It is soul destroying as a parent to watch your child struggle with bedwetting, not to mention a source of intense frustration and mounds of washing too!
I was privileged enough to do a course on children’s bladder and bowel health recently and would love to share what I learnt.
Bed-wetting, also called nocturnal enuresis, is a common problem in children.
It is defined as consistent, involuntary wetting of the bed after the age of 5 years.
The number of children who bed-wet varies by age; 13-20% of five-year olds bed wet, 10% of seven-year olds and 5% of 10-year olds still wet the bed according to the National Sleep Foundation and Children’s Hospital of Boston.
By age 15 years it drops to 1-2%. Boys are twice as likely as girls to wet the bed.
For many children bed-wetting resolves on its own without treatment.
It can however persist, and this is a cause of concern for both the child and the parent.
Some truths about bed-wetting:
• Bed-wetting can be classed as primary (child has never achieved 6 months of continuously dry nights) or secondary (child has been previously dry for 6 months and has relapsed).
• 80% of children wet the bed within the first 4 hours of going to bed, 20% in the last 2 hours prior to waking up.
• One of the most common causes of bed wetting is constipation. As stool collects in the rectum and hardens it causes the rectum to stretch thereby putting pressure on the bladder.
• Family history of bed-wetting can predispose a child to bed-wetting.
• Emotional stressors and changes (arrival of new sibling/ vacations) can exasperate bed wetting but are not the cause. It is more related to the associated change in routines; altered diet, toilet patterns or behaviour.
• It is not the child’s fault nor is it yours as the caregiver! Nor is it laziness or willful behavior!
Top tips to prevent bed-wetting:
• Urinate just before going to bed and first thing after waking.
• Encourage little boys to sit to urinate especially at the last void of the day (this ensures better emptying).
• Stop fluids 2 hours before bedtime.
• Ensure child is passing a stool daily and that the stool has the consistency of toothpaste and is a well-formed sausage.
• Ensure that your child is sitting in a good position on the toilet both to pass stool and urine (with a footstool and if needed a toilet seat narrower).
• Check that your child is passing urine when he/she needs to in the day i.e. not withholding at school.
If you are concerned regarding bed-wetting contact your GP, urologist and or physiotherapist.
A helpful website to look at is bedwettingandaccidents.com
Salt Rock resident Tarryn Graham has a BSc in Physiotherapy from Stellenbosch University, and has a special interest in and further training in women’s health physiotherapy. She has 10 years’ experience in women’s health and pelvic floor physiotherapy.
