How To Stop Bed-wetting In A Child?

Posted on Tue, 19 Jan 2016

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Tue, 19 Jan 2016 Answered on

Fri, 19 Feb 2016 Last reviewed on

Question : My daughter will be 6 years old in April, and she is still wetting bed at night time. For last one week she is wetting her trousers even at day time. She has a disturb sleep sometimes gets scared in middle of night due to bad dream or sometimes for frequent visits to toilet. She goes toilet sometimes 2 times or 3 times at night but problem is of her wetting the bed. She has been toilet trained when she was 3 and all went smoothly but things are getting worse for few months now. She has light snoring during sleep, and my doctor checked that her one tonsil is slightly enlarged but she doesn't have any issues like sore throat or infections. She is highly underweight. She takes balanced healthy food and is not a fussy eater. Still her weight is 16 kg and she looks too weak. She is highly sensitive and problematic child in terms of getting cranky, feeling sad on little issues and thinking nobody lover her when we stop her from something.
I'm not sure if I should ask this question to a paediatrician or psychologist.

Answered by Dr. Dr. Pradeep Kumar Jain (2 hours later)

Brief Answer:
I would like to get few tests done

Detailed Answer:
Hello
Thanks for asking on this platform

I have gone through the details and do understand your concern.
If the baby has never achieved full bladder control(means no bedwetting at least for 6 months) it is called primary nocturnal anuresis . If there is past history of good bladder control and again child has started bed wetting,this condition is known as secondary nocturnal anuresis.
Most of the primary nocturnal anuresis improves as the child grows.But in case of secondary anuresis or worsening of anuresis (as in your case)few investigations are warranted to find out the underlying cause.
I would like to know whether this bedwetting during night time has started from last few months or has worsened.
Here in your case I would like to get urine routine examination/culture( to look for any infection),USG abdomen (to see the kidney,utter, bladder),random blood sugar (to rule out juvenile diabetes),serum electrolytes (to rule out tubular disorder).
If all these tests are normal further management will be like primary nocturnal anuresis i. e. restriction of fluids,caffeine item,carbonated beverages and may be desmopressine analogue.

I hope this helps.
Please let me know if you have any more query.
Thanks and regards

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar