But at night your brain is sleeping so deeply that it says to the bladder, ‘Don’t bother me, I’m sleeping.’ But the bladder says, ‘I’m too full, I’ve got to go,’ so out comes the pee onto the sheets. When your bladder gets full, these nerves tell your brain that it is full, and you go potty. So, if you’re in the middle of a game and don’t want to go to the bathroom, you’re able to hold it. When you’re awake, you feel this pressure, but you can hold it because there is a big, doughnut-shaped muscle at the end of your bladder that you squeeze shut to keep your pee inside. Here’s how I explain it to six-year-olds: “Your bladder is like a balloon the size of a baseball, and inside the balloon are tiny nerves, like feelers, that tell you when your bladder is full. With the use of a picture book, such as Dry All Night by Allison Mack (Little Brown, 1989), help your child understand bedwetting by explaining to him how his kidneys make urine and fill the bladder. In our medical practice we have had kids whose bedwetting stopped after tonsillectomy or dental alignment. The doctor will examine your child’s airway to see if it is too small due to large tonsils/ adenoids and dental malalignment. If you suspect this, get a medical evaluation for OSA. Clues to OSA: snoring and mouth breathing. Check Child’s Nighttime BreathingĪ common underlying cause of bedwetting is poor quality sleep, secondary to (OSA), insufficient air supply during sleep. Consider nighttime training pants, which can help ease the stress of bedwetting and provide a management solution so you and your child can rest easy at night. The best thing you can do for your child is to make them feel comfortable and let them know you are not upset or disappointed. Once you’ve excluded a medical problem, it’s important to find the right management solution for your family. The good news is that over ninety-five percent of children have no urinary tract abnormalities causing the bedwetting. Restricting fluids may cause dehydration and constipation, which can aggravate bedwetting.įinally, if an abnormality of the urinary tract is suspected, your doctor may refer you to a urologist to perform studies such as an ultrasound VCUG (an x-ray picture of how the kidneys and bladder function) to reveal possible abnormalities that could prevent your child from keeping dry all night. ![]() Children need to drink a lot for proper bodily function, especially during hot months. In my experience, withholding liquids is not helpful and may be harmful. Don’t try to stop bedwetting by restricting fluids. Identify the triggers, what is different about your child’s day on the nights he is wet or dry? Is there a relationship to food, drinks, life events, family events, school situations, daytime bowel and bladder patterns, or family dynamics? Try to put your finger on the triggers that lessen the number of sheets you have to change. Step 1: Keep a Diaryīeginning between four to five years of age record the patterns of your child’s night wetting for one week. Here’s the step-by-step method of helping families manage bedwetting that I have used during my over fifty years in pediatric practice. ![]() With new insights, approaches, and management tools, children no longer have to suffer the embarrassment of wet nights and parents no longer have to endure years of laundry. Bedwetting can certainly be challenging for families, but there are a number of things parents can do to help set the tone in their family to be understanding and positive. Each night in the United States at least five million school-age children wet their beds.
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