Hi Nicky – given your daughters age it is not particularly surprising that she is still wetting at night, this is completely normal and age-appropriate behaviour and nothing to be worried about. Some parents prefer to manage children’s bedwetting by waking them or lifting them to the toilet throughout the night. While this may reduce the number of wet beds you have to change (and that is certainly a big positive) it does not help train the bladder nor does it teach children to learn to wake on their own. Parents typically do this just before they themselves go to bed, at this time of night the bladder will probably be only half full, or your daughter will still be half asleep. Children who have achieved nighttime continence are either able to wake-up independently in response to a full-bladder or have developed the bladder capacity to store urine until morning. When you wake her or carry her to the toilet she does not get the chance to get used to these signals nor does her bladder have the opportunity to stretch and develop. If however you do find this approach works for you and you would like to continue, I would recommend varying the times that you do this so to avoid conditioning her body into needing to empty at the same time each night. All the best!

Regards,
Dr Cathrine

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