When should my child outgrow bedwetting?

Joshua Sparrow, MD Child Psychiatrist & Author, shares advice for parents on what age kids should outgrow bedwetting and what can cause children to wet the bed
What Age Should Kids Stop Wetting the Bed
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When should my child outgrow bedwetting?

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There are lots of reasons why a child wets the bed, and it's important to distinguish among these reasons. It can be perfectly normal to wet the bed up until about 5 years of age actually, unless the child had stopped wetting the bed for 6 months and then starts again. If that's the case, then it's important to bring this up with your child's pediatrician, because there are medical causes for bed wetting, and this is especially likely if the child had been through a period without bedwetting and then starts wetting the bed again. There also is a form of bedwetting that's hereditary. it's called familial enuresis, and so there you will see this persisting past the age of 5, often through the next 5 years, and sometimes longer. But again, it's important to bring this up with your pediatrician so you can clearly establish that it's all in the family and not caused by a medical problem.

Joshua Sparrow, MD Child Psychiatrist & Author, shares advice for parents on what age kids should outgrow bedwetting and what can cause children to wet the bed

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Joshua Sparrow, MD

Child Psychiatrist & Author brazeltontouchpoints.org

A child psychiatrist, Dr. Sparrow’s care in the 1990s for children hospitalized for severe psychiatric disturbances, often associated with physical and sexual abuse, and for developmental delays aggravated by social and economic deprivation, prompted his interest in community-based prevention and health promotion. At the Brazelton Touchpoints Center, his work focuses on cultural adaptations of family support programs, organizational professional development, and aligning systems of care with community strengths and priorities, and has included collaborative consultation with the Harlem Children's Zone and American Indian Early Head Start Programs, among many others. He has lectured extensively nationally and internationally on related topics and has consulted on media programming for children and parents, including PBS’s Frontlines and Discovery Kids. Co-author with Dr. T. Berry Brazelton of 8 books and the weekly New York Times Syndicated column, “Families Today,” Dr. Sparrow has also served as a contributing editor to Scholastic Services’ Parent and Child magazine. In 2006, he revised with Dr. Brazelton Touchpoints: Birth to Three, 2nd Edition and in 2010, co-edited Nurturing Children and Families: Building on the Legacy of T. B. Brazelton, a textbook on the ongoing generativeness of Brazelton’s seminal research in a wide range of fields. Dr. Sparrow has authored numerous other scholarly works, teaches and lectures nationally and internationally, and is frequently called upon for his expertise by national and international media. Prior to attending medical school, Dr. Sparrow worked for several years as a preschool teacher and journalist in New York City.

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