Make it less stressful
Once you have evaluated the bedwetting in your household, you can develop a plan of action. Since you will be learning many tips that you can apply to your plan in the upcoming pages, your plan here is basically a contingency plan. On a paper, write down what your child should do when he or she wets the bed.
There are also a few things you can do to make bedwetting less stressful. Putting special sheets on your child’s bed, for example, can make clean-up much easier. Keeping extra sheets and blankets by your child’s room can also make clean-up much faster, especially in a busy household. Even small things you can do to make bedwetting less stressful will allow you and your child to focus on resolving the problem rather than worry about clean up.
This series of posts are dedicated to finding and then providing solutions about how to best help and treat the child that wets the bed. As you continue with these posts, you will find many additional tips for small things that can be done to help make bedwetting less stressful in your home.
Reality Check
Consider whether there really is a problem. Although we often expect kids to grow up fast today, the fact is that occasional bedwetting up to age three is still considered “normal” by most experts – children at this age are still simply learning to do basic things like use the washroom and control their bladder. Even kids up to age five may have an occasional bed wetting “accident” and this should not be a cause for concern. Many experts consider children over five who wet the bed regularly to have nocturnal Enuresis. In many cases, this condition tends to run in families and can last well into teenage years.
Before you start worrying unduly about bedwetting, consider the age of your child. If your child is very young, it may simply take a few months or a year to resolve the issue.
Many children have nighttime accidents until they are five or even older. If your child is older (six, seven, or older), consider whether anyone else in the family suffered from similar bedwetting problems in childhood. Was there something that helped?
Sometimes, just seeing Enuresis as a childhood ailment or a condition in the family that is always resolved eventually can help soothe the frazzled parent and the embarrassed child.
You need to consider the frequency of problems as well. A child who wets the bed after watching a scary movie or before a big day may be less worrisome than the older child who does not seem to be able to sleep through a dry night.
Once you have calmed down, take actionMany of the above tips are intended to get parents and children more comfortable with the bedwetting and accidents that occur when a child is trying to cope with Enuresis.
This is because bedwetting is such a stressful and emotional issue – in fact, some polls have suggested that besides divorce and family conflict, it is one of the most stressful issues for families. Learning to deal with the problem calmly, then, is a big priority.
However, parents should not just allow themselves to be placated into taking no action at all. The fact is, bedwetting can still be a nuisance and a problem for your child, and there are many solutions out there. Once your family has learned to deal with the problem in a level-headed way, do encourage your family to seek solutions rather than wait for the problem to go away on its own. There are many solutions out there that can help your child, so that your son or daughter do not suffer needlessly.
Don’t let it become a big deal
Of course, you want to help your child stop wetting the bed so that they can enjoy a comfortable sleep with no embarrassment in the morning, but be careful that you desire to help does not come across as a sign that there is something wrong. Don’t make bedwetting – an un-dangerous condition – become a big issue at your house.
