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Bed Wetting

Bedwetting continues to be common amongst older children. Even if they have completely mastered going to the loo during the day, going to the loo at night can be another story. It is important to remember that bedwetting is common in children and is part of their physical and emotional development - it is not a sign of laziness or illness, so it is certainly not something your child should be punished for. This is especially important, as your child is likely to feel upset and embarrassed after each bedwetting incident.

After each time, be patient, calm and relaxed. Get your child to help you remake the bed whenever they wet it to foster a sense of responsibility - without making them feel guilty! Use a special mattress and never wake a sleeping child to take them to the toilet yourself. Consider taking advice from your GP - they may advise using the 'pad and bell' method, where a bell rings and wakes your child once the pad they sleep on is wet. Over a period of a few weeks, he or she will gain greater bladder control until they are capable of getting out of bed and going to the toilet. It is best to use this method under medical supervision.

If your child has been dry for a while and then starts to wet the bed again, this may be a sign of stress or anxiety. In this case, you need to talk to him or her gently to find out if anything is going on. Are they happy at school or home? Is something in particular causing them distress? Hopefully, once you have located the source of upset and dealt with the problem together, the bedwetting should cease.

Please also see our pages on Train for the Loo and Toilet Fear.

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Your Views and Experiences

Mily has just started school and is now wetting her bed every night. She has never been the best at keeping dry at night, once a week bedwetting being the norm, but for the last two weeks it has happened every night. She is quite matter of fact about it, taking off her pyjamas before coming through to tell me, and mentioning it quite airily,' oh,I've done a wee again' as though it was normal. She seems to do it just before waking, she certainly never gets up in the night to tell us she has done another, or is happy to sleep in the wet. She has a potty beside her bed, which she used to use occasionally, but now it is never used. She is loving school but is very tired at night so we have put it down to sleeping so deeply at night she doesn't even notice she needs the loo or is wet. Hopefully she will stop soon though, it's a trial having to wash the bedding every day.

Sara

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