‘Mommy, I wet my bed’

‘From a physiological point of view, there’s no specific age at which children have to be dry,’ says Johannesburg-based incontinence specialist Dr Margaret Fockema. ‘Generally speaking, girls are dry sooner than boys, and most children will be dry during the day before they’re dry at night, but there’s no need to worry about a child who’s wetting the bed until they’re five years old.’

She adds that she’d only actively investigate a child under five who’s wetting the bed if it were a problem for the child, or if the parents were very concerned about it. ‘For example, some four-year-olds are distraught if they wet their beds,’ she says.

‘Generally, I look at infection, urgency and frequency. If