Do kids grow out of bed wetting?

[Evala]

Hi, just wondered if anyone has experience of kids growing naturally out of nightime wetting? Our son is nearly six and very wet/full pullup still overnight. It is not currently a big concern for us as he has had daytime poo issues which have been far more of an issue. But I am interested to hear views and experience. My understanding is there are two issues: a hormone reduces wee production when sleeping and some kids don't develop this until much older; and deep sleeping. My daughter was dry before age 3 with no effort from us, it just works for her, so I am wondering whether we should force it with our son, or whether nature will slowly help when he is older. I'd love to see statistics on what age dryness develops if left alone.

[CN4321]

So I don’t have an answer for you I’m afraid, but I can let you know what we are going through at the moment. My son has just turned 7 and has suffered from long term constipation, he also doesn’t empty his bladder completely and has always worn pull ups at night. I started to think about taking these off him recently when he woke about 2am, thought it was morning, took his nappy off and was dry for the rest of the night. I then started to try and lift him in the night but still his nappies were full, I mentioned to the gp who suggested an alarm.

First night I was expecting the worst and although the alarm went off 3 times he was only a little bit wet each time and I didn’t need to change the sheets at all. We are now 3 weeks in and he has had a few dry nights but it feels like we are making progress. I have been really working with him on emptying his bladder before bed (it turns out he wasn’t pushing the wee out, just letting it fall out so now he is emptying his bladder better in the day, the nights are better). In fact he just had his second dry night in a row.

I personally am now wondering that if we hadn’t taken him out of the nappy if he would have made this progress, I think the security of the pull up just meant he wasn’t getting up when he was tired.

So as I said no real answer for you, but hopefully our experiences will be a help to you, and help you decide what the next steps should be.

[LisaEntwistleEvans]

Hi there! From my own research and advice from health professionals, bedwetting is far more commonplace than we think, esp with boys. My doctor quoted a stat that 1 in 10 men in the Army wet the bed...I guess its just something not talked about? I'm worrying myself re my 11 year old son - I have 3 sons, and he's the only one affected...had lots of tests, and there is no reason...just one of those things...which doesn't make it easier when he is invited to sleepovers and gets stressed over people finding out. I wouldn't worry too much about your six year old - he has plenty of time. The advice I was given was to make sure they drink lots in the day to encourage the bladder to learn to stretch as much as poss..then wee twice before bed every night. That has helped in part for us, as its no longer every night, but I would guess that the earlier you start the better x