Bed Wetting - What Can I Do To Help Stop It?

Bed wetting or enuresis is quite literally one of the hardest problems families face. It is the act of urinating in bed habitually and, especially, involuntarily.

Bed wetting is common during the pre-school years, and children vary in their ability to control their bladders during the night. It is quite normal for a child under the age of five to wet the bed occasionally, and boys often take longer than girls to become dry at night.

This disorder also occurs sometimes in early adulthood and frequently among the aging. 'Accidents' do happen and should be dealt with kindly and sensitively in order to prevent emotional problems. Children who wet their beds should not be punished or scolded.

Causes and Symptoms

The causes of bed wetting are not entirely known. It does tend to run in families. Most children with enuresis have a close relative - a parent, aunt, or uncle who also had the disorder.

Sometimes bed wetting can be caused by a serious medical problem like diabetes, sickle-cell anemia, or epilepsy. Snoring and episodes of interrupted breathing during sleep (sleep apnea) occasionally contribute to bed wetting problems.

Enlarged adenoids can cause bed wetting as well. Other physiological problems, such as urinary tract infection, severe constipation, or spinal cord injury, are also known to cause bed wetting.

While most children have no long-term problems as a result of bed wetting, some children may develop psychological problems. Low self-esteem may occur when these children, who already feel embarrassed, are further humiliated by angry or frustrated parents who punish them or who are overly aggressive about toilet training.

Bed wetting can by made worse when playmates tease or when social activities such as sleep-away camp are avoided for fear of teasing.

There are a few things you can do to make this time 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 bed wetting less stressful will allow you and your child to focus on resolving the problem rather than worry about clean up.

Keep Things Low-Key

Make sure that the approach to bed wetting is a low-key one. Point out that it is not a child’s fault and that it usually means that a child simply needs to keep growing up - there is nothing abnormal about it. It often helps if the child knows that others in the family have experienced bed wetting and have grown out of it.

Natural Remedies for Bed Wetting

Of course, you can use individual herbs if you prefer. I've listed those that are helpful for this particular issue.

Herbal Remedies

Some natural herbal health products, such as Horsetail (Equisetum arvense) St. John’s Wort, Plantain, Cornsilk, Arnica Montana and Parsley, can help prevent bed wetting. It can also be treated using herbs like Causticum, Lycopodium, Ursi, and Pulsatilla.

Further Beneficial Dietary Supplements:

• Free-form Amino Acid Complex helps strengthen the bladder muscle.

• Calcium and Magnesium helps control bladder spasms.

• Multivitamin and Mineral Complex relieves stress and supplies nutrients.

• Potassium balances sodium in the body.

• Vitamin A normalizes bladder muscle function.

• Zinc improves bladder function and enhances the immune system.

A Teaspoon of Honey

Some parents find that a teaspoon of orange blossom honey taken orally morning and night helps prevent bed wetting. There is some controversy about this treatment, as some doctors insist that it does not work while some happy parents claim that it does. Research indicates that the substances in honey may help with water retention and help calm fears.

However, at the very least a teaspoon of honey at night and in the morning is not harmful in any way and can easily be used with other treatments.

Other Things You Can Do To Help:

Wake Up Alarm

For many children who wet the bed, the problem comes from the fact that the bladder simply does not communicate well with the body. For most of us, when we have to urinate during sleep, our body wakes us up and we can head to the bathroom before returning to bed.

For children with Enuresis, this system does not work. In addition, many children who wet the bed are also very heavy sleepers. Basically, the bladder empties itself since the body does not wake up to allow the child to go to the bathroom. In some cases, the child might not even notice the problem until they wake up the next morning.

There are a number of alarms on the market that your child can wear. These emit a noise when moisture is detected. They will wake your child up, allowing him or her to go to the bathroom. Even if your child is a very heavy sleeper and will not wake up, the alarm can wake up the rest of the household, so that you can wake your child up.

The idea behind this device is that the child will eventually learn to wake him or herself after being woken up by the alarm several times. Some improvement will usually be seen in about two weeks.

The best alarm we've come across is the Night Train R. They have one version for girls, and another for boys. They do exactly the same thing, they are just contoured differently to be more effective.

Visit a Health Practitioner

Since some bedwetting is caused by undiagnosed medical conditions such as diabetes or allergies, it makes sense to take your child to a health practitioner to be checked out. If there is a practitioner in your area who is known for treating children with Enuresis, so much the better. In either case, ruling out medical problems can be a big relief. If a medical problem is causing your child to wet the bed, coping with the problem will also generally resolve the Enuresis.

Ensure It’s Not A Medical Side-Effect

Check the side effects and directions on your child’s medication. If your child is taking any medications that cause extreme drowsiness or an urgent need to urinate, the medications may be causing the problem. Medications that make your child very tired may simply not allow your child’s body to wake him or her up in time to go to the bathroom.

Talk to your pharmacist or practitioner about any medication your child is taking and ask whether the substances may add to the bedwetting problem.

Visit a Chiropractor

Some parents have found help through chiropractic therapy. If you decide to opt for this route, make sure that you choose a qualified and recommended practitioner. It is best if you can find someone who has had experience in helping patients with Enuresis specifically.

Chiropractors work by manipulating the joints and the spinal cord in particular. It is thought that this manipulation helps to ease many conditions, including bedwetting. In fact, one recent study seems to prove that chiropractic treatment is beneficial for bedwetting prevention and treatment.

Massage

According to practitioners of this technique, pressure applied to various points on the body may help alleviate the condition. Acupressure or massage, when done by a trained therapist, may also be helpful in bed-wetting caused by a neurological problem.

Hypnosis

Hypnosis is another approach that is being used successfully by practitioners trained in this therapy. It trains the child to awaken and go to the bathroom when his or her bladder feels full. Hypnosis is less expensive, less time-consuming, and less dangerous than most approaches; it has virtually no side effects. Recent medical studies show that hypnotherapy can work quickly--within four to six sessions.

Ensure Your Child Has Easy Access to The Washroom

A bright night light and a bathroom that is easy to access quickly at night will go a long way towards making sure that your child can get to the bathroom in time. Not every household can arrange to provide a bathroom near a child’s bedroom, but consider sleeping arrangements closely and consider rearrangements that could make nighttime bathroom trips much easier. Even something as simple as moving your child’s bed closer to the bedroom door can save a few seconds at night, reducing accidents.

Get Your Child to Go to Sleep A Bit Earlier

Children who are tired may have a hard time waking up for anything - including a full bladder. If your child gets the sleep he or she needs, they will not be so overtired that they will be unable to wake up.

Look for Psychological Triggers

Emotional states often add to bedwetting or even trigger it. If your child is undergoing an upset (divorce in the family, death in the family, bullying, moving, conflicts with siblings) this may contribute to bedwetting. In these cases, you can either wait for the child to adjust (at which point the bedwetting may cease too) or you can have your child see a pediatrician or child therapist. Sometimes, even talking about the problems can help, so be sure to discuss anything that seems to be bothering your child.

Night Lifting

Night lifting is a technique that requires the parent to wake up the child in the night. Most children lose control of their bladder at a similar time each night (this is especially true if the child follows the same routine each day). If you can note when each accident occurs, you can set your alarm before this time, wake your child up, and lead them to the bathroom.

You can also try waking yourself and your child up twice a night. In many cases, this helps the child wake dry and encourages the child to keep trying to wake up before they are woken up. However, children may resist waking up in the night, especially if they are tired.

Bladder Control Exercises

Your doctor may prescribe exercises for your child to help him or her control their bladder more effectively. Some patients with Enuresis benefit from holding their urine as long as possible before releasing. The idea is to keep repeating these exercises in order to help the body develop more control.

Bladder Control Exercise:

1) Have your child tell you when he or she has to “go” during the day. 2) Explain to your child that you are doing an exercise to help him or her stay dry at night. Have the child hold the urine. 3) Have your child go to the washroom. 4) Repeat daily, slowly increasing the amount of time you make your child wait.

Urination Control Exercises

Some doctors find that helping the child control urination helps control the muscle that holds back or releases urine. This exercise is often used in conjunction with the bladder control exercise and is completely safe.

Urine Control Exercise:

1) When your child urinates, have your child stop urinating “mid-stream” - that is, have your child start urinating and then stop by squeezing the muscles that control the flow of urine. 2) Have your child start-stop three times. 3) Repeat process during each bathroom visit.

Some parents find the two exercises above useful. The idea is that the child will control the bladder more effectively during the day, causing the control to be present at night, as well.

In general, these exercises work best with children over the age of six years and those who are willing to work hard to control their bladder. Some small improvement should be visible in about two weeks.

Extra Trips to the Bathroom

Encourage your child to go to the bathroom before sleep. You can even wake him or her up when you go to sleep so that he or she can urinate again. This gets rid of the urine in the bladder, reducing the chances that the bladder will be left with enough urine to vacate in the night again.

Even if your child wets the bed, the amount of wetness will be reduced. Some parents also find that this technique alone is enough to help bedwetting. Even if it is not, it is a safe method that can be used with other remedies.

Develop a Bedtime Routine

Some parents have found that a steady bedtime routine helps some children relax and settle into sleep. A good night’s sleep can help with bed wetting since the child is not going to sleep so tired that they will not wake up (even when their bladder is full) or so keyed-up that an accident is more likely to happen.

Beneficial Things to Keep In Mind:

Give a Method Time to Work Before Tossing It Aside

In general, most methods should give you at least some minor result within two weeks. However, some methods may take longer to show effect. Do not be in a rush to try every method. The goal is to help your child to stop, and you do not want to overlook a method that would work just because you want “instant” answers. If you have not seen improvement in a few weeks, though, by all means try some other method to see whether your child can find relief some way.

Combine Some Tips for Best Results

Where no interaction is a factor, try combining some tips with home health remedies to get great results. For example, you can often combine natural or homeopathic alternative therapies with behavior modification. Most tips work well with comfort tips such as protecting sheets. Of course, you do not want to combine medications, but combining behavioral modification with some natural supplement or dietary changes may do the trick.

If you are going to be combining remedies, make sure above else that the two methods will not be dangerous together. Then, introduce each therapy to your child one at a time so that your child can get used to each treatment and so that you can observe any adverse effects.

Try Simplest Methods First

You want the best for your child, but the best is not always the most complicated or high tech method. With young children, especially, simplest methods are best. They also tend to be the most effective. Look for inexpensive bed wetting treatments that are simple enough for your child to understand. If those are ineffective, then you can move on to other methods.

Overcoming bed wetting can be a huge milestone in any family. Keep your expectations realistic (gradual improvement over time) and keep your solutions simple. Both your child and your wallet will thank you for it.

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