Many parents of children who wet the bed comment how deeply their child sleeps – while this plays a role in children’s bedwetting it is not a primary cause. Bedwetting at age 6 is much more common than you think – approximately 15% of children still wet the bed at night and the majority of these are boys. As with many other areas of development – boys’ bodies just seem to mature a little more slowly than girls so it takes them a little longer to achieve nighttime continence. If you are concerned however or it is becoming an issue for you son I would recommend that you speak with your GP firstly to rule out any possible underlying medical cause and secondly to discuss treatment solutions. You may be told to hold off as many children do stop by themselves, however if the waiting game is not for you, then treatment is a good option. There are some simple things you can try first like making sure he drinks sufficient water throughout the day, limits the amount of caffeine in his diet and avoids being overtired when going to bed. The most effective treatments currently available are conditioning alarms – a sensor is placed inside his undies or absorbent pants setting off an alarm when the urine hits it – the alarm is designed to wake him up, letting him know that he needs to get up and go to the toilet. If children are particularly sound sleepers they will usually need their parents to respond to the alarm first then wake them so that they can turn it off – so it can mean lots of broken nights sleep for both you and him. Some doctors do not recommend using these until children are at least 7 years of age, as its success depends on how motivated children are to be dry – with many younger children (especially boys) being less bothered by their bedwetting and therefore less motivated to commit to the treatment. In the meantime you can reduce the number of wet beds by using absorbent pants like DryNites – I often find it’s the wet sheets rather than the actual bedwetting that gets most parents down.

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