Hi Cassie, given the frequency of your daughter’s bedwetting I would certainly recommend that you make an appointment to discuss this with your GP. As I’m sure you are aware there are a number of possible reasons as to why children continue to wet at night long after they have achieved daytime continence – many of these are developmental in nature with children becoming dry as their bodies mature and become better able at storing urine overnight or learning to wake in response to a full bladder. Some children wet due to physical reasons such as a small bladder capacity or an underlying medical issue so it is always important to rule this out first. While our natural reaction is to reduce children’s fluid intake to try and place less pressure on children’s bladders this unfortunately does quite the opposite. The best course of action is to increase the amount of fluid she drinks throughout the day as this helps train her bladder into learning to store larger amounts of fluid. While it is OK to taper off in the evenings it is important that we do not restrict fluids completely as this places children at risk of becoming dehydrated or becoming constipated – a known contributor to bedwetting. I would also avoid waking her to go to the toilet – as you can see this does not help her to stay dry nor does it give her the opportunity to learn to wake on her own, which is necessary if she is to become dry at night. Are you using DryNites to help manage her bedwetting? While these will not help your daughter to become dry they will reduce the stress associated with coping with her bedwetting and will make things a little easier for you in the short-term. All the best!

Regards,
Dr Cathrine

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