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Bedwetting Guide
Understanding bedwetting
by Rhea SeymourCauses: myths and facts
Bedwetting myths
- Bedwetters are lazy. This is not only inaccurate; it’s destructive, says Dr. Bennett, because it can make a child feel bad about him or herself. Bedwetting is not something a child can consciously control.
- Drinking too much before bedtime causes bedwetting. While limiting the amount of liquids before bed may help control the volume of bedwetting, fluid intake doesn’t cause bedwetting.
- Bedwetters have psychological problems. “In most cases this is not true. In a child who has always been wet at night, bedwetting is not psychological,” says Dr. Bennett. “Bedwetting can affect a child’s self-esteem so psychological problems can result from it but generally they don’t cause it.” However, emotional issues, such as the death of a loved one or moving to a new city may cause bedwetting in a child who has been dry.
- Using diapers at night will delay the natural resolution of bedwetting. Wearing youth diapers will keep a child from waking up wet and cold—and mom and dad from having to change sheets in the night—and will not keep a child from outgrowing bedwetting on his own, says Dr. Michael Erhard, chief of urology at Nemours Children’s Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida.
Bedwetting facts
- It’s in the genes: three out of four kids who are bedwetters have a family history of bedwetting.
- Bedwetters have difficulty waking up from sleep so they don’t respond to the internal signal to urinate.
- Some children who wet at night have a bladder that is not anatomically small but is functionally small, which means they get a sense that it’s full before it is and therefore have the urge to urinate.
- Some bedwetters produce insufficient amounts of the hormone that tells the kidneys to make less urine while we sleep; as a result they make more urine.
- Underlying medical causes of some cases of bedwetting include urinary tract infections, constipation, diabetes and spinal cord abnormalities. Except for constipation, medical causes are rarely the cause of bedwetting and can easily be ruled out by seeing the child’s doctor.
