Bedwetting - what's "normal"?

[ThatDamnDog]

DS is 3.3 and has been out of nappies in the day since around March I think, and he was dry at night really soon after so out of night time nappies around a month later.

He's had the odd accident - very sporadic for the first few months. Then we had a bad month in July when we spent a week away with family, so lots of different beds and excitement and overtiredness, then we brought grandma home with us for a fortnight and so he was home but on a mattress on the floor (at least to start with, he always makes his way into our bed at some point in the night). He wet the bed numerous times during that period but then settled again.

We've had family staying again so he's on a mattress on our bedroom floor this week, and will be until I have this baby (38+4) because grandma's staying in his bed until then. He's so far wet our bed once and wet the mattress once.

I'm thinking it's because of the excitement and disruption to routine and resulting tiredness, rather than anything else. But is this within normal realms, or a problem? Have to buy a new mattress tomorrow because tonight the one he was on has been wrecked totally, my own fault for hating creaky sweaty PVC protectors :(

Sounds very normal at aged 3; apparently 15 to 20 percent of otherwise healthy 5-year-old children, 7 percent of healthy 7-year-olds, 5 percent of healthy 10-year-olds, 2 to 3 percent of 12 to 14-year-olds and 1 to 2 percent of normal children at age 15 still bedwet.

I think its quite common for 3 year olds to have the odd accident. It is part of learning. You can get a matress protector that is cloth and waterproof. It is not that uncomfortable to sleep on.

www.thewhitecompany.com/productdetails.aspx?id=2000134&itemno=WPREM-02

Or this matress protector is not too uncomfortable. I used a similar one when I had a homebirth and I wanted to protect our bed from the locia.

www.thewhitecompany.com/ProductDetails.aspx?Itemno=DELUXEWPROOF-MASTER&id=2000134

In fact my eight year old son still has a waterproof matress cover on his bed inspite of the fact he has not wet his bed for a very long time.

Oh thanks, that's really reassuring.

It always seems to be explained by circumstances - just tiresome that whenever we have family staying it leads to pee-soaked bedding. DP's family live miles away and we only have a totty wee 2-bed house so it's inevitable that he gets kicked out when they come. It's a shame for him but I'm precious enough as it is without refusing to allow DP's mum to have a bed to sleep in when she comes!

I'll check out those links - I'm ordering a new mattress from Kiddicare and wasn't relishing the prospect of having to order-and-hope the only mattress protector they have in the right size isn't too crunchy :)