5 year old day wetting

[Aaateam]

My son recently turned 5 and we are still having problems with day wetting. Poos he is perfect but pees has always been an issue. He used to fully wet himself at least once a day. Over the last 6 months this has changed to small leaks and he is self initiating more. Often the leaks are confined to his underwear but sometimes they soak through to his pants but it is usually everyday. It often happens when he is busy playing or engrossed in an activity. We have tried reward charts, reminders, scheduled toilet trips. Sometimes there is improvement but it never sticks. When i ask him about it he usually says he doesn't know when he leaked and he cant explain why he didnt go to the toilet. We saw a dr and they advised going back to potty training basics but 3 months later sure there has been small improvements but nothing major. I've ordered a WOBL watch to see if that works but if it fails i'm at a loss. Does anyone have any advice on what to do from here? Everyone around me keeps saying dont stress he will grow out of it but i am very concerned that there is more to this then just needing him to grow up.

[ERIC-Charity Partner]

Hi Aaateam. Thanks for reaching out. This sounds really stressful for you as a parent. Common causes of little leaks range from having a bit of a poo traffic jam (daily poos don't rule this out!) to poor drinking (if you don't drink enough your bladder gets small) to problems in relaxed wees (if we don't take our time to relax in the right toilet position, we don't fully empty our bladder which leads to lots of little leaks) or even a UTI. We have a really good factsheet that includes information about why children’s bladders misbehave, and explains the 4 steps to a healthy bladder which I have linked for you below

eric.org.uk/Handlers/Downlo...

If you follow the 4 steps and he is still having problems this is your time for some further investigation.

Don't forget you can always call or email our Helpline for further help and support! eric.org.uk/Pages/Category/...

@ ERIC