Wake kids to urinate to ease bedwetting

Night-time dryness training for young children may simply require waking them up a couple of hours after they fall asleep and guiding them to the bathroom to urinate.

This method is more effective among 4 and 5 year-olds than doing nothing. Still, night-time dryness training should be attempted with the child willing to participate. Furthermore, having a child wear a diaper at night has a negative effect on becoming dry.

Researchers assessed commonly used bedwetting interventions among 570 Dutch children, 4 to 5 years old who wet the bed at least two nights weekly. The children were assigned to one of four groups. In one, parents awakened their child and guided them to the bathroom to urinate. In another, they did the same while asking the child for a pre-selected password that indicated the child was awake. In both interventions, parents awakened children 90 minutes to 2 hours after they fell asleep.

In the third group, children were offered rewards for staying dry at night, and in the fourth (the control group) there was no active encouragement.

After 6 months, 37 percent of the children awakened and guided to the bathroom were dry, as were 32 percent of the children in the reward group, 27 percent of those awakened with a password, and 21 percent of the control group. Children put to bed wearing a diaper, and those having daytime accidents and accidents during intense playing, were less likely to be dry after 6 months.

Follow-up of 365 children 3 years later, when they were 7 to 8 years old, showed similar night-time dryness rates among those awakened at night without or with a password, rewarded, and controls - 78, 76, and 69 percent, respectively.