, then 10, 15, etc until I absolutely couldn't wait anymore.  This was supposed to make my bladder get used to stretching and being able to wait longer when I had to.  I think it worked somewhat, but there was a certain point after which it didn't seem to work anymore... possibly all those years of not being stretched left it just too far behind to catch up completely.  It can't hurt to try, though.  For the bedwetting, you could try one of the alarm they make with a sensor to go off at the first sign of urine leaking out (check http://www.bedwettingstore.com ).  That's supposed to help you eventually learn to wake up when you get the bladder urge before you set off the alarm... but it takes a lot of time and patience, and if there's still an underlying problem with your bladder muscles, you still might not be able to make it 100% of the time.

(This is all a very educated guess based on my own experience... but everyone is different, and if possible, it would probably be a good idea to see a urologist at sopme point just to be sure!)

Good luck... I know what you're going through and it really sucks... just try to keep your head up and remember you're not alone!  This is a medical condition you have, and not anything to feel bad about or be made fun of for, any more than wearing glasses, having asthma or diabetes, etc.  Oh yes, and I hope you continue to be monitored for the diabetes-like symptoms, because that can contribute very much to kidney and bladder problems and can do much worse if you ever develop a serious issue that isn't promptly treated.

I hope you find something that works for you!  If you have any more questions, feel free to drop me a note through my profile, i'll be glad to try to help in any way i can.

Answer 2

maybe you should stop going to bed

ive never heard of a 15yr old being asleep

Answer 3

This runs in my family because of my ex.

You need to get an alarm, that makes a noise AND delivers a mild shock when it gets wet.

One of my sons was like this til your age..and he was responsible for his own bedding cleanliness from 12 on.

Having to wash the bedding helped.

Answer 4

Go see a doctor, a specialist, and go from there.

Answer 5

Try the doctor. If that doesn't work then just wait. Your bladder might grow to it's full size.

Answer 6

I'd suggest going to the doctor and have them refer you to a urologist.  If this just started happening in your early teens, I'd say maybe you'd grow out of it.  But if it's been happening all along, I'd tend to think it's something more - especially considering the times you peed your pants in elementary school when you didn't make it because you didn't realize you had to go.  Not feeling the need to go until you're at the point of peeing in your pants isn't good, and that's likely why you're wetting the bed - your body doesn't "feel the urge" and doesn't wake you up.