What causes a child to wet his bed? - What causes bed-wetting?

What causes bed-wetting?
13 September 2010

What causes a child to wet his bed? Our five-year-old soaks his sheets nearly every night, which drives me crazy!

There are millions of kids worldwide who wet the bed nightly. They are a misunderstood lot. Many of their parents believe that their bed-wetting is deliberate and it can be eliminated by punishment. Others think that these kids are too lazy to go to the bathroom. These are wrong and unfortunate notions.

Bed-wetting is often caused by medical factors, such as a small bladder, physical immaturity or other physical conditions. That’s why you should begin by consulting a paediatrician or an urologist when bed-wetting starts. About 50% of the kids can be helped or cured by medication.

For other boys and girls, the problem is emotional in origin. Any change in the psychological environment of the home may produce midnight moisture.

There is a third factor that I feel is a frequent cause of bed-wetting. During children’s toddler years, they wet the bed simply because they are too immature to maintain night-time bladder control. Some parents, in an effort to head off another episode, begin getting these kids up at night to go to the potty. The youngster is still sound asleep but he or she is told to “go tinkle” or whatever.

After this conditioning has been established, the child who needs to urinate at night, dreams of being told to “go”. Particularly when jostled or disturbed at night, the child can believe that he or she is being ushered to the bathroom.

I would recommend that parents of older bed-wetters stop getting them up at night, even if the behaviour continues for a while.

This article was written by Focus on the Family Malaysia (www.family.org.my) and the Questions and Answers are extracted from “Complete Family and Marriage Home Reference Guide” by Dr James Dobson with permission.

Credits to and source taken from: http://www.parenthots.com/