The medical name for bedwetting is nocturnal enuresis.
The condition is divided into two types: primary nocturnal enuresis (PNE) and secondary nocturnal enuresis.
Primary nocturnal enuresis (PNE)
Primary nocturnal enuresis (PNE) is the most common form of bedwetting. Bedwetting counts as a disorder once a child is old enough to stay dry, but continues either to average at least two wet nights a week with no long periods of dryness or to not sleep dry without being taken to the toilet by another person.
Medical guidelines vary on when a child is old enough to stay dry. Common medical definitions allow doctors to diagnose PNE beginning at between 4 to 5 years old. This type of classification is frequently used by insurance companies. It defines PNE as, "persistent bedwetting in the absence of any urologic, medical or neurological anomaly in a child beyond the age when over 75% of children are normally dry."
Some researchers, however, recommend a different starting age range. This guidance says that bedwetting can be considered a clinical problem if the child regularly wets the bed after turning seven years old. D'Alessandro refines this to bedwetting more than twice a month after six years old for girls and seven years old for boys.
Secondary nocturnal enuresis
Secondary enuresis occurs after a patient goes through an extended period of dryness at night (roughly six months or more) and then reverts to nighttime wetting. Secondary enuresis can be caused by emotional stress or a medical condition, such as a bladder infection.
Psychologists may use a definition from the American Psychiatric Association's DSM-IV, defining nocturnal enuresis as repeated urination into bed or clothes, occurring twice per week for at least three consecutive months in a child of at least 5 years of age and not due to either a drug side effect or a medical condition. Even if the case does not meet these criteria, the DSM-IV definition allows psychologists to diagnose nocturnal enuresis if the wetting causes the patient clinically significant distress.
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