July 8, 2000
Other
Question from Maryland, USA:
My son is 12 (13 in a few months) and has had Type I diabetes for 5 years. He is on the pump with one basal rate of 0.8 ml/hr. His HC1A’s have run anywhere from 7-8. He tests 5-7 times a day.
Our biggest problem is that he continues to wet the bed. We have tried an alarm. He sleeps through it. We have tried DDAVP and it works for a few weeks and then it does not. Our doctor feels that it is not physiological or there would be problems presenting during the day. The bedwetting does not seem to bother our son. We make him change the sheets and do the laundry but still no effect. He sleeps so soundly that he does not even wake up when he has an accident and when I wake him up in the morning it takes him about a minute to realize that he has had an accident. Is there anything we can do to help him? He wants to go to camps and sleepovers but the bedwetting concerns me.
Answer:
It sounds as though you’re son’s diabetes is well controlled. The bed wetting is unlikely to be due to diabetes, and is still not unusual in someone your son’s age.
There are no magic cures, unfortunately, and the main aims are to train his bladder and brain so that he recognises that the bladder is full and so prevent wetting. The alarm together with DDAVP is a useful treatment, as well as continual encouragement. It should get better with time.
JS
