Hi Y. J., bedwetting can be incredibly frustrating especially when there seems to be no obvious cause. As a parent, the most important thing is to reassure your child that this is in no way his fault – how we as parents manage the situation is most important in terms of fostering positive self-esteem and self-confidence. Sometimes children feel better about the situation if you explain to them some of the reasons why they may still be wetting at night. You need to put this into words that he can easily understand: his bladder does the job of storing his urine, some children have bladders that are able to store more urine than others; his kidneys produce urine – our kidneys are meant to slow down at night in how much urine they produce however this doesn’t always happen and if they produce more urine than the bladder can store this can result in bedwetting. Another thing about the bladder is that it sends special signals to the brain that it is full and needs emptying – if those signals do not get sent to the brain telling it to wake-up this can also lead to bedwetting. Reassure him that he will stop wetting when his bladder gets better at storing the urine his kidneys are producing or his brain starts to recognize those signals sent from the bladder telling it to wake-up. Reassure him that this sort of thing happens to lots of children and there is probably at least 2 other children in his class who also wet the bed! Given his age it would certainly be worth having him checked by your GP just to rule out any possible underlying medical cause – you should also use this opportunity to discuss the different treatment options available which are designed to help him to become dry. All the best!!

Regards,
Dr Cathrine

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