DEAR DR. DONOHUE: My son is 7 and he still wets the bed. My husband can’t imagine why he does this, and he believes it’s willful. He thinks the boy needs to be punished. I don’t. What do you recommend for this situation, which is a source of conflict between my husband and me? — H.N.

ANSWER: The first thing I recommend is for your husband to realize that this isn’t a voluntary act by the child. Punishment shouldn’t be considered. No one has the answer to why some children cannot hold urine throughout the night. The child might have a slightly smaller-than-normal bladder that will enlarge as he grows older. Or it might be that the nerve connections to the bladder are not yet functioning. Don’t blame the boy, don’t punish him and don’t humiliate him.

You can explain to your son that holding the urge to empty his bladder during the day for a little longer time will stretch the bladder and could keep him dry during the night. The boy’s fluid intake should be managed in such a way that he drinks 40 percent of the total intake in the morning, another 40 percent in the afternoon and 20 percent in the evening.

Alarms that sound at the first drops of fluid often work. The sensor device is placed on a mat on the bed or in the boy’s pajamas. The boy wakens, goes to the bathroom, returns to his room and changes his pajamas if need be. Or you can set an alarm to waken the boy two or three hours after going to sleep for a trip to the bathroom.

Medicines are a help when they are judiciously used for special occasions, like sleeping at a friend’s house or at camp. First, test the medicine a couple of times to see how the boy responds to it. The one most often prescribed is desmopressin, DDAVP, which decreases urine production during the night.

DEAR DR. DONOHUE: Every evening I drink two cans of beer and have been doing so for many years. I’m not overweight, and I don’t have high blood pressure. The beer doesn’t make me groggy. I like it.

In the past month, on two occasions, about half an hour after the second can, my heart begins to beat fast. It lasts maybe 15 minutes. I have no chest pain when it happens. Do you think that alcohol is the reason? — M.D.

ANSWER: It could be.

It’s strange that beer would have this effect on you after years of drinking a modest amount. I can’t say for sure.

You can get to the bottom of this in two ways. One is not to drink and see if these heart speed-ups stop. The other is to see a doctor for a complete exam to possibly include wearing a heart monitor that records all heartbeats that occur during the wearing time. That discloses the kind of beats that happen.

Maybe it would be better to do both. The final proof would be to resume drinking after a month of abstinence to determine if the attacks return.

DEAR DR. DONOHUE: My granddaughter is having a nose job in late summer. It has me worried. I know of many complications from this kind of surgery. I don’t believe in cosmetic surgery. I think we should be satisfied with what nature gave us. She says she’s having the operation because she broke her nose when she played high-school lacrosse. I think this is just an excuse. What do you say? — R.K.

ANSWER: I say let your granddaughter make her own decision. Whether the procedure is done to improve looks or to improve breathing is her choice, and hers alone.

I know many both for cosmetic consideration and for correction of nasal obstruction. Not one of them suffered a complication. It’s safe surgery, done many times daily in hospitals across North America.

Dr. Donohue regrets that he is unable to answer individual letters, but he will incorporate them in his column whenever possible. Readers may write him or request an order form of available health newsletters at P.O. Box 536475, Orlando, FL 32853-6475. Readers may also order health newsletters from www.rbmamall.com.