And while it is certainly not uncommon, it can be quite distressing for both the child and the parent at the time. Thankfully, there are things that you can do to help your little one.

Your first port of call, if you are concerned about your child's bed wetting, is to go see your GP. They will be able to rule out any underlying conditions that may be causing it.

The most important parents of older children who are still wetting themselves at night should know is that they are not alone.

We recently posted a question on our Facebook page after a reader got in touch about their seven-year-old's bed wetting. 

This parent wanted advice from FamilyFriendlyHQ readers whose older child had experienced bed wetting. 
 

You will find their advice below:
 

1. Get a consultant appointment. The tube in the bladder could be linked. If it is that, as they grow the kink will usually resolve. But get it checked. Her confidence will go.

2. My son wet the bed until he was seven. One day he just stopped doing it. Some kids are really deep sleepers and don't wake for it until much later. It's not that unusual. They sell pull-up pants for up to age 12 or something so your daughter is not alone.

3. I had this with a few of my children, the eldest being nine. We were referred to a public health nurse who issued us with an alarm you put on the bed. As soon as any wet is detected the alarm goes off, waking the child. Within two weeks they had stopped wetting the bed. Also, find out if there are any underlying issues at school. One of mine was being bullied and that was the cause of her wetting! Hope this helps. 

4. Is she going to the toilet regularly during the day? My son was not going enough during the day and was going more at night I discovered

5. Advice from my public health nurse was to keep track of their input and output! They gave us a chart to track how much drinking, how often and how much they pass. They may just need to allow the bladder to hold more for longer. It may just be a lazy bladder. I would def link with PHN.

6. Had a similar issue with one of mine. We kept a diary for a week and it turned out the child wasn't drinking enough and passing enough during the day so the bladder was irritated and emptying at night. By increasing drinks during the day, until 6pm, the problem remedied itself in a few weeks.

7. Get a referral to the incontinence nurse - your public health/school nurse can do it free or your GP, I guess. I had my two boys go, she was great. Turns out they weren't drinking enough during the day when we charted it. So, therefore, their bladders weren't able to stretch at night and they emptied. Within weeks they were dry. Hot choc big no-no at night too. Work and monitoring the drinks paid off.