The complete bedwetting dictionary: K
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☀️ Kidneys and Urine Production
The kidneys play a quiet but critical role in the story of bedwetting. As blood passes through them, they filter waste and excess water and produce urine. The urine is then carried down two tubes called ureters to be stored in the bladder until it is released through the urethra.
What matters for bedwetting is not how the kidneys work, since they work normally in almost every bedwetting child, but how much urine they produce overnight. In adults and in most older children, the kidneys produce less urine at night, thanks to a hormone called vasopressin. In some children with bedwetting, the night-time release of vasopressin is reduced, which means the kidneys keep producing daytime levels of urine and the bladder fills more quickly during sleep.
This is one of the reasons bedwetting often runs in families. The pattern of vasopressin secretion has a strong genetic basis. It also explains why some children respond to medications that mimic vasopressin (such as DDAVP), although the medication does not cure the underlying condition.