Stop Bedwetting

Bedwetting can be an upsetting and embarrassing problem for many children and their parents. It is also a very common problem – about 50% of three year olds wet the bed in the night, and while 90% of these children stop wetting the bed on their own by the age of 6, for some children, mostly boys, this remains a problem for several years. (2/3 of the children who continue wetting the bed are boys).

Night-time bedwetting is called nocturnal enuresis. As each year passes, incidences of bedwetting should decrease as your child’s bladder grows. 10% of all six year olds and 3% of all 14 year olds wet the bed.

If your child has enuresis, you may want to consider whether they have primary or secondary enuresis. In primary enuresis, toddlers who have completed potty training have simply not progressed to dry nights. In secondary enuresis, children who previously experienced consistently dry nights seem to regress and begin bed wetting in the night.

Primary enuresis is likely for most children to grow out of. Secondary enuresis may be caused by an emotional problem or a change in sleeping habits.

Bedwetting is occasionally due to a medical condition, and if you become concerned, you should definitely see your child’s pediatrician.

Is your child just not ready to sleep the night without a diaper?

Your potty trained toddler or preschooler may not be ready to sleep the night through without a diaper. While some toddlers who are toilet trained have dry nights, it can be difficult to expect muscles and brains which respond to the need to urinate during the day to also do so at night while sleeping. Also, during the day, many toddlers empty their bladders every few hours – the eight to ten hours that toddlers might sleep for in the night could simply be just too long.

If your child does not want to wear diapers now that they are toilet trained, try using diaper pull up pants, which can seem more like underwear.

You can tell when your toddler is ready to try going through the night without a diaper by the following signs:

• Fewer or no nighttime wettings

• Your toddler wakes him or herself up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom

• Your toddler stays dry during the day for 3 – 4 hours

• Your toddler is dry after naps

Once you have decided your toddler is ready, this may not necessarily mean they will immediately go through every night without wetting the bed. Every child takes a different length of time to get to the point where they can go through the night.