It stinks. I embarassingly went through this with BS6 up until right after her turned six about five months ago. I even talked to the doctor any time I took either kid in for anything. I tried everything short of the bed wetting alarm. I started having him go a lot during the evening. I told him I didn't want him holding it at all before bedtime. He would go when he got home from school, either before or right after dinner, and right before bed. If he woke up for any reason, he would go again. If he fell asleep in the car on a later evening when we were out, I would make him go. It was a PAIN. It was frustrating, and he still had accidents for a bit, then all of a sudden, it just stopped. I had issues with bio dad being consistent as well, but he just seemed to all of a sudden grow out of it. Which is what the doctor said could happen, he might have just had a small bladder.

Even if BM doesn't want to deal with it, she has to clean that up! Well you know what I mean, it's smelly, it's urine, it's body waste. Even if it gets to a point where he just has a plastic sheet and a towel or old besheet over the plastic(I have done this in the middle of the night), it's much easier to clean than an entire set of linens.

I hate to tell you this but my ss did this until he was 13. We had those night time underwear he would have to wear so his room did not smell and we were not washing on a daily basis. I started making him wash them himself but I know at 5 you can't. Some kids do have lots of problems and 5 is still very young. Who care what BM does get the night time underwear for your place only and have him wear them. If he refuses to wear them go to a health care store and ask for "chucks" they are thick cloth pads you can put on the bed/chair where ever you need them. Then the sheets won't get wet. Even when I was preg I was worried I would leak or my water break so I had one for my bed, one for the chair and one for my car to sit on!

Yeah. Ive had the same issues. With my ss14.

Some kids bladders mature later than others. This may very well be something he grows out of soon on his own.

It could be emotional. There are only 3 real things that a child can control. When he sleeps, when he potties, and what he eats.

We tried everything with my ss14 over the years. Multiple medications. Pottying before bedtime, pottying in the middle of the night, plastic sheets, no extra blankets, the alarm. Reward systems. Making him clean himself up. As you may have noted, by his age nothing EVER worked.

He was seemingly never bothered by wet pullups, smelly body, smelly room. Also when he was 7 or 8 he went through a phase of peeing himself during the day at school and then sitting in it ALL day long. He did move past that after a few months. When he hit about 12 or so he started to be concerned about showering each morning before school-but still to this day would not care if his room smelled, his bed smelled, and everything in it including his clean clothes absorbed the odor of the urine. He started to refuse pullups at around 8. Too babified. He refused to use the plastic sheet. No reason given, but just refused. He lived with us for 4 months last spring. We bought him a brand new mattress when he moved in. Put a plastic sheet on it. That he kept taking off. We had to throw out the mattress when he moved out 4 months later. He refused to limit his fluid intake. Refused to make sure he peed before bed. Refused to wash his blankets from his bed and refused to even carry them to the laundry room for someone else to wash. There could be as many as 6-8 blankets festering in his room at a time. In his mind, it was not his fault at all that he wet himself so there was nothing he could do to control it, so why try?

I dont mean to scare you, as your ss is still young. My bios were all bedwetters as well-up until age 9 or so. It is a real pain in the ass-but they did outgrow it. The main thing I focused with them on was-taking responsibility for it. NO shaming-but hey if you've got this problem you need to learn how to take care of it. That's why we do plastic sheets, that's why you need to launder your things, that's why you need to limit your fluids, etc.

There is a hormone that is excreted by the brain when you are asleep and it 'notifies' your bladder that you are asleep and it causes your urine to concentrate (hence you pee darker in the morning). In some boys (including my younger son) this hormone is not excreted at an appropriate age. So my son would go to bed, pee beforehand and 2 hours later be as wet as anything.

Making him sleep on plastic will not help. Making him clean himself up out of anger will not help.

This is what I would do (knowing what I know now). In the evening he restricts his fluids. He pees before going to bed and THEN puts on a pull-up just before he goes to sleep. I would also get him checked for some urinary problem (it may be something that simple). Then he gets to wear a pull-up. Until he can stay dry at night he cannot go to sleep overs. And as his siblings get older this WILL become important. He has to be responsible for taking off the wet sheets. Maybe consider a draw-sheet setup which means he only wets a smaller sheet that covers only half the bed. YOu use plastic sheeting over the middle 1/2 of the bed (1/4 down from the top and 1/4 up from the bottom of the bed. Yopu hem a piece of sheeting to fit and then this gets washed every day rather than all the sheets. I used to get cheaper sheets form goodwill and cut them in half. Half underneath and half on top the boy.

My son was nearly 9 before he stopped. It is extremely frustrating. You get a couple good nights and then you are back to square one again. But he will grow out of it eventually.