Effective Bedwetting Solutions

There are three types of bedwetting solutions: behavioural guidance (reward chart, bed wetting alarm, ...), bedwetting medication (DDAVP) and surgery.

Only 1% of children bedwetting has an underlying medical condition. All others simply need some more time to develop the ability to stay dry at night, typically by the age of 6-8. Bedwetting is not due to laziness or wilfulness: it is developmental.

So it is mostly outgrown and harmless, meaning you can simply be patient and do nothing.

What can happen though, is that it makes your child feel bad, and harm his/her self-esteem. That's why you may decide to do something about it. Of course, any treatment should be very careful and focus on gently guiding without stigmatising.

The reason for treating is mainly to build self-esteem and also for practical reasons such as when the child goes on sleepovers. Or to leave us moms and dads with a bit less sheets to wash ...

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Behavioural bedwetting solutions

This type of solution is all about encouraging or conditioning your child to stay dry at night. Even if it is developmental, positive encouragement increases your child's motivation and this can effectively impact self-esteem and development.

1. A simple thing you can do is limit the amount your child drinks in the 1-2 hours before bedtime. Do not stress it by telling your child "he will wet the bed if he drinks too much". Simply make sure he drinks enough during the day and don't make extra drinks part of the routine in the evening.

2. A very effective gentle method is to work with a reward chart. This is extremely useful with children aged 5-8. You can try it for a month or so. If it works, continue for another month if necessary. If you see no improvement after a month, it is better to let it rest, and then give it another try later on.

How? Make or print out a nice looking monthly calendar chart - download one for free from the sticker reward chart page. Each morning after a dry night, you praise your child and give him a cool/fun sticker.

No sticker after a wet night but also no reprimanding and not much paying attention to it (since you definitely want to avoid that it becomes a psychological fight).

3. Waking up. Often seen as a bad idea, it is an option to wake your child after a few hours of sleep and take him to the bathroom - probably all sleepy and maybe not even waking up fully.

Although this will not help speed up the staying-dry ability, it can be a good trick to work on self-esteem. It is also helpful in specific situations like when staying at a hotel or with visitors around.

4. Bedwetting diapers are a good idea. Wearing a dry-night diaper takes a lot of pressure of both the child and yourself. They make a wet night less of an issue and are ideal to keep you both relaxed.

A bedwetting diaper is perfect to combine with the above bedwetting solutions.

5. A bedwetting alarm wakes up your child when he wets himself at night. The idea is to condition him to wake up when

Quite controversial but possibly successful, your doctor may advise this bed wetting alarm in specific situations.

6. In very specific cases, you doctor may advise psychotherapy for your child.

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Bedwetting medication

After a thorough examination, your doctor/urologist may suggest medication therapy. DDAVP is a drug that replaces the vasopressin hormone (responsible for regulating urine production at night).

Although you may want to avoid any drug unless absolutely necessary, this treatment can give good results. However, it is no miracle solution and gives no 100% guarantee for your child.

Alternatively, when there is no underlying medical cause, you may consider a homeopathic treatment. Such treatments aim at reducing nervousness and help improve confidence, which can effetively help reduce bedwetting: Get More Info on Be-Dry for Child Bedwetting.

Surgery

Urethral enlargement is the surgical treatment also used for some adult bed wetting problems. Needless to say also here it is your doctor/urologist who will decide after thorough examination.

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As discussed on the bedwetting main page, up until the age of 6-8, bed wetting is usually not worrying and self-resolving. With the above bedwetting solutions, especially the effective homemade behavioural solutions 1-4 above, you can guide your child in a gently way.

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