If a child is asleep and they don’t wake up when they need to pee, they wet the bed. It’s commonly known as bedwetting, and it’s how doctors define nocturnal enuresis.
You may be surprised to learn more than half of children age 3 1/2 years have learned to wake and go to the bathroom when they need to pee in the night. If bedwetting runs in your family (bedwetting can be hereditary), it might seem more common than it is.
Here are the numbers:
Bedwetting is uncommon at age 5 and rare in older children and teens
If a child still wets the bed at age 5, they may start having social and self-esteem problems. They will start to realise most other kids their age don’t need night nappies (or diapers).
Bedwetting gets harder to treat as children get older. If your child is a girl age 6 or a boy age 7 and still wetting the bed, it’s time to start helping them learn ‘the trick’ that stops bedwetting.
Yes. To stop wetting the bed is a great achievement for a toddler, child or adolescent. They often:
Parents say, when a child stops bedwetting, family life improves too. Things like:
So what’s ‘the trick’ that helps children stop bedwetting?
First, you need to know how your child’s brain is developing, to understand why it works.
Your child has already learned to notice when they need to wee during the day. But learning not to pee the bed at night is different. For this, they need to make a new connection in their brain.
The brain needs to learn that the feeling of needing to pee -- when asleep – means, ‘wake up!’
If a child doesn’t learn on their own how to wake up when they need to pee, there is a proven way parents can help.
Medical problems may result in bedwetting, or make it harder to treat.
Look out for these conditions, and see a doctor if you think your child might have one:
All kids are different, but all kids learn not to wet the bed the same way – by making that new connection in the brain. And that’s exactly how a bedwetting alarm helps.
The only reason you, as an adult, don’t wet the bed, is your brain once learned to notice you need to pee while asleep, and wake you up. That’s ‘the trick’.
Most kids will learn ‘the trick’ without help well before school age. For the few that don’t, a bedwetting alarm can speed up their learning.
Bedwetting alarms are the go-to solution for any enuresis (bedwetting) clinic, because they work far better than any other method.
It’s so much more than an alarm to tell you and your child when they’ve wet the bed. It’s a learning aid, helping your child’s brain make new connections – the connections that mean they can stop bedwetting.