Peeing in Bed

"My 6 year old pees in his bed every night. I've tried limiting drinks after dinner, taking him to the bathroom before bed and even walking him to the bathroom when I go to bed. Nothing is working. What should I do?

It sounds like you have already put in place many of the common strategies. I want to make sure that you understand that your son is not doing this on purpose and would love to be dry all night.

Please be supportive and not punitive. Just as children need help learning things like riding a bike or swimming, sometimes children need a little help learning to be dry in the nighttime.

The best tool for helping your son learn to wake up on his own when he needs to use the bathroom is a bedwetting alarm. A bedwetting alarm is a specialized device that senses moisture and sounds to alert him (and you) when the wetting happens. I'm sure he currently sleeps through the wetting episode so has no idea when it happens. Using a bedwetting alarm pinpoints exactly when he wets so he can use the bathroom.

A bedwetting alarm is much different than using an alarm clock. You would not know the time to set the alarm clock because the time he wets changes from night to night.

He will need your help at first. When you hear the alarm from your room, go to his room and make sure he turns off the alarm, and then walks to the bathroom. Over a few nights and weeks, he will learn to stop his urine flow and finish in the toilet.

Eventually, he'll either hold it all night or get up before the alarm sounds. Bedwetting alarms vary in price from about $49.95-$129.95, depending on the features you choose. Most families report that this is the best money they have spent to help their children become dry at night.

Put the money and energy you save on buying disposable pants and doing daily laundry toward a permanent cure.