Helping to address your child’s bedwetting problem

Bed wetting, or nocturnal enuresis as it is known in the medical community, can be a traumatic problem for both children and adults alike. It is a sensitive topic that is often considered taboo, and one needs to exercise extreme caution when talking to their child about a bed wetting problem. As a parent, it can be tough to determine what you should and shouldn’t say to your child about bed wetting. In this article, we’ll address some of the commonly used techniques of talking to children about bed wetting.

Bed wetting affects approximately forty percent of all children that are three years old, and roughly five million children that are over age five. While the problem usually disappears on its own, there are some things to consider when helping your child to get through the problem. Children can be very embarrassed about their bed wetting problem, but it’s important to discuss the issue so that you can have a clear line of communication when it comes to solving the problem. One important thing to note is to tell your child that it is not their fault that they wet the bed. When parents attack their children with harsh words, they may be doing more harm than good when trying to help bed wetting. Telling your child that they are not causing the problem can go a long way when it comes to discussing their bed wetting more openly with you. If you wet the bed while you were a child, you should let your son or daughter know. This can ease much of the shame and the anxiety that is sometimes a factor in bed wetting. Also, telling your child that bed wetting is a natural process that everyone goes through to some degree may help them to ease their feelings of guilt.

One approach that parents often use with some success is to tell their child to mentally visualize a night without wetting the bed. While this approach is only of some efficiency, it can help. Another thing to consider is whether or not any anxiety-inducing events may have occurred recently. If you feel that some change in your life may be affecting your child’s level of anxiety, you may want to speak to a pediatrician to discuss ways of solving the anxiety-inducing problem.

The best way to approach a problem with your child regarding bed wetting is to let them know as much as you can about the problem while providing a capacity of warmth and love. This approach is generally agreed upon by physicians and psychologists alike when it comes to aiding the problem. If your child’s bed wetting becomes a big problem, consulting a doctor may be a good idea. Hormonal changes in the body can cause bed wetting, and there are medical solutions to the problem. Bed wetting alarms are also often used when treating the problem, which respond to any moisture on the bed with an alarm, waking the child up and creating some degree of behavioral conditioning.

Ways to Manage Bed Wetting

As a child’s body grows and his ability to control his bladder functions at night matures, bed wetting is likely to decrease. Most children who suffer from bed wetting outgrow it before their preteen years and if not, then by the time they enter their teenage years. It is estimated that only one in every one hundred adults suffers from the chronic problem of bed wetting. However until bed wetting becomes ac thing of the past it is important to be supportive of a child who wets the bed. Be sensitive to your child’s concerns and reassure him or her whenever they wish to talk about the problem. Many children are anxious, embarrassed and frightened that their friends will find out that they wet their beds and they will then become the object of ridicule.

Make sure your child knows that it is not anything he or she does that causes the bed wetting and that in time it will go away. Do not get angry with your child for wetting his or her bed and do not make too big a deal of it, otherwise it is likely to affect your child’s self esteem. Don’t allow other siblings to laugh at or tease the bedwetting child about his or her problem or this could make the problem seem worse than it is.

Help manage bed wetting by encouraging your child to not drink a lot of liquids before he goes to bed and to always go to the toilet before turning in for the night. Place a plastic or rubber cover, also known as a sheet protector between the fitted sheet and the mattress of your child’s bed. This helps keep the bed as unaffected by the bed wetting as possible by preventing the wet from being absorbed and also by preventing odor from sinking in and smelling the bed up.

If your child wants to help you change his sheets when he wets the bed then let him do so. This teaches both a sense of responsibility and also may bring some small comfort by deflecting his embarrassment at the situation.

Some doctors suggest bladder-stretching exercises as a way to manage bed wetting. What this means is that during the daytime hours your child stretches out the times when he uses the bathroom in order to encourage the bladder to be able to hold in more urine for longer periods of time. This is believed to help strengthen the bladder muscles. If you decided to go this route, make sure you carefully follow the instructions laid down by your doctor.

If a child is still wetting the bed upon reaching age seven or eight a special bed wetting alarm might be in order. Upon being aware of the presence of urine, this alarm will make the child aware that he must awaken and go to the bathroom. This helps prevent only the smallest quantity of urine from being spilled onto a child’s bedclothes and sheets. It is essential that the alarm be reset before the child goes back to bed in case the problem begins again in the night.

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