Bed Wetting Isn’t New: We’ve Been Dealing with This Forever
I thought I was failing as a parent. How come my kids have a wetbed and others don’t? Turns out kids have been bed wetting throughout history. From ancient remedies to midnight sheet changes, here’s a look at how families have handled bedwetting throughout history — and why it’s still perfectly normal today.
Intro
It’s 2025. Your child wets the bed. You open your phone, type “how to stop bedwetting fast” into Google, and within 0.3 seconds you have 8.4 million answers — everything from high-tech alarms to ancient herbal teas.
And still, by tomorrow night, you’re probably changing sheets again.
If you’ve ever felt like bedwetting is a you problem — like your family is the only one struggling through it — let me assure you: this has been happening for as long as there have been beds, bladders, and tired parents.
Let’s take a quick stroll through history to see how families have handled it over the centuries.
Ancient Times: The Original Nighttime Laundry
Long before “nighttime training pants” and moisture alarms, parents were just… winging it.
Ancient Egyptian papyri mention childhood bladder troubles — though the remedies probably involved things like incense, honey, or chanting to river gods (none of which come with a 30-day money-back guarantee).
The Greeks and Romans weren’t much better. Physicians back then thought bedwetting was caused by an “excess of cold moisture” in the body. The cure? A mix of dietary restrictions, warm baths, and — I kid you not — drinking less water. Some advice never changes.
The Middle Ages: Blame the Moon (or the Parents)
By the Middle Ages, superstition was in full swing. Bedwetting was sometimes blamed on witchcraft, curses, or sleeping under the wrong phase of the moon.
Parents were told to make kids sleep with dried herbs under their pillow, hang amulets over the bed, or, in a few unfortunate cases, administer “discipline.” (We’ll just leave that one in the past, where it belongs.)
No one back then had the words “deep sleep cycles” or “bladder maturity.” They just knew kids sometimes wet the bed — and everyone was desperate for a cure. Sound familiar?
The Victorian Era: Shame, Sheets, and Science (Sort Of)
Fast-forward a bit, and bedwetting entered the age of “moral improvement.”
Victorian parents believed dry beds were a sign of good character — and wet ones, well… not so much.
Doctors wrote entire books blaming weak willpower or poor discipline. Kids were sent to bed early, lectured, or even made to scrub their own sheets as punishment.
Thankfully, by the late 1800s, medicine started to catch up. Doctors began noticing that bedwetting was more common in deep sleepers and often ran in families — meaning it wasn’t bad behavior, just biology doing its thing. Progress at last.
The 20th Century: From Myths to Modern Medicine
The 1900s brought plumbing, washing machines, and, thankfully, a more compassionate understanding. Pediatricians started studying bedwetting scientifically — giving it a name (“nocturnal enuresis”) and offering real strategies for families.
Of course, that didn’t stop the flood of “miracle cures.” (Pun absolutely intended.)
From motivational charts to hypnosis tapes, the 20th century had it all. And by the late 1990s, we finally got something that actually helped: bedwetting alarms, medications, and a better grasp of sleep patterns and bladder development.
Today: Same Problem, Better Tools (and Cleaner Sheets)
Now, in the age of the internet, we parents can Google our way through an entire cycle of panic, diagnosis, and reassurance — all before breakfast.
We have moisture sensors, washable mattress covers, and forums full of parents sharing late-night empathy. What we don’t have is a magic switch that flips dry nights on instantly.
And that’s okay. Because here’s the truth that history shows us, again and again:
bedwetting isn’t new, it isn’t weird, and it isn’t anyone’s fault.
It’s just one of those timeless parts of parenting that’s equal parts frustrating and humbling — a small reminder that no matter how advanced our technology gets, kids still grow and develop on their own timeline.
So, What’s the Lesson From 5,000 Years of Wet Sheets?
It’s simple: patience beats panic.
Parents across the centuries have tried everything to “fix” bedwetting, but in the end, most kids simply outgrow it when their body’s ready. The best thing we can do (besides stocking up on laundry detergent) is offer comfort, consistency, and a sense of humor.
Because when you zoom out far enough — from ancient temples to your laundry room — you realize we’re all just part of the same story:
loving parents trying our best to help our kids through something that’s been around forever.
From One Dad to Another
If history teaches us anything, it’s this — you’re not the first to go through it, and you definitely won’t be the last. So, hang in there, keep perspective, and maybe smile at the fact that, somewhere, an ancient Roman dad was probably muttering the same thing you are:
“How can someone so small produce so much liquid?”
Stay dry,
Dad