Children Wet the Bed Is Common – Understand the Problem

The first thing to understand about bedwetting in children is that it is a relatively common problem. In fact, while most children develop what is called an ‘adult pattern’ of control over their urination habits by the time they reach three or four years of age, such that they are dry both day and night, bed-wetting, or nocturnal enuresis as it is medically termed, occurs in up to 20 percent of five-year-olds and up to 10 percent of 10-year-olds.

It’s a condition that’s more common in boys than girls, with one study showing how by age seven, between 15 and 22 percent of boys wet the bed, while between 7 and 15 percent hundred of the girls do. The good news is that, in most cases, toddlers fall into the “infrequent bedwetting” category, meaning they wet the bed less than twice a week. In fact, only 2.4 percent of school-age bed-wetters are thought to wet the bed every night.

However, it is also true that when the bedwetting problem persists beyond a child’s 10th birthday, it is more likely to be classified as severe, meaning bedwetting three or more times per week.

The question is, if your child wets the bed, should you consider seeking help? The answer, according to experts, is yes. This is because while children tend to outgrow the problem with age, the impact bedwetting has on a child can be significant, affecting everything from their self-esteem to their relationships with their friends and parents, and even It can affect your performance in school. Children with a bedwetting problem are often teased by their siblings and friends and may be reluctant to go on school trips or attend gatherings that involve spending the night somewhere.

In fact, even in children who experience an “incident” of bedwetting just once a month, the problem has been linked to low self-esteem. Despite this, Australian statistics show that only 34 per cent of families of children with bedwetting seek professional help. Many families hold out until the child outgrows the problem. For most children this is certainly the case, but it can be very difficult for those who don’t.

This is unfortunate when you consider that not only has treatment for bedwetting been reported to improve self-esteem, regardless of the type or even its success, but proper treatment for bedwetting can be effective in more than 90 percent of cases. the cases.

Conversely, most of the techniques that families try on themselves to solve the problem, including reward charts or restricting fluid intake before bed, are not effective. What is more concerning is that up to a third of parents have used punishment as their first line of defense against the problem at some point. The reality is that most children classified as ‘bed-wetters’ do not do it to be naughty or as an act of rebellion. In fact, while bedwetting was once believed to be a psychological condition, it is now accepted that emotional disturbances, such as behavioral problems that sometimes go hand in hand with the situation (particularly in older children who wet the bed) they are actually the result of the problem rather than the cause.

For more information on treatments, bedwetting solutions, and causes of bedwetting, talk to your health care professional.