Coping with your child’s bedwetting
Hooray! Finally, your toddler has been toilet trained and is now completely free from nappies or so you thought. However this is not the true for many children, many parents experience the frustration of finding wet beds in the morning. If you are one of those parents who don’t know how to handle this, here are some helpful tips and ideas for you.
First thing to do is check with your family doctor or paediatrician to ensure that the bed wetting is not due to some medical conditions such as small bladder, urinary tract infection or diabetes. It is imperative that your child gets a thorough physical examination especially if they are seven years old or older and are still wetting the bed.
If your child’s bed wetting is not due to any medical problems, there are a lot of things that can help you and your child to cope and solve this problem.
• Use a mattress protector (
Brolly Sheet) for your child’s bed.
• Set a routine bedtime for your child. Over tired children fall deeply asleep and have harder time waking up to go to the bathroom.
• Encourage your child to consume more liquids and water throughout the day to train his or her bladder to hold more liquid. Avoid giving caffeinated drinks to children as these are natural diuretics.
• Take your child to the bathroom before going to bed each night. This may not easily stop the bed wetting episodes but will help in training your child’s bladder to discharge on the toilet at night and not in the bed.
• Provide a clear and well lighted path to the bathroom.
• Lessen the stress that your child may be experiencing especially if bed wetting has come on suddenly. Talk to them about recent changes in school or at home and ensure them that there is nothing to be overly stressed out about.
• Let your child help you clean up their accidents by letting them take the
Brolly Sheet or the sheets and blankets to the laundry room. This does not mean that you are punishing them; this is just a simple reminder that they must take responsibility for their accidents and actions.
• You may wish to use night time nappies or pull ups that are available in larger sizes for older children. This will you give you a break from the bedwetting clean up, but is not ideal in the long run as it gives the child the go-ahead to wee in his sleep without there being any consequences.
Never criticise or punish your child for bedwetting. Your child doesn’t wet the bed on purpose. Bed wetting is often an unpleasant and humiliating experience for them. The best thing to do is practice positive reinforcement. Save the high praises for a dry night. With a little understanding and some patience, your child’s bed wetting will come less and less. But in rare cases, some children bed wet until their teens, in these instances you could try a bed wetting alarm that goes off when moisture is detected or have your doctor prescribe some medications to help them with this problem.
