A recent news item urges parents to be patient with bed wetters. They should understand that it isn't the child's fault and he or she is not misbehaving on purpose or to get attention.
With that in mind, I thought it would be appropriate to update this article and post it again to help people understand what bed wetting is, what might be causing it and possible methods of treatment.
Enuresis, or bedwetting, is a common childhood sleep disorder. In fact, it's estimated that, by age five, when children should have gained complete bladder control, 1 in every 6 children still suffers from nightly bedwetting. This gradually diminishes to 1 in 10 at age seven, 1 in 40 for teenagers, and even continues into adult life where approximately one in every 100 people still has the problem.
There are two types of enuresis, primary and secondary. In primary enuresis, control of the bladder has never been attained. In secondary enuresis, control the child once has is, for some reason, lost.
The causes of enuresis can be either physical or psychological.
PHYSICAL CAUSES
- Neurological (nervous system) disorders - Examples: ADD or ADHD, Epileptic seizures
- Urinary tract infections - common in children and adults, with its accompanying burning sensation and the constant need to void urine.
- Anatomical problems - This would include any deformity of the bladder or of the outflow tract.
- Metabolic conditions - Example: Diabetes, constipation
PSYCHOLOGICAL CAUSES
- Stress - Examples: The loss or a parent or someone else close to the child, a divorce or marital strife, a serious illness of someone close to him
- Repressed anger: The inability to express his anger because of fear he will be punished. Sibling rivalry.
- Achievement concerns - Is he being pushed too hard to achieve good grades? Another example is a parent who is urging his/her child to excel in a sport in which he is not really proficient.
