Bed-Wetting for Older Kids

I finally got over feeling ashamed that my son was having this problem. I worried that it reflected some kind of laxness on my part as a parent. We discussed it with the pediatrician repeatedly but he never seemed concerned that it was continuing. I concluded that my son is an extremely heavy sleeper and was just not aware of his need to urinate during the night. After periods of worry the consensus seemed to be that my son would outgrow this.

I'm happy to say now that at age 7 it finally seems to be tapering off. We certainly didn't go out of our way to bring up the topic on visits to Grandma's house--she definitely didn't get it.

Regarding shame, I could see my son was eager for this to end so I did not need to put any pressure on him. I have congratulated him every time there is a dry night, but left it at that.

I was also interested to hear one day that my son and his best buddy had exchanged confidences at school--each admitted he was still sleeping with a Pull-up. It's a challenge that's more widespread than you might think, and it was a lesson to me that my son was able to navigate the issue gracefully on his own. Sometimes I think I was bringing my own unnecessary stress and shame to the situation.

Nose Picking

We tell our son it's okay to do this in the bathroom, in private, in addition to spitting and some of his other unpleasant habits. I did notice that public nose picking diminished once our son entered kindergarten--kids quickly catch on that this is gross and will be quick to comment if they see a classmate doing it!

Crying It Out

My infant son was a pretty good sleeper early on, but at about 2 months there were cries in the middle of the night that my husband and I disagreed about. My husband was certain they were cries of hunger. The idea that we were depriving our baby was too much for him. I felt I could distinguish between hungry cries and other general cries and that these were not about hunger. What an awful time! We argued bitterly. Finally we took it up with the pediatrician and he said it was okay to ignore the cries--that our son was getting plenty to eat. The mid-night crying diminished and we got through that first year without too much difficulty.

18 months to two years old? That was a different story! By then your child develops a whole repertoire of anxieties and manipulations that make nighttime complicated in a whole new way...