True bedwetting is defined as "not staying dry at night after the age of 5 years," and it is a normal part of toilet training. Approximately 10 percent of children wet the bed after their fifth birthday. This condition is more common in heavy sleepers and tends to run in families; usually one or both parents were bedwetters. It also appears to be more common in boys.

The usual bedwetting case is a child who is a very heavy sleeper, who is totally unaware of the urge to empty his bladder at night. The child literally "sleeps through it."

There are several things you can do to minimize the chance of bedwetting at night. You can restrict the volume of liquids your child drinks after dinner and ask the child to empty his bladder before bed.

It is probably best to keep a child in a pull-up until he is dry for seven consecutive days. Try to keep your frustration inside and not let your child see it. After all, your child has not yet developed the physiological maturity to wake up and urinate at night. As he gets older and he does not sleep so heavily at night, he will begin to wake up when he feels his bladder is full.

To give you an idea of when bedwetting will stop, if 10 in 100 children will wet the bed at age 5, roughly one child in this group of 10 will achieve night time dryness each year.

If your child is wetting the bed and is bothered by it, you might want to try a buzzer system. In such a system, a buzzer is attached to your child's wrist. As your child urinates at night, the urine completes a circuit and the sound of the buzzer wakes him up. The child will gradually learn to associate the sensation of a full bladder with the imminent buzzing, and he will begin to wake himself up before the buzzer goes off. Usually, after several months, the buzzer can be discontinued and the child will stay dry. This system is not useful in a younger child, who does not yet have the physiologic maturity to stay dry at night.

In summary, bedwetting is common and normal. Try not to be judgmental, even though it is very frustrating.