10 Ways to Cope with Bedwetting in Children

Nocturnal Enuresis (bedwetting) means involuntary release of urine during sleep beyond the age of anticipated control.

The primary step is to check with your child’s pediatrician and ensure that the bed wetting is not due to some underlying medical condition.

After performing all the required tests, if the practitioner rules out any particular disease, try following other ways to cope with this condition.

1. Do not Punish
To start with, never punish or criticize your child for wetting the bed during night. Psychologically, it will have a very bad impact on him. In fact, punishment worsens the situation.

Try not talking about it in front of friends or relatives. The child will feel very embarrassed and humiliated.

2. Fluid Intake
Encourage your child to consume lots of water and other fluids during the day in order to train his bladder to hold more liquid.

Limit his fluid intake from the evening onwards, so that there is less production of urine during the night. Sometimes enforcing this regimen may be harsh on children.

3. What Not to Eat
Some pediatricians recommend limiting dairy products as they increase urine production. Also, avoid caffeine as it is a natural diuretic.

4. Alarm Devise
The use of alarm devices also proves to be beneficial. These alarms use a pad inserted into the child's underwear, so that as soon as the pad gets wet an alarm bell rings waking the child up before the bladder empties completely.

5. Voice Alarm
You can also put an alarm in your clock, so that after three to four hours of sleep, either you wake him or the child himself gets up to use the washroom to empty the bladder.

6. Counseling
As emotional anxiety and stress are supposed to contribute heavily to this condition; hence, counseling of the child and the family may be necessary in case there is an underlying emotional or interpersonal problem.

7. Motivational Therapy
Such therapies involve telling children that they have control of their bodies and encouraging them to gain that control.

It also includes behavior modification techniques such as rewarding the child for remaining dry throughout the night. The reward could be a small little gift, trinkets, a candy of his choice, and lots of praise.

8. Let Him Do the Cleaning
Psychologist’s suggest that this might sound little too much but let the child do the cleaning himself after wetting the bed. This will encourage him to take the responsibility and make him more alert of the act.

9. Exercises
Bladder stretching exercises are done to increase the bladder capacity and teach the child to hold the urine for longer periods of time.

Bladder strengthening exercises can also be done to tone the muscle that controls the release of urine from the bladder.

These exercises may help the child gain better control of the bladder.

10. Medication
In older children and the ones who fail to respond to all the above methods, several medicines may be prescribed to control the involuntary release of urine.

This should be strictly done under a pediatrician’s guidance.

Bedwetting may last for a while, but providing emotional support and reassurance can help your child feel better until it stops.