Dear Dr. Greene, My eight year old son has wet the bed consistently (about every other night) for as long as I can remember. He feels terrible about it and I feel like a failure as a parent. My mother says it is because he has emotional problems. What is the real cause of bed-wetting? Does anybody know? Please don’t indicate where this question came from, but please get back to me if you possibly can?
Enuresis alarms work well for some people. The whole family needs to be motivated to use them. The alarm buzzer is triggered to sound when urine comes into contact with a pad placed under the bed-sheets to which the alarm is connected. They work by training the bladder and teaching the child to get up and go to the toilet. If a child is sharing a room, a silent vibrating alarm can be used instead. They can be purchased from ERIC or borrowed from a local enuresis clinic.
It’s not entirely clear why it occurs because people affected are physically normal and don’t have specific medical problems causing them to wet the bed. Many people used to believe that it was a deliberate act to attract attention - but this isn’t the case.
Most children are dry at night by the age of three and in medical terms bed-wetting at night, called nocturnal enuresis, is not considered to be a problem unless it continues after the age of five years.
With over a million people affected in the UK, it’s more common than people think. One in six five-year-olds, one in 11 nine-year olds, and between one in 50 and one in 100 people over the age of 15 (including adults) wet the bed at night.
Bedwetting (or nocturnal enuresis or sleepwetting) is involuntary passing of urine while asleep after the age at which bladder control would normally be anticipated.
A small percentage (5 to 10%) of bedwetting cases are caused by specific medical situations. Most cases, however, do not have a specific identifiable cause
Cures:
A bedwetting alarm is an electronic device which is used to alert children and adults that they are in the process of urinating while asleep (this is known as nocturnal enuresis). Bedwetting alarms are currently the only curative approach available for people suffering from bedwetting issues.
