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My 12-year-old son wet the bed!

  • Thread starter Thread starter Sweet Mother
  • Start Date Start Date
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Sweet Mother

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I think. It's times like these I wish my ex-husband were still around. I don't know anything about being a 12-year-old boy! I was going through his hamper just now (doing the laundry) and found his bed sheet all the way at the bottom. It has a yellowish stain right in the middle, and smells of urine. Not sure how long it's been there. I want to ask my son about it, but I don't want to embarrass him. He's 12, I know what it could mean, if it's not what I think it is. I think I'd rather it be him "growing up" than urine, because I'm afraid if he's wetting the bed at his age, it could mean kidney problems. How does a mother talk to her pre-teen son about these things? I'm worried it might be his kidneys. I want to call his doctor, but don't know what to tell her, yet. Please help! Thanks.
 
Just have a chat with him. Explain its a between "you and me" convo.
 
If a child of that age starts to wet the bed and he has diagnosed diabetes and or undiagnosed diabetes, then it's more than likely high blood sugars during the night.
 
CarbsRok said:
If a child of that age starts to wet the bed and he has diagnosed diabetes and or undiagnosed diabetes, then it's more than likely high blood sugars during the night.
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Actually, I can tell you right now, his blood sugar is very good at night. In fact, he always tests his blood sugar at least once in the middle of the night when he gets up to use the bathroom. I always make it a point to remind him before he goes to bed at night, and he understand the disease well enough to trust me about these things. I tell him to wake me up if it goes below or above a certain level or if he ever feels out of sorts. I used to keep a baby monitor in his room for many years so I could keep an eye on him, just in case. He's just a few feet away in the next room. But, now that he's 12, he needs his privacy and even though I'm worried to death at night, I know my place in his life right now. But, he always tells me what his blood sugar was the next morning and everything checks out fine so far.
 
My thoughts on this is that type 1s can wet the bed when having a bad hypo and not wake up. This might be the case for your son
 
iHs said:
My thoughts on this is that type 1s can wet the bed when having a bad hypo and not wake up. This might be the case for your son
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A bad hypo can make you wet the bed? Not waking up? Now you're really freaking me out! I worry about him having a severe hypo at night as it is. I always make sure his blood sugar is a little on the high side before going to bed. He always eats a fruit before bed just to make sure he doesn't go too low at night. But, if he wouldn't wake up with a bad hypo, then how is it he always managed to wake up in the morning? I might be missing something. I'd sure hate to have to put the baby monitor back in his room. He's gotten to an age where he needs his privacy. Even if it means I have to stay up all night and worry. :-(
 
My best advice is: This happens, and is probably a lot more common than you think. I could never admit it at the time, but I had the same problem. Whenever an overnight school trip was on the cards, my first question was not 'how will I manage my diabetes?' It was 'what will happen if I wet the bed?' I was still asking this question when I was doing my GCSEs, although it was no longer a problem by then. The memory of it was still fresh in my mind because it had been known to happen throughout my early years of secondary school.
 

When we are first diagnosed with diabetes, the alpha cells in the pancreas produce the hormone glucagon which makes the liver release glucose in response to bg levels which go very low beyond 2.5mmol and people sleep through the low bg levels and unfortunately some wet the bed and sweat buckets and wake up in the morning damp. I never woke up myself unfortunately and a diabetes specialist nurse told me not to worry about going hypo in the night as my liver would rescue me by releasing glucose.
 
My advice is just sit him down and talk about it.
Kids like it when grown ups talk to them in a loving respectful none judgemental manner.
I recently had to talk to my twelve year old grandson about his mother walking in on him masturbating.
It was cool calm intelligent loving and even a little humorous.
I'm not sure what problems you envisage talking to him and I'm a bit confused about a stained sheet being in a hamper .... what does that mean?
 
You know what? Sometimes this sort of thing manifests itself from worry... You might imagine a kid at that age hasn't a care in the world..? But he maybe worried about the fact you're concerned about him..
So. What can the boy do..? What can any12 year old actually do... OK so the lad goes to bed & runs this over through his head.. It's a mammoth task for a twelve year old... Communication might just make life a little easier for both of you...??!
 
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