Bedwetting (Primary Nocturnal Enuresis)
Home Treatment
Most children gain bladder control over time without any treatment. A child should first be allowed to overcome bedwetting on his or her own. However, home treatment may help a child to wet the bed less frequently.
You can help manage your child's bedwetting:
- Monitor your child's consumption of liquids. As a rule of thumb, children should be encouraged to consume 40% of their total daily liquids in the morning, 40% in the afternoon, and 20% in the evening. Talk with your health professional about how much fluid your child needs.
- Restrict your child's intake of caffeine. Caffeine is a diuretic, which means that it promotes the excretion of urine. Foods such as chocolate and beverages such as colas and tea that contain caffeine should only be consumed during the morning and afternoon hours.
- Have your child use the toilet before going to bed.
- Remind your child to get up during the night to go to the bathroom. It may help to keep a night-light near or potty chair beside the bed.
- Let your child help solve the problem, if he or she is older than 4.
- Praise and reward your child for dry nights. Involve your child in planning the reward system. You may want to use a calendar and put stars or stickers on the days that your child does not wet the bed.
- Encourage your child to take responsibility for changing clothes and linens after a bedwetting accident. For example, use washable sleeping bags as bedding so your child can easily replace one that is wet with one that is dry.
- Offer your child disposable nighttime training underpants. Don't force a child to wear them, but if you are both comfortable with using them, there is no reason not to.
- Add 125 mL (0.5 cups) of vinegar to the wash water to get rid of the urine odour in clothing and bed linens.
If your child wets the bed, don't blame yourself or your spouse. Don't punish, blame, or embarrass your child. Your child is neither consciously nor unconsciously choosing to wet the bed. Give your child understanding, encouragement, love, and positive support.
- Be patient about changing the bed linens. Don't act offended by the smell of urine.
- Do not wake the child up at different times during the night to go to the bathroom unless it is part of a systematic treatment that the child has agreed to.
- Do not make the child feel bad (shaming). Shaming or punishing the child may make the problem worse.
- If you think your child may be feeling emotional stress, talk with a health professional about whether counselling may be helpful.
Teaching your child bladder-control exercises and techniques may help reduce the number of bedwetting episodes.
The best solution is often a combination of treatments. Below are some suggestions for treatment options according to the age of your child.
- Ages 5 to 8: Help your child understand that wetting the bed is a normal part of growing up. Encouragement and praise may be all that is needed to help your child wake up before wetting. Children in this age group should be praised for dry nights and should take an active role in cleaning up after wetting.
- Ages 8 to 11: If your child still wets the bed, a moisture alarm may be a successful treatment option. It can be used in combination with occasional use of a medicine such as desmopressin, which can be helpful for social events such as camp or sleep overs.
- Ages 12 and older: There can be significant emotional effects if bedwetting persists at this age, so treatment can be more aggressive. Continuous use of medicine is warranted if consistent use of moisture alarms does not prove effective. After your child achieves 2 months of consecutive dryness, taper the medicine gradually while still using the alarm.
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| Author: | Amy Fackler, MA Debby Golonka, MPH Carrie Henley | Last Updated: January 11, 2007 |
| Medical Review: | Adam Husney, MD - Family Medicine Michael J. Sexton, MD - Pediatrics Peter Anderson, MD, FRCS(C) - Pediatric Urology | |
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