Most children have wet their beds at some point. This, which is seen as normal in most cases and will eventually be resolved, can be a real headache for parents when they see the problem become chronic.

Nocturnal enuresis is a real problem , which requires treatment and understanding by adults towards the child. Neither the child is to blame nor does he or she do it on purpose, however, this does not mean that nothing can be done to prevent it.

Let’s see some tips to prevent children from wetting their beds while sleeping , as well as understanding to what extent a good understanding of the problem is necessary from the child’s family environment.

What is nocturnal enuresis? Brief definition

Urinating on oneself is one of the most common problems in childhood . According to the DSM-5, enuresis is the improper release of urine at least twice a week for at least three months in children over five years of age.

This problem can be very intrusive in the child’s life, since no one wants to urinate in their pants, something that can cause problems at the level of socialization, autonomy and emotional state, generating high levels of anxiety.

Tips to avoid bedwetting

Follow these guidelines to prevent nighttime bedwetting from recurring.

1. Controlling what you eat and drink

The child should consume liquids, but their intake should be reduced after 7 pm and, above all, avoid drinking them during the two hours before bedtime .

It is especially important to avoid consuming drinks that contain caffeine, such as tea, coffee or cola, since this methylxanthine has diuretic effects, i.e. it contributes to the formation of urine.

At dinner time you should eat light food , without too much salt or sugar.

2. Going to the bathroom before bed

Although it may seem like an obvious choice, you should make an effort and go to the bathroom before going to bed, to make sure your bladder is as empty as possible and thus avoid nighttime accidents.

3. Have easy access to a toilet

Related to the previous point, sleeping in a room far away from the bathroom may make it difficult for the child to get up and go to the bathroom.

The best solution for this is to ensure that you sleep at a point close enough to the bathroom so that you are not lazy enough to get up and urinate.

You should also avoid obstacles between your room and the bathroom and, if necessary, place night lights to mark the way so that you are not afraid to go. If necessary, place a portable urinal in the room.

4. Use diapers

On this point the opinions of the experts are quite varied. Some consider that it is not advisable at all to use nappies for children and adolescents who have problems with nocturnal enuresis, while others recommend them on an ad hoc basis.

The reason that some professionals do not recommend the use of these diapers is that they interfere negatively with the child’s motivation to learn to control his or her sphincters and the desire to wake up dry the next day. They can cause the child, when he or she notices that he or she is in the mood to urinate, instead of getting up and urinating, to prefer to stay in bed with the guarantee that the diaper will take care of the bed-wetting.

On the other hand, those who defend the use of these diapers say that they help make children feel more secure and confident .

Whichever option is best, it is advisable to ask a pediatrician whether or not it is appropriate to use diapers for the child in question.

5. Controlling the child’s belly

It may be the case that the child has problems with constipation, which may result in less bladder control. This is due to the fact that the intestines, full of feces, put pressure on the bladder, reducing its capacity .

A good way to get your child to pee less is to introduce more fiber foods into the diet, such as fruits and vegetables. Once the constipation is over, you may see your child’s urinary control increase.

6. Avoid blaming the child

The child has wet the bed, but it is not his fault nor has he done it on purpose . It should be understood that the child who suffers from problems of nocturnal enuresis has this happening to him because he has no control over it, due to a problem in maturation.

Blaming the child and punishing him for wetting the bed will only make the situation worse.

7. Be understanding

Parents or guardians must show that they are on the child’s side, that they do not blame the child for the problem and that they want the best for the child.

Drama should be avoided every time the child wets the bed. If it happens that a member of the family also suffered from enuresis when he was a child, you can give him the example that is something that sometimes happens and that, with time and some effort, it ends up being overcome .

8. Do not bring up the subject when it does not touch

When it happens, you should comment on what is happening, but you should not talk more about it than necessary, and even less so when you are in front of relatives or acquaintances.

Not that you should treat the subject as if it were a taboo subject, but you should not shout out loud that the child wets the bed. If you do, the child may feel humiliated and this may mean, in addition to a trauma, a worsening of the enuresis .

9. Holding the child accountable for his or her improvement

As we have discussed before, the child is not guilty of wetting himself or herself, nor does he or she do so voluntarily. This does not mean that the child should not be made aware of certain responsibilities related to the problem.

If he has wet the bed, instead of changing the sheets for him, he should help in the process . He should also change his pyjamas by himself.

10. Urinating frequently

To prevent your child from getting relief in bed at night, you can teach your child to go to the bathroom often, such as for two or three hours. This will prevent too much urine from being retained in the bladder and unwanted accidents at night.

11. Waking up the child

If necessary, the child can be awakened once during the night to ensure that he or she does not feel like urinating and that, if this is the case, he or she goes to the bathroom and is relieved.

This should be done carefully and only once a night . Doing so too much or too often can have a very negative effect on the child’s necessary rest.

The aim of this is to prevent the child from wetting himself at night and to solve this problem, not to cause him insomnia which will then turn into drowsiness the next morning when he is at school, clearly affecting his academic performance very negatively.

12. Writing a Dry Night Diary

This tool can be very useful to have a long term perspective of the successes achieved by the child . This diary records the nights when the bed has been kept dry and also those when it has unfortunately been wet.

This can give a more objective measure of the success the treatment may be having, if the child is undergoing one, and also the application of the advice described above.

13. Bladder training

Bladder training exercises are actions that can be done by the child with bedwetting problems that allow him/her to have better control over his/her sphincters.

For example, you can practice holding back the urge to urinate for a short period of time for an hour a day or go to a bathroom, start urinating and stop the stream for a few moments to restart urination later .

14. Make the child understand that he must get out of bed to urinate

Instead of crossing your fingers that your child will not wet himself tonight, the best thing to do is to convince him how important it is for him to go to the bathroom before going to bed and that, if he feels like going, he should make an effort and go to the toilet.

The alarm method or Pipi-Stop

Although the advice explained here is useful to help overcome the enuresis that the child may suffer, to see a psychologist and a paediatrician to start the appropriate treatment is imperative , especially if the situation is serious. In cases where it is very difficult for the child to wake up to go to the toilet, or in cases where there are enuresis episodes 5-7 times a week, one of the most popular and effective treatments is the alarm, also called Pipi-Stop.

This technique, developed by Mowrer and Mowrer, consists of a device that is placed in the child’s pants, which is activated when the first drops of urination are given . Once this happens, the device makes a noise, waking the child up and stopping the emission of urine. Thus, once the child has woken up, he goes to the bathroom to relieve himself. In this way, through classic conditioning, the child associates the desire to urinate with waking up.

This method will help the child become more aware of how much he or she wants to urinate while sleeping, avoiding bed-wetting and, over time, having better sphincter control, combined with an increase in self-esteem and a reduction in the emotional problems that may be associated with enuresis episodes.

Bibliographic references:

  • Bragado, C. (2009). Nocturnal enuresis. Effective treatments. Madrid: Ediciones Pirámide.
  • Glazener, C. M., and Evans, J. H. (2004). Simple behavioural and physical interventions for nocturnal enuresis in children. Cochrane Database Syst Rev, (2),
  • Naitoh, Y., Kawauchi, A., Yamao, Y., Seki, H., Soh, J., Yoneda, K., Mizutani, Y., and Miki, T. (2005). Combination therapy with alarm and drugs for monosymptomatic nocturnal enuresis not superior to alarm monotherapy. Urology, 66(3), 632-635.
  • Rodríguez, L., and Gracia, S. (2008). Diagnosis and treatment of nocturnal enuresis. Diagnostic Therapeutic Protocols of the AEP. Pediatric Nephrology Spanish Association of Pediatrics, 116-126.