Hi Rebecca, it is perfectly normal for your son to still be wetting the bed at night. The time between achieving daytime continence and nighttime control is different for every child. While some achieve this in a matter of weeks, others take months or years. There are a number of reasons why children continue to wet at night. Some do so because their body produces larger than normal amounts of urine overnight and their bladder is unable to store it until morning. This usually continues until the amount of urine produced decreases or children learn to wake-up in response to a full bladder. Others do so because they are unable to wake in response to the signals that their bladder sends to their brain telling them to wake-up and go to the toilet. There is absolutely no correlation between intelligence and bladder control, so it is important that you do not feel his lack of control at night is a reflection on you or him. Nighttime wetting occurs when children are asleep so the same methods that we use to encourage daytime continence no longer apply. Most children do outgrow bedwetting on their own by the time they turn 6 years. Until then reassure your son that this is not his fault and with time his body will become much better at holding his wee or he will learn to wake-up and go to the toilet.

Regards,
Dr Cathrine

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