Bed Wetting

[jt2006]

I have a 7 (soon to be 8) year old stepson.  I have lived with him since he was 2 years old.  He has been potty trained since a very young age.  He had stopped wetting the bed some time ago and just a couple years ago started back up.  His mother became somewhat absent(because of a career move) and his bedwetting increased.  We went through a couple weeks of nightly bedwetting and multiple bed changes.  Finally he has stopped bedwetting for months now.  Right now we have him exactly 50% of the time.  His mother informed us she still has him in pullups at night.  Everytime she lets him not wear them he wets the bed.  She said it was inconvenient to change bedding.  He expressed embarressement over wearing the pullups.  We all cannot understand why at one home he never wets and at another he does.  His mother says she read that a child could bed wet until 12 years old and will grow out of it.  I agree, yet still am confused as to why he already "out grew" it at our home.

JT

[Kevin Kennedy, Ph.D.]

Good point. While there certainly are children who are enuretic at night through their childhood, they do not fit the pattern you describe. My guess is that, if his mother eliminated the pull ups, he would do fine at her house as well. If he did not, and he continued to do well at your house, it would be fair to conclude that he is reacting to some stress in his mother's household. There really is no other reasonable explanation.