while it is quite normal for 5-year-old boys to be still wetting the bed on a regular basis I would certainly recommend that you have your son examined by your GP just to rule out any underlying medical cause. The first thing we need to determine is whether your son is wetting while still asleep or just after he wakes. Most children who wet the bed do so a couple of hours after they have gone to sleep at night – usually when they are in a very deep sleep state or in the first few stages of sleep. If he is wetting just before he wakes it is probably due to his bladder exceeding its capacity by morning (but not during the night which explains why he is dry until then). If this is the case you might want to consider putting him to bed earlier in the evening and waking him earlier before he wets. I would also recommend using DryNites instead of the Pull-Ups as these are specifically designed for older children and offer a higher absorbency. While it is rare for children to wet the bed on purpose, some children may do so because they are too scared to get up and go to the toilet, particularly if their room is quite dark. If this is the case sometimes something as simple as a nightlight or leaving the curtains open so that the light shines through can do the trick. If you think he wets just after he wakes then you could introduce an incentive program where he gets a reward each time he gets up and uses the toilet. It can be something as simple as a sticker chart where he accumulates stickers and cashes them in for a larger reward at the end of the week. Incentives are not recommended for nighttime wetting, as children do not have conscious control over their wetting and therefore are unable to modify their behaviour in order to attain a reward. Most importantly, stay positive as if he feels at all pressured this will only make his bedwetting worse.

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