Bedwetting: Not a Shame

Bedwetting (Enuresis) is the involuntary passage of urine during sleep and is a very common problem among children. At least one out of ten kids below the age of 6-years has this problem, but the good news is the ratio of kids' bedwetting goes down as they grow older. Only one out 20 is affected up to the age of 10, though there are infrequent cases of bedwetting by youths as old as 18. Only 1% of the children carry this problem to the age of 18.

Most bedwetting children possess a small bladder that cannot hold all the urine produced during the night and/or an inherited deficiency. In addition, some kids and in rarer cases teens are deep sleepers who don't awaken to the signal of a full bladder. Compounding the above problems is the fact that often the dream state relaxes the pubic muscles, which eventually leading to bedwetting.

Bedwetting can be a result of deep sleeping patterns, sleep apnea or failure of the body to produce a hormone which stimulates re-absorption of water from urine to be induced back into blood stream.

There are many other factors resulting in bedwetting, including medical problems, emotional and family problems and immature bladders. These problems are usually ridden of just by the passing of time.

To overcome the psychological effects of bed wetting, parents and children need to realize that bedwetting is not something to feel guilty about. It is common phenomenon among all children. The habit of bedwetting creates uneasy situations for parents, which all too often eventually leads to punishing children when they wet the bed. This makes the child feel guiltier, more ashamed and more embarrassed, and may even retard his growth.

Children have to realize that in many ways it up to them to control their bladder and to take the ultimate responsibility for stopping bedwetting. We must assure children experience longer hours of sleep, because fewer hours will generally cause them to sleep too deeply to overcome the shortage in length. During deep sleep the urge to use the bathroom does not wake them up.

Reducing the intake of fluids will also help by reducing the urine production Emptying the bladder at bedtime, waking up the kid every night and taking them to toilet etc. will help keep him or her dry. Alarms can be used to wake up when you need to urinate during the night. A positive feedback and a "good boy" pat for every dry night will boost the moral of the kid, which will help them to get rid of bedwetting.

Some psychologists provide a intriguing method to overcome bedwetting. According to them, when the urge to urinate arrives during the daytime hours, have the child pretend to sleep rather than immediately race to the bathroom. After feigning sleep for some time, "wake him up" from the pretend sleep so he can go urinate. This will help to develop the same habit during the nights too.

Medicines can also be used to avoid bedwetting. Drugs are sometimes used to reduce urine production at night, and some medicines are purported to help increase bladder capacity. The usage of medicines in any way is generally not advisable since excessive usage may have side effects. It may also occur that the stoppage of medicine intake may cause the situation to revert.

Hypnosis is another method used to overcome bedwetting. It teaches the unconscious mind to stop bedwetting and can greatly accelerate the process. Even while asleep, the unconscious mind is said to still be 'awake' and due to this fact your unconscious mind can learn to stop bedwetting by controlling the muscles that stop urine leaving the bladder.

When all is said and done, parents should understand that bedwetting is a common thing among all children and not something to be ashamed of.