In some cases it may be necessary to make an effort to maintain new habits and exercises, however that’s rarely the case. Generally once it is over – which may take six to twelve weeks of attention – bedwetting will never return. And if it does, you’ll know the reasons and how to stop it within a day or two. It’s just a matter of identifying the causes of bedwetting in your particular case, and applying the right routines to reverse these causes. The habits and misunderstandings that often cause bed wetting are also the causes of other deep sleep issues:  sleep apnea, sleepwalking, and night terrors. Once you learn to control your hydration, constipation and bowel/bladder tone, you will have good practices that will help you to sleep properly for the rest of your life.

When a child is ready he will ask. Bedwetting is frequently caused by too-early toilet training, and prolonged by too-early attempts to make a child dry at night. The proper age for toilet training is age two and a half to three; the proper age for ending bedwetting is anywhere from age three to six depending on when the child is interested. One of the main causes of bedwetting is anxiety at bed time, so we know that forcing change on a child will backfire. Usually bedwetting starts at age three and as a child get to age five or six they worry about it. This causes anxiety at bed time, and anxiety causes deep sleep, which causes bedwetting! The best way to end bedwetting is to simply ask the child if he or she wants to try for dry by going without pull-ups, starting at age three or four. Try it for a few nights, then stop and try it again in six months.

Waking and lifting can often get you a dry bed but that doesn’t teach the child at all. The child learns nothing because they are too groggy to learn. On the other hand, it does no harm. In most cases the child will be wet again later anyway. If you want to effectively get a dry bed by waking, then do it one hour after the child begins to sleep, then again three or four hours later. Learn more about methods that really work, with our Time to Get Dry E-book.

Yes, you can train a child to be dry at night. The skills that you teach to fix this will benefit the child for the rest of their life. When you train a child to be dry you are teaching important life skills that help them to sleep more restfully and be more alert during the day. To do this you should look into the causes and exercises that fix deep sleep and constipation, learn more about bladder and bowel toning, and identify any foods that cause discomfort. Yellow dye, milk products, and citrus – especially grapefruit – may be necessary to limit or avoid. Bed time guided imagery will be helpful. Learning how to wake to bladder signal is the first step in learning how to hold it all night. There is a lot of bad advice surrounding bedwetting and it’s cures; even doctors sometimes offer advice like “restrict water” and “hold to stretch the bladder.” If you need better advice, please reach out. I’m always ready to help a child with a few free tips.