It can be difficult to deal with bedwetting because the child is asleep and are not aware of what is happening. Obviously punishment is pointless, but there are some positive things you can do.
- If your child wants to be dry at night, seek support. This will help stop it becoming a big issue. Involve them in decision making about their treatment including seeking help and the type of treatment.
- Encourage good drinking and toileting arrangements through the day. They should visit the toilet regularly and those visits should be spread.
- Remove obstacles by making it easy for a child to get to the toilet at night. Leave a light on, make sure their path is clear, etc. If they would prefer to use a potty in their room rather than go to the bathroom, then go with it.
- Take nappies off when you start intervention – don’t send mixed messages.
- Have a bedtime routine which includes going to the toilet which will ensure that the bladder is empty at the start of the night.
- Suggest that if they wake up in the night it might be because they need to go to the toilet and it would be worth trying to go.
- Vasopressin is released as part of the winding down process and it’s important to have a good routine and make sure that a child sleeps in a darkened bedroom.
- Keep positive and be supportive.
How do you know you’ve been successful? Fourteen consecutive dry nights is the goal.
Great tips, thank you for sharing.
Great tips, I was so lucky with Monkey, he went dry totally by himself, I just realised that his pull-ups hadn’t been dry in the morning for weeks and figured I was safe to stop using them. We’ve had very occassional accidents when he’s been poorly but otherwose, fingers crossed we’ve stayed dry