7 year old son has new behavior, frequent urination

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My 7 year old son has classic autism (moderate). He has recently begun some compulsive (?) behavior involving frequent urination. He still wets the bed, and I know he has some anxiety about wetting the bed. At bedtime, he gets up to go pee four or five times in a ten minute period. I'm hoping that it is a brief phase that will pass on its own.

Anyone have similar experiences?

(I am taking him to see a doctor tomorrow, to rule out any physical problems).

Sounds medical to me. Or a sensory thing. I liked the feeling of urinating on myself as a kid. It was nipped in the bud as a young age though.

Rule out anything medical first though

I am 15 and moderate classic and tbh still wear a diaper to bed to be on the safe side. If he is only doing the frequint peeing thing at bedtime maybe he is just trying to overcome the bed wetting issue. But also I go through times when my bladder is overactive and I feel like I have to pee a lot more often. From what I have been told, bladder control issues happen in classic autism. They have never found anything medically wrong with me like a bladder infection or anthing like that. Make sure he knows its no big deal and lots of older boys have wetting problems too.

At the risk of sounding....I don't know...obtuse?...

If it is only at bed time and it stops after 10 minutes...maybe it is not something to worry about?

Maybe he can't really tell when his bladder is fully voided yet, so he is repeatedly "checking"?

Is it avoidant behavior because he's afraid of the room being dark, or of falling asleep?

Both were true for me... and bathroom was one of the few "valid" reasons to get out of bed.

I went so far as to chug water to ensure I'd have excuses, and then drew out the bathroom as long as possible.

Clearly he's not doing exactly that... but maybe he's having anxiety and the trips to the bathroom help him adjust to the darker room/the idea of falling asleep because they break the change up into increments?
Or, now that I'm typing it out... maybe it's just that he's not liking the change from being awake to having to go to bed, and the bathroom breaks that up. But without any actual anxiety.

I agree with having a medical checkup. Is he drinking water and urinating to excess? Does he have a fruity smell on his breath, and does his urine smell like nail polish remover? If so, that a BIG sign of diabetes! Only a doctor can diagnose this, after all the blood and urine samples are taken.

If, after those tests, his values look normal, I'd suggest it may be anxiety. Have a psychologist clinically evaluate him.

I have a compulsive bedtime routine - going for a wee has to be the absolute last thing I do before bed (although I've started to insert using my phone just after). If some thing else intervenes I have to go again. If my bladder feels at all full, I can't stop focusing on it and can't get to sleep.


I tend to feel like there's still urine in my bladder after going to the loo but it's harder to ignore when there's no other distractions at night.

My NT 6 yo daughter developed frequent urination at night -- getting up from bed to go to the bathroom 6-7 times a night. Her doctor said it was a sign of constipation. A one month course of Miralax fixed the problem. Her fraternal twin sister was frequently wetting the bed. Two months of Miralax solved it for her.

I am similar to ConceptuallyCurious so maybe this is a common issue. Could also tie in with anxiety about wetting the bed. Obviously I agree with everyone who mentioned ruling out medical issues, but given this is only happening specifically at bedtime that seems unlikely.

If he is wetting the bed frequently and it is disrupting his sleep or causing him a lot of stress there is no shame in wearing a nappy/pad to sleep for as long as he needs to (I have to do this sometimes as I can have continence issues during periods when my anxiety is high) - although I would also recommend letting him know that this is a private matter so he doesn't get teased about it. With my daughter we were able to skip the bed-wetting stage altogether by just keeping her in "pyjama pants" until they were regularly dry in the morning.

It sounds to me as though your son simply decided on a sensible precauntionary method of avoiding wetting his bed but being autistic anything that is repeated has a tendency to become a routine. This seems to be what has happened in your son's case. I don't pee seven times before I got to sleep but do I generally pee three times or four if I decide to read for a bit. I'd simply let him get on with it, if he regularly has dry nights then the need to continue peeing so frequently before sleep may lessen of its own accord.