Children Wetting The Bed: Why And How To Solve It?
Doctors and psychologists have called this problem nocturnal enuresis and it is linked to children who wet the bed. It occurs when little ones do not control their urination and urinate while they sleep. There can also be cases of daytime enuresis . How to solve this problem? Find out more in this article.
What is enuresis?
It is an uncontrolled urination of children that usually affects the hours of sleep, although it also occurs during the day. Sphincter control is a natural process that develops as people grow older.
This mechanism matures between 15 and 18 months of age, but depends on many factors. Thus, the habits that the child has come into play (that parents teach them to go to the bathroom alone or that they have been removing the diaper little by little, for example).
After that moment the child already knows how to “pee” by himself, or at least he is in the learning phase. There are various techniques used by parents to get the little one to leave the diapers, such as putting underwear on them and learning what it is to be wet.
At what age do children usually go to the bathroom alone?
If the teaching and maturing process of the child are successful, he will go to the bathroom like adults, communicating when he has a desire to urinate. By four or five years the child is already in a position to control this physiological need, understand it and not require assistance to evacuate. The problem arises when the child does not learn after many attempts.
Nocturnal enuresis appears at approximately five years of age. It can be intermittent or continuous and in some cases extends into adolescence. There are many different ways to treat such a condition, from psychological to medical. The most important thing in these cases is that the parents do not lose their cool, do not get angry and do not punish or scold the child.
The probable causes of nocturnal enuresis are:
- Small bladder (if the child goes to the bathroom a lot during the day we can tell about it)
- Inadequate toilet training
- Stress, nerves, anxiety (changes at home, separation from parents, problems at school, fights with siblings …)
- Initiate urination and sphincter control learning too early or too late
Questions to consider if our child wets the bed
1. You need to give it time
If the child is 5 years old and urinates during the night, do not go to the doctor if it only happened once. If it happens repeatedly or every night, then it does require treatment.
2. Don’t blame him, don’t get angry and don’t tease him
Punishment is not something that can have the effect expected by the parents, since the child does not control the situation. It is not your responsibility. This can lead to more tension, worry, nerves, a feeling of disobeying the elders or of failing as a child.
3. Don’t put her diapers back on
First, because the idea is for the child to grow and mature, not to regress. Second, because that way you will get used to urinating at night regardless of wetting the bed. And third, because you will not feel very comfortable, you will be embarrassed and depressed.
4. Do not make the mistake of denying him drink water
Preventing him from consuming water will be a kind of patch that will not improve the situation. The goal is not that the child has less desire to urinate, but that he knows how to control urination while sleeping.
5. Don’t wake him up at dawn
In this way, he will go to the bathroom if he feels like it, but this will cause the child (and you too) to interrupt the sleep and that is not good for anyone. Better that he just realize it and wake up, even when he is in the deepest stage of sleep.
Finally, and by way of reflection, it is good to take into account the child’s emotions. He is already at an age that can tell what happens to him without problems. Teach him to trust you and to express what he feels, why he thinks he is wetting the bed.
Make him a participant in the treatment or the techniques so that he stops urinating on himself and, together, help him out of this situation.
