Your child may wet the bed every now and then. While it’s usually not a big deal, it can be frustrating for both you and your kid.
Bedwetting, or nocturnal enuresis, happens when someone accidentally pees while sleeping. It’s common in kids. Your child will likely stop wetting the bed around 4 to 6 years old.
Causes of Bedwetting
The cause is likely due to one or a combination of the following:
- The child cannot yet hold urine for the entire night.
- The child does not wake up when their bladder is full.
- The child makes a large amount of urine during the evening and night hours.
- The child has poor daytime toilet habits. Many children habitually ignore the urge to pee and put off peeing as long as they possibly can. Parents usually are familiar with the leg crossing, face straining, squirming, squatting, and groin holding that children use to hold back pee.
Autism and Bedwetting
If your child has autism spectrum disorder (ASD), they might also be more likely to wet the bed. But experts still need to do more research to discover why ASD is linked to bedwetting.
Is Bedwetting Inherited?
Bedwetting does tend to run in families. Many children who wet the bed have a parent who did too. Most of these children stop bedwetting on their own at about the same age their parent did.
How Common Is Bedwetting in Children?
About 40% of 3-year-olds wet the bed. Experts don’t fully understand why one child continues to wet the bed and another doesn’t. It could be a matter of development. Sometimes a child’s bladder is simply not developed enough to store pee for an entire night. Sometimes a child has not yet mastered the ability to know when the bladder is full, wake themselves up, and get to the bathroom.
Bedwetting Treatments
Avoid blaming them. If you feel angry or frustrated because you have a wet bed to clean up yet again, don’t direct your feelings toward your child. They likely feel bad about it, and they didn’t do it on purpose. So don’t blame.
Make sure your child knows that bedwetting isn’t their fault and they aren’t alone. Let them know that millions of children, and teenagers too, regularly wet their beds. Tell your child if you did it too when you were growing up. You can help them see that it’s a problem that they will outgrow.
Help them try to use the bathroom before bedtime and during the night. Have your child use the bathroom when they start to get ready for bed, then once again the minute before they get into bed. This helps to empty their bladder.
If you’re still awake an hour or two after your child’s bedtime, think about waking them for a quick bathroom visit (or if your child is older, they might be able to set this habit for themselves). It won’t stop bedwetting, but it can reduce the amount of pee that might end up in the bed.
If your child is afraid of the dark, put night lights in the hallway and the bathroom so they won’t hesitate to get up and go when the urge wakes them.
Use an alarm. Some kids wet the bed because their bodies don’t yet tell them to wake up when their bladders are full. Bedwetting alarms wake children at the first sign that they’re letting go of pee and train the body to notice what it feels like when the bladder is full. The child wears special underwear with sensors that beep loudly when a small amount of urine leaks out. The beeping wakes them, and then they can go to the bathroom.
Drink less water before bedtime. Some kids who worry that they’ll wet the bed don’t drink enough during the day. By evening, they’re so thirsty, they drink a lot.
Help your child to drink more during the day, and let them have only one drink with dinner.
Stay away from drinks with caffeine, including cola and iced tea. Caffeine makes the body speed up the pee-making process. Fizzy drinks can also cause problems, so be sure to have your child avoid soda.
Use covers that protect their bed. Use a zip-up waterproof mattress cover so pee won’t reach the mattress. There are also waterproof pads to go between the sheets and blanket. After a wet night, you’ll only have to wash the pad, not the bed sheets.
Medical treatment for bedwetting
In some cases, you may need medication to help with bedwetting.
Credit: webmd
