Bed Wetting Myths
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It's the child's fault. It's the parent's fault. It's an emotional problem. It's just stress. It's a sleep disorder. It's not a problem at all, so don't worry about it. There's no cure. The cure is easy.
These conflicting messages are often what parents of bedwetting children must sort through in order to decide how to help their child. So what to believe? Here are a few things not to believe…………
Myth One
My child is alone in having this problem.
If a parent, grandparent, aunt or uncle with a history of bedwetting can share their memories with your child, it will help her see that she is not so different. Learning that an adult she respects and admires was similarly affected may help. Also remind your child that, in a class of 25 8-year-olds, at least one or two other children wet the bed. Children’s book like “Do Mermia
ds Wet the bed” and Davids Secrete Soccer Goals: may help as they are in a language the child can understand and shows them they are not alone.
Myth Two
Parents should restrict privileges or punish their children so they will become dry quicker.
Remember, your child does not consciously control her bedwetting. Punishing your child for an activity that she has no control over is counterproductive. Dealing with the wetting in a supportive manner, such as having your child help make her bed or carry her bedding to and from the washer should be viewed as sharing in household tasks, not as punishment.
Myth 3
If the child doesn't tell her parents she is bothered by her bedwetting, she probably doesn't care if she is wet.
No child wants to wake up in a wet bed. As children reach school age and realise their peers don't wear disposable pants or worry about waking to a wet bed, their self-esteem and social independence are affected. All children would rather be dry.
Myth 4
Bedwetting occurred because I left him in disposable pants too long.
Most children are day toilet trained between ages 2 and 4. There are generally three types of children when it comes to nighttime dryness:
- Those who become spontaneously dry at night.
- Those who begin with an occasional dry night, progress to more dry nights than wet ones and achieve complete dryness without intervention, usually by 6.
- Those who have had very few, if any, dry nights in their lives. These children may wet no matter where they are, how much their fluids are restricted or even if their parents take them to the toilet during the night.
Myth 5
Most children with bedwetting have mental or physical problems.
Only three in 100 children with primary nocturnal enuresis have a physical or urologic cause for it. Psychological problems as a cause of primary bedwetting are not common. Even children with emotional challenges can respond to treatment for bedwetting.
Check out our amazing Bed Wetting Sheets designed by a Kiwi Mum
