The other day I saw a 16-year-old bedwetting patient who'd never had a dry night. His mom told me: "At age 5, 8, 10, the pediatrician kept saying, 'Don't worry, he'll grow out of it.' When he was 14, he wanted to go to Rome with the Latin club. I sent him with nine garbage bags for the bed." In my practice, this story is typical. My clinic is full of tweens and teenagers whose parents have heard, for years: "Don't worry—she's just a deep sleeper." "Don't worry—her bladder hasn't caught up to her brain." "Don't even worry about it until she's 7." Naturally, parents do worry! Because their kids are getting teased, missing out on sleepovers, and losing self-esteem. Because pull-ups aren't cheap
Virtually every bedwetting patient in my clinic was assured by a pediatrician or urologist that on some magical day in the future, he or she would wake up dry, never to wet the bed again. As the mom of a 16-year-old patient told me, “Every year, through age 5, 8, 10, 14, the pediatrician kept saying, ‘Don’t worry, he’ll grow out of it.” Parents in our Facebook support group report receiving the same “reassurance.” One mom posted: “Starting when my son was age 6, we were repeatedly told by two different family practitioners, “This happens. Don't worry, he'll outgrow it. A few comments that stand out in my memory: ‘When he really wants to stay dry he will." And: "Just wait till he really want
I X-ray all the patients referred to me for bedwetting and daytime accidents. Virtually all of these kids are shown to be severely constipated, with a rectal diameter greater than 3 cm, sometimes as wide as 6 to 8 cm (think: softball). In terms of prior treatment, these kids tend to fall into two categories: 1.) children whose constipation went undiagnosed by their referring doctor, and 2.) children who were prescribed Miralax and, when that failed, more Miralax and then . . . even more Miralax. Needless to say, all that Miralax — known generically as PEG 3350 and sold in the United Kingdom and Australia as Movicol — did not work. Otherwise, these kids would not have landed in my incontinen
Do you have questions about bedwetting, accidents, or constipation? Post them on the Bedwetting And Accidents Facebook page, or send them to suzanne@bedwettingandaccidents.com. Q: How many kids who complete M.O.P. are able to stay dry for good? I worry about subjecting our daughter to enemas only to have her relapse and get down on herself, like when her bedwetting medication stopped working. A: Many children take longer than 30 days to achieve dryness on the Modified O'Regan Protocol — they're so severely constipated that even daily enemas don't clear them out immediately — but once they get through the entire regimen, virtually all of my patients stay dry. They fare much better in the long
