Hi Alison – the way parents manage children’s bedwetting can often make or break a delicate situation. The first thing you need to do is reassure him that you understand that his nighttime wetting is largely beyond his control. Making the distinction between daytime (conscious) and nighttime (unconscious) wetting is very important. Sometimes children feel better about the situation if you explain to them some of the reasons why they may still be wetting at night. You need to put this into words that he can easily understand: his bladder does the job of storing his urine, some children have bladders that are able to store more urine than others; his kidneys produce urine – our kidneys are meant to slow down at night in how much urine they produce however this doesn’t always happen and if they produce more urine than the bladder can store this can result in bedwetting. Another thing about the bladder is that it sends special signals to the brain that it is full and needs emptying – if those signals do not get sent to the brain telling it to wake-up this can also lead to bedwetting. The best indicator that your child is moving toward achieving nighttime continence is an increase in the number of mornings he wakes-up dry. Whether or not children use absorbent pants will typically have very little impact on this process – DryNites should ultimately be viewed as a form of management as they neither prolong the bedwetting stage nor do they help children to achieve continence.

Regards,
Dr Cathrine

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