How to Stop Bed Wetting
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Ways to help solve
bed-wetting problems
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Boost their responsibility level by asking them
to help you change the bed.
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Train the child's bladder so they can hold urine
longer. Known as Retention-Control Training, this
gets the child to delay urination during the day
by ever-lengthening periods. It strengthens muscular
controls, but experts advise checking with a doctor
before beginning this.
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Begin a night-lifting programme where you wake
the child and walk them to the toilet to urinate.
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You can also help the situation by limiting the
amount of fluids drunk before bedtime - and try
to stop drinks half an hour beforehand.
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There is nothing more mortifying for young children than
wetting the bed. It is even worse for older children and if
their secret gets out - by siblings talking at school, or during a sleepover - then
their lives can become a misery.
And the sad thing is that bed-wetting is a very common problem.
In Australia almost a fifth of children wet their beds at
age 5, about 5% at age 10, 2-3% at age 14 and 1-2% as teenagers.
In the United States, figures show that between five and seven
million youngsters wet their beds.
For those who do wet the bed, the sense of guilt and embarrassment are
acute and parents - and brothers and sisters - need to be
aware about not reacting badly to episodes.
At midnight or 3am, that can be easier said than done, but
the key is to just change the bedding and get the child back
to sleep with a minimum of fuss.
The medical term for bed wetting during sleep is Enuresis
and it has various causes. It can be genetic and can run in
(or out) of families. Three-quarters of children whose parents
suffered from bed-wetting do the same at night, while half
have one bed-wetting parent.
Sometimes the sufferer will have problems waking out of sleep,
they may have a small bladder, or a slower-developing central
nervous system and this can make it harder for youngsters
to stop their bladder emptying while asleep.
It could also be due to infections in the urinary tract so
a doctor should be consulted to either eliminate, or treat,
that as a cause.
Whatever the reason for bed-wetting there are ways for parents
to help the child get over the problem and the first thing
is to remember that the sufferer is not trying to be difficult,
annoying or is too lazy to get up.
Experts believe there are two ways to stop bed-wetting -
behaviour therapy and using medicines. The former should be
tried before taking the path towards drug treatments.
There are medicines available to lessen the likelihood of
bed-wetting - some by reducing the production of urine at
night - and obviously these should only be used after consulting
your doctor.
Experts don't seem to be in favour of using drugs to solve
the problem - except when the child is having a sleepover
or going to camp and where wetting the bed will be psychologically
damaging.
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