Hi Adrienne – your daughter is experiencing what we commonly refer to as Secondary Nocturnal Enuresis – this describes a situation where children who have been dry at night for at least 6 months begin to wet the bed. There are both physical and psychological reasons underlying secondary wetting so it is important that you first rule out any possible medical cause. The majority of secondary bedwetting results from emotional problems. Parental divorce or separation is considered a significant psychological stressor for many young children. When stress is the cause of a return to wetting, children’s bedwetting often stops once they a feeling less anxious and their concerns are resolved. When children are experiencing significant life stressors such as parental divorce and separation, it is important to provide lots of love and reassurance. During this time avoid introducing too many new things at once as this can add to her stress. Reassure your daughter that none of this is her fault. Promoting self-confidence and positive self-esteem is particularly important at this time. Wearing DryNites will certainly help you to better cope with the situation, as you will no longer have to deal with the added burden of wet sheets or disturbed sleep patterns; it may help to explain to her that DryNites are designed for big kids even teenagers! Waking her will not help her to learn to wake on her own again so it is generally best to avoid this form of management. If you do decide to continue taking her to the toilet at night, try varying the times that you do this as you want to avoid conditioning her bladder into needing to empty at the same time each night. I wish you all the best at this difficult.

Regards,
Dr Cathrine

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