my 7 year old daughter has started being terrified to go to bed at night and has even been wetting all of a sudden. Does anyone have any input as to what could be causing this. She has not had any unusual events in her life.

Please take this openly. I do nt mean to scare you, but this is concerning. Have you asked your daughter what she is afraid of? Have you asked her if anyone has hurt her, or is hurting her? I do not mean to frighten you, but you should be very vigilant with who is around your daughter, and have a long talk with her to find out what is going on. These symptoms can be the result of someone hurting her. I pray this is not the case, but you must make sure. Take her to her pediatrician as well, as these symptoms are not normal and need to be explained as soon as possible.

I have asked her if anyone has been "hurting" her and she admantly says no so I am not sure how to proceed on this one. I am going to call her doc to see how they recommend I proceed. This was my first thought but she is really not around any males out of my supervision. Thanks for the reply.

It could be something more innocent too, as benign as a bad dream that she may not even be aware of.
When my nephew was about 8, he suddenly developed 'stomach aches' every school day and had to be forced to leave the house. A psychologist swiftly uncovered the source of the problem. Nephew had heard about a woman who was attacked in her home; he developed a fear it would happen to his mom, and so he wanted to be home to protect her.

Hope you sort it out soon.

Someone or something has obviously frightened her and the important thing is to lessen the effect by having a consultation with a psychologist just to make sure you are doing everything to lessen the trauma. Some pediatricians are basically just involved in the physical treatment of their patients and are not savvy regarding fears. etc. so I would definitely want to see a child psychologist or child psychiatrist re: how to handle this. That would also nip any possible long term effects in the bud.

it doesnt have to be a male who is hurting her. i was hurt by a female for years. i dont want to upset you, but i would look at ANYONE near your daughter, not just the males.
i hope your daughter is OK...it could be as simple as a dream she doesnt want to tell anyone. i would speak to a child psychologist.

For all of you that answered thank you. I took her to the doc yesterday and she has a very terrible urinary tract infection which the doc said is obviously making her wet herself and could even be the source of her being afraid at night as it probably hurts her to lie down. We will keep a close look and if this infection clears up but the night stuff doesn't then we are going to a counselor. Thanks again!

Hi I am sorry your daughter has an infection and that may be all it is but I also wanted to add that it is not only adults who harm children. Other children harm them also. I assume she goes to school so you may want to ask if when she goes to the bathroom does she ever have any company? Or how about a friends house? Any older brothers around? Sometimes when you ask a child if anyone is harming them they immediatley think of adults, not other kids. Kids can say things like they are playing house or doctor. Also is she afraid to go to the bathroom at school or anywhere else? She may not even say she is but just avoid it therefore holding it in which in itself may cause an infection. I am not speaking blindly but from experience and it was not an adult but another child. I sincerely hope that this is not the case with your daughter and that it is in fact just the infection. ( not that that's any fun either but it is better than the alternative) Also I just want to add something similar to what someone else had said- I have a 5 year old son and one day he heard on the news about a man breaking into peoples house and attacking women and it terrified him to the point that he felt he needed to sleep in my bed with me so I would not be alone if he came to our house! I have a husband but my son said he needed to stay too in case daddy didn't wake up. I wish you the best!

I hope the explanation is a simple one and this may be way out but I feel I should mention it. Something bothers me about her hesitancy in telling you that she was having pain in that area. I recall that I had an infection when I was a small child (still remember it!) and cried and told my mother. I still would check with the psychologist to make sure there are no issues surrounding this.

She actually has had no pain which is the surprising part. the doc asked and she said she never did, she would just go to the restroom sometimes in her pants, etc. and not even realized she had gone. we are keeping a close eye on her and hopefully this will resolve with this. I will keep all of you up to date and thanks for all the suggestions, etc. Believe me all of them have crossed my mind at sometime and I have discussed every possibility of someone touching her inappropriately with her and she says that noone, child, adult, etc. has. Thanks again for your support!

I know this is gonna sound crazy, but, check out your toilet paper. I used to get uti's quite a bit, and it turned out to be the charman. unfortunatley, charman leaves "fibers" that are small and shedd. they caused alot of my problems. the dr. asked me to try not using it, and I haven't had an infection for years, at least 10. Kidney infections are another issue for me, but the bladder infections are gone. I also agree with some of the other reply's you've gotten. you never know these days. My own daughter hasn't been to any of her friends homes for overnights. My husband and I feel that we are her best defence and since this type of stuff usually happens at overnights or where ever these people can get there hands on our kids. the best place to be is with us. we also do not have overnights, in order to protect ourselves. My husband travels at least 2 times a year, and we usually have a slumber party, and I invite the girls moms as a girls night out thing. we have alot of fun, and there is more than one adult and lots of accountability. My prayers are with you.

If she was having the accidents before being afraid, she might be afraid of going to bed knowing the possibility that she may have another accident.

I know this is gonna sound crazy, but, check out your toilet paper. I used to get uti's quite a bit, and it turned out to be the charman. unfortunatley, charman leaves "fibers" that are small and shedd. they caused alot of my problems.

I have the same problem with charmin toilet paper!!! All this time I thought it was just me! :)

mhennum, did your daughter have ANY other symptoms other than tantrums at bedtime and bedwetting? How did they determine she had a UIT? My youngest daughter recently went through this thing where she screamed her head off at bedtime, and a few times when she'd wet her diaper, she cried like it was hurting and uncomfortable. Her doc said she was too young to really get a good urine sample without a cath, and he didn't want to do it if he didn't have to (I didn't want him to do it either!) so he is doing the "wait and watch" thing for now. He said to give her LOTS of cranberry juice (all natural, no sugar added, and diluted with water), and keep her "girl parts" as clean and dry. We've been doing that for several weeks now, and her symptoms seem to have cleared up. How is your daughter doing now?

We did a pee in the cup thing and they sent it out to lab for results which came back that she had large white leuks in the urine (i.e. UTI). Since she has been on Augmentin for 5 days now she is actually not quite as clingy at bedtime....i lie down with her and she falls asleep within minutes and rarely wakes up so hopefully this is it for now.....and by the way I did switch to Angel Soft T.P. as we too were using Charmin just to see if that helps.

I am glad that things are looking better for you. My daughter was 4 months old when she had a UTI and man she suffered. I remember my first UTI... I didn't know what was going on so I hid it for days. Finally my mom heard me crying when I had to use the restroom. I was really embaressed to even tell her but it was a lot better than the pain. My daughter's was actually caused from heat, the room she had was drafty so we had put an extra heater in there and it actually was too warm. There are many different causes of UTI's... and she probably was scared to tell anyone. Even 7 year olds can be scared to talk to their parents.
Best of luck!

My 6 year old son went through a similar thing not long ago. He caught a short glipse of a horror film my DH was watching after the kids went to bed. He had gotten out of bed to go to the bathroom and saw the tv. He woke up every night for 2 weeks insisting he was hearing noises and sobbed hysterically if we tried to make him go to sleep in his own bed (which was VERY unlike him). We continuously told him it was just a movie and make believe etc, etc. Eventually it stopped. I hope its something as benign as this. Good luck to you!