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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.
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