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The End of Bedwetting
How to Tell If Your Child Is Ready to Stop
By Melinda Copp
It may happen all at once, or your child's bedwetting may start to slow down over several months. But when a child stays dry more and more often, parents take notice. Could this be the end of enuresis?
All kids are different, even when it comes to bedwetting. Some wet the bed every night, some do it a few times a week. Others can go several days without an accident and then wet every night for a week after that. Because each child's situation is different, when your child will finally grow out of it depends on a number of factors. And the end will happen differently for each child.
"Sometimes kids wake up dry one day and that's it, and some gradually stop wetting so often," says Dr. Charles Shubin, pediatrician and director of pediatrics for Mercy Medical Center Family Care in Baltimore, Md. "It happens different ways for different kids."
Consider the following factors and how they relate to your child's enuresis.
To determine when your child will likely outgrow bedwetting, consider the numbers. Twenty percent of 5-year-olds wet the bed, 12 percent of 6-year-olds still wet the bed and 15 percent of kids who wet the bed stop each year after age 6. You can use these numbers to estimate how much longer your child will wake up wet. If your child is 8 or older, then chances are he or she is almost through bedwetting. For younger kids, keep in mind that most doctors don't consider bedwetting a problem until a child is older than 6.
"The American Academy of Pediatrics defines bedwetting as wetting two or more times a week in children over 5 or often enough that it bothers you," says Dr. Howard Bennett, pediatrician and author of the book Waking Up Dry: A Guide to Help Children Overcome Bedwetting
