Can cold weather cause a potty trained child to wet the bed again?

Question

My four year old daughter has not wet the bed in about a year. A few nights ago (on an unexpectedly cold night) she did. There are several questions here about bed wetting and regression, but I'm specifically wondering about being cold at night being a trigger for bed wetting. A web search reveals a couple of message board anecdotes, but I was hoping for something more concrete.

Can being cold at night cause a child to wet the bed again?

Answer 1

In my experience, things that contribute to my children wetting the bed are primarily one of three things:

• Drinking more before/during bedtime
• Sleeping more soundly
• Barriers to getting up to go in the middle of the night

(Plus of course forgetting to go right before bed.)

How could cold affect these?

• When it's cold outside, it's also dry. That means the child may be thirstier, and thus drink more before/during bedtime.
• Some children may sleep more soundly in the cold, though it's more common that sleep is sounder in warmth. But, your child may have dressed more warmly and/or put on more covers than usual, and thus ended up sleeping more soundly.
• Having all of those covers on would be a substantial barrier to going to the bathroom in the middle of the night. It also would be cold getting out of them - another barrier.

All that said, given the n=1 nature of this occurrence, I wouldn't read too much into it. Yes, it's possible it's related to the cold. It's also possible she just had an accident. That's entirely normal and to be expected until 6 or so, from what I recall (and some kids, even older than that). I wouldn't see it as regression at all.

Answer 2

My son, age 6, consistently wets himself when we ski. I've tried making him go to the toilet right before we change into ski gear, restricting liquids, a combination of both and threats. I genuinely believe the cold itself is the trigger. He's been fully toilet trained and dry through the night since age 2 but something about the extreme cold means he can't even feel himself wee.