Car Seat Wetting

[Anne]

Hi

My 5 Yr old son has been dry during the day for about 2 yrs now but still wets at night.

But every time we go on a trip he wets his pants in his Car seat iam worried that the buckle at his crutch might be causing this or the fact that he cant move around maybe. He does tell us that ok needs to go to toilet but either by the time we get over to the side of the road and unclip him its just too late. We are now making mad dashes as soon as he says something quickly pull off to the side of the road quikly unclip him from his harness and get him out of the car asap. If this is done quick enough things are ok but we just cant keep doing this as pulling off on some roads isnt possible for a while. We have starting using his goodnites for bedwetting on long trips. While he is fine going to school down the road anything over 30 mins we have problems has any one else noticed this or have any tips what could be cuasing this. If he had problems during the day i could understand but he is totally fine at school and has once (shock horror to me ) has done a trip with his grandparents for 1 hr odd with no car seat and had no problems...

Ive had to replace the child seat cover twice now due to smell and over washing but i would like to keep him harness for a while longer but if it doesnt sort it self out we might have to change to a booster if that would help...

Thanks for any advice..

Anne

[skaterbabscpst]

my suggestion would be to plan stops every 2-3 hours. At his age he needs to stop and move around that aften anyway.

[papooses]

Does he ever complain of pain (when not in a carseat):confused: If so then his Pediatrician should be able to address the issue, but if not then I agree with the technician above that it's probably just a matter of accomodating him with age-appropriate stops for stretching & visiting a bathroom during travel.

He should never ride without any kind of child seat & a 5-point harness (that he fits within the weight/height limits as written in the user manual) is safer than a booster ... a booster would be acceptable if he is able to sit still in the proper position (no belt behind the back or under the arm or leaning out of the belt) for the entire length of every ride :o

[Anne]

Thanks for all your kind replies.

He suffers from no pain and we have taken him to a doc about his bedwetting something that 5 yr old grow out of.

Before we go on a trip we take him to the toilet or wait a little while untill he is ready, But we still have the same problem it seems like becuase he is sitting still he tends to wet more or the harness causing it. We stop for a rest on ig trips every 2 hrs but we dont get that long out of him, it can happen in a matter of half a hr or 1 hour. But the main problem seems to be that he cant hold it for very long or seems to have no control to stop it..
But only in the car seat.. Geez i hope we can fix this soon ;)

Thanks again
Anne

[papooses]

Glad to hear at least that he's healthy :)

I wonder if some kind of positive reinforcement sort of behavior modification could help? Like pretty much ignoring the emotional aspect of the carseat wetting when it happens, but the clean-up becomes his responsibility ... & he could be given a reward incentive each time he doesn't wet the carseat (starting every half hour maybe with a new $1 store gift or free activity, then bumping up to 1 hour & so on) :rolleyes: :cool:

[my3girls]

I totally agree with the idea of rewarding him for not wetting his seat, maybe even a quarter every half hour (not sure if this would impress a 5 year old, but you get the idea) And talk to the doctor about making him wait say one minute at home at first to potty, then increase it to 2 minutes, until he doesn't have to go RIGHT NOW! Is this an issue at home during the day, when he first realizes that he has to pee does he instantly NEED to be in the bathroom. I say this because the bladder can be stretched over time, I know I go to the bathroom way too much, and I've been potty trained for 29 years! :D Just my thoughts, hope you figure something out and can keep him harnessed!

[scatterbunny]

What seat is he using? Some have shorter crotch straps than others, some have crotch straps placed closer to the back of the seat shell than others; it's possible finding one with a longer/differently placed crotch strap might help.

Otherwise, I would continue using the GoodNites on longer car trips (we sometimes do this with dd, if we know the route is a rural road without rest areas or at least vehicle turnouts...she is also not dry through the night yet, but is during the day).