Child With Bedwetting, Intolerances

[Theladyk]

Hi All,

I'm hoping to get some advice or tips for my 8yo son who's suffering with bedwetting. A brief background;

• I fell pregnant with my son after 8 years on birth control pill, with about a 6 month break between getting off the pill and conceiving.
• He was conceived during a time of super high stress
• I was administered antibiotics during labour due to strep B
• My son developed colic at 4 weeks old - 9 weeks old.
• At around 3 months of age he was waking through the night, every 45 minutes, and never slept well during the day (20 minute naps).
• He didn't sleep through the night until 18 months old
• As a toddler he was extremely high strung, couldn't be still, never restful
• At age 3 he was diagnosed with sleep apnoea due to swollen tonsils
• We changed diet to gluten and dairy free, and this made a huge impact on behaviour and reduced tonsils so sleep apnoea was eliminated.
• Behaviour is still very sensitive based on diet - any colours or additives seem to affect sleep and hyperactivity

We've tried waking him through the night, but his sleep is so deep we practically have to support him all the way to the toilet and keep waking him to use it.

We've tried cyproheptadine based on another thread suggestion and comments about high serotonin, and this had an immediate impact and reduced betwetting pretty consistently for some time, however we're now getting maybe 3-4 nights dry and then another accident.

The poor little guy seems disheartened and discouraged every time he has an accident.

He's eating pretty Peat friendly - lots of raw carrot, low PUFA, heaps of fruit, some starch/carbs and meat. Salt to taste. I try to let him listen to his body in regards to what he wants to eat, while keeping PUFA low.

Can anyone point me to any other possible causes or things to try? Any bloods we should check, or deficiencies that may be likely based on the above history?

I've suspected high serotonin (dad also has Chronic fatigue, depression) and read through the forum regarding that, but not sure which methods are appropriate for this age.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

 

[bornamachine]

I recall peat interviewing and talking about a boy who either had panic attacks waking up or panic attacks and bed wetting, in mexico. They made a batch of cookies with vitamin B and he ate like 6, never to have any issues again. Youre gonna have to find that interview, it was a long time ago.

 

[somuch4food]

My boy had an undiagnosed egg allergy for 6 months and also had those same sleep issues for his first 18 months of life. He also had some autistic traits and struggled with eczema during his first year.

The eczema went away when I eliminated carrots from his diet and doing a low carotene diet helped with some of his behaviors too.

I've also encountered some stories of children getting better with regards to bedwetting with a low carotene or a low oxalates diet.

At the moment, I'm only restricting eggs and lactose. I also cut gluten for a while but it didn't do anything noticeable. Being lactose-free resolved most of my son's sleep issues.

His egg allergy is actually not a standard iGe mediated allergy, it's called FPIES. He recently failed his reintroduction and I'm back on experimenting again to heal his gut and his allergy. I suspect that children intolerant to compounds have leaky guts or some other condition.

Last year, my son had a chronic infection that resolved during summer and was coming back as summer was ending. I was always a bit wary of supplements, but with this pattern it seemed to be related to vitamin D and I started giving him a low dose and it does seem to help. Just to say that I'm now on board with supplements as a necessity in some cases.

I'm now thinking that vitamin B12 could help him since he seems to feel better whenever he eats more animal products. Vitamin A also seem to be useful to gut health.

 

[redsun]

Hi All,

I'm hoping to get some advice or tips for my 8yo son who's suffering with bedwetting. A brief background;

• I fell pregnant with my son after 8 years on birth control pill, with about a 6 month break between getting off the pill and conceiving.
• He was conceived during a time of super high stress
• I was administered antibiotics during labour due to strep B
• My son developed colic at 4 weeks old - 9 weeks old.
• At around 3 months of age he was waking through the night, every 45 minutes, and never slept well during the day (20 minute naps).
• He didn't sleep through the night until 18 months old
• At age 3 he was diagnosed with sleep apnoea due to swollen tonsils
• We changed diet to gluten and dairy free, and this made a huge impact on behaviour and reduced tonsils so sleep apnoea was eliminated.
• Behaviour is still very sensitive based on diet - any colours or additives seem to affect sleep and hyperactivity

We've tried waking him through the night, but his sleep is so deep we practically have to support him all the way to the toilet and keep waking him to use it.

We've tried cyproheptadine based on another thread suggestion and comments about high serotonin, and this had an immediate impact and reduced betwetting pretty consistently for some time, however we're now getting maybe 3-4 nights dry and then another accident.

The poor little guy seems disheartened and discouraged every time he has an accident.

He's eating pretty Peat friendly - lots of raw carrot, low PUFA, heaps of fruit, some starch/carbs and meat. Salt to taste. I try to let him listen to his body in regards to what he wants to eat, while keeping PUFA low.

Can anyone point me to any other possible causes or things to try? Any bloods we should check, or deficiencies that may be likely based on the above history?

I've suspected high serotonin (dad also has Chronic fatigue, depression) and read through the forum regarding that, but not sure which methods are appropriate for this age.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

Only thing about deficiency I see is lower B12 and folate intake correlated with bedwetting. Makes sense seeing as those two nutrients are vital for nervous system development.

Please tell me you are feeding your kids eggs daily, I don't see you mention eggs at all. And I am not sure why you would restrict dairy just in the hopes it is going to help bedwetting or if it was for behavior... Restricting a vital food group so the kid behaves better is not a good reason. Gluten is understandable, because there are other good starches to substitute wheat. Real dairy is too important to restrict in a child's diet unless he literally will die because of it or deal with chronic problems.

Eggs provide choline, cholesterol, B vitamins, all vital for nervous system development. Dairy provides important minerals and Bs especially B12. Meat, starch, and fruit is not adequate for a developing child and especially not for a developing nervous system. If pasteurized dairy gives issues, fermented dairy like yogurt, kefir, aged cheese are still good options and they are more likely to be tolerated. Foods that are great for folate would be organs(rough, but if you can feed your kid liver weekly, he'll be a lot healthier for it).

If you feed the child's nervous system better by incorporating more animal foods then the problem should go away on its own. Meat is great, but at least eggs are a must. Liver would also be vital as well and its important to try to reintroduce dairy if possible.

Raw carrot is probably irritating the intestinal system and obviously raising serotonin. I don't know why raw carrot is common here, but there is absolutely no reason to give raw carrot to a child and is likely doing harm.

• As a toddler he was extremely high strung, couldn't be still, never restful

Yeh... that's how kids are supposed to be.

 

[Theladyk]

Thanks everyone for your advise. I should've clarified, when we removed cows dairy (due to enlarged tonsils and sleep apnoea, not behaviour) from his diet, we did soon after try him on goat and sheeps milk/cheese/yoghurt, so he's always had a good amount of goat dairy at least in his diet (daily cheese and yoghurt or milk). About a year ago we were able to reintroduce cow's dairy as well, and he has healed enough that it didn't seem to cause the same issues as before. We've also done sourdough spelt on occasion and that's not caused any problems. Sorry, this slipped my mind to mention in the original post.

And while he doesn't like eggs, we do ensure he gets them regularly.

I never would've thought of B12 being an issue, but it seems to fit with a lot of his issues. Could this still be a factor even though he has been consuming goats dairy the whole time, and more recently cow's milk products? He has also struggled with a little bit of anxiety and slow growth, which are both listed as symptoms of B12 deficiency.

Can anyone recommend a good supplement suitable for kids? I know it's preferable to get it from his diet, but if he's deficient now I'm not sure what I could do to address it through diet alone, as he's already eating animal products and eggs daily.

 

[Theladyk]

One more thing, in case it's relevant. I have one of the more extreme versions of MTHFR. From what I've read on this forum that's not really seen to be something worth worrying about or even as a need to use methylated B's, but did just want to mention it in case it's relevant to how I should manage his B supplementation or diet, in the chance it's been passed on to him. I'm still struggling to get my head around the whole topic to be honest!

 

[Markus]

It could be related to amines, phenols and salicylates. Look into BioIndividual Nutrition 2019 - BioIndividual Nutrition Institute.