Does your child’s bedwetting habit bother you? Are you concerned about his mental progress because of this? The first thing that you should know is that bedwetting is no disorder. Bedwetting is quite common in children below five years of age but in some children it continues even after five years of age. Around twenty percent of children continue bed wetting after five years of age. The male child is more prone to bed wetting with five percent of all male children bed wetting nightly and only one percent of girl child doing the same. Bedwetting is no serious problem but it works upon the child’s self esteem. Bedwetting is the inability of the child to recognize neurological messages send by the full bladder. A child needs to be properly toilet trained to avoid cases of bedwetting. Remember that your child does not do this on purpose. Scolding your child will not help. You must also remember that bedwetting is not a persistent problem and will also eventually go away.

If you want your child to stop bedwetting there are a few things that you must keep in mind. Encourage your child to void before going to bed. Prevent your child from drinking too much water before going to bed. Place a plastic sheet over the mattress to avoid it getting spoiling. Make your kid do certain bladder exercises, as per your physicians’ advice, which will help him overcome his bedwetting problems. They increase bladder volume. Ask your child to hold urination for longer during daytime. This will help them control urination during night.

If the bedwetting continues well after five years of age then you should consult a doctor. Even though bed wetting is no disorder, yet bedwetting can be avoided with the help of some medicines. Medicines like desmopressin acetate and Tofrinil help control bedwetting but these medicines do not cure bedwetting. Bedwetting preventing medicines are especially helpful when your child is sleeping over at a friends place. Bedwetting at someone else’s place can be traumatic for the child. Make sure it does not happen to your child. There are bedwetting alarms available at every pharmacist’s that warn the child when he is about to leak at night. These are tiny sensors that are attached to the pad of the child’s undergarment. These sensors sense moisture and send an alarm to wake up the child so that he/she can use the toilet. The success rate of bedwetting alarms is, however, variable.

Some children face secondary bedwetting problems as well. Secondary bed wetting is when bedwetting starts again after having stopped once. Two to three percent of children have a medical cause for secondary bedwetting. These may include urinary tract infections, metabolic disorders, constipation or neurological disorders. If your child is suffering from any of these conditions, it can be easily determined by a physical examination and pathological test of the child. It is good to have your child examined by a physician. Bedwetting is basically due to the delay in maturity of the nervous system but if there is any other problem a physician will know and tell you exactly what to do.