Getting To Dry

More than four million children over the age of five wet the bed. For most, time will solve the problem—eventually. But how long will "eventually" be, and at what cost to parents' frayed nerves or to the child's self-esteem?

Parents can speed up the clock and children can wake up dry. The experts at the country's leading center for treating childhood enuresis—the Try for Dry program at Children's Memorial Hospital, Chicago—offer proven techniques that bring bedwetting to a happy end. They cover the pros and cons of wetting alarms, drug therapies, biofeedback treatment, and changes in diet and sleeping schedules, and they provide friendly advice on how to replace punishment and shame with awards and praise. With diaries, calendars, and other visual aids that help the child share responsibility for a solution, this authoritative book gets parents and children over a most frustrating hurdle.