Most boys and girls have wet the bed at some point. This, which is seen as something normal in most cases and which will eventually be solved, can be a real headache for parents when they see that the problem becomes chronic.
Nocturnal enuresis is a real problem, which requires treatment and understanding on the part of adults towards the child. Neither the child is to blame nor does he do it on purpose, however, this does not mean that nothing can be done to avoid it.
Let’s see Some tips to prevent children from wetting the bed while they sleep in addition to understanding to what extent a good understanding of the problem by the child’s family environment is necessary.
What is nocturnal enuresis? Brief definition
Wetting ourselves is one of the most common problems in childhood According to the DSM-5, enuresis is the inappropriate emission of urine at least twice a week for at least three months in children over five years of age.
This problem can be a major intrusion into the child’s life, given that none of them want to urinate on themselves, something that can cause problems at the level of socialization, their autonomy and their emotional state, generating high levels of anxiety.
Tips to avoid nocturnal enuresis
Follow these guidelines to prevent nocturnal enuresis from occurring again.
1. Control what you eat for dinner and drink
The child should consume liquids, but his intake should be reduced after 7 p.m. and, above all, avoid drinking them within two hours before bedtime
It is especially important to avoid consuming drinks that contain caffeine, such as tea, coffee or cola soft drinks, since this methylxanthine has diuretic effects, that is, it contributes to the formation of urine.
At dinner time you should eat light food without too much salt or sugar.
2. Go to the bathroom before bed
Although it may seem like an obvious option, you should make an effort and go to the bathroom before going to bed to ensure that your bladder is as empty as possible and thus avoid nocturnal accidents.
3. Have easy access to a sink
Related to the previous point, sleeping in a room very far from the bathroom can make it difficult for the child to want to get up and go urinate.
The best solution for this is to ensure that you sleep somewhere close enough to the bathroom, so that you don’t feel lazy about having to get up and urinate.
You should also avoid obstacles between your room and the bathroom and, if necessary, place night lights to mark the way so you are not afraid to go. If necessary, place a portable urinal in the room.
4. Wear diapers
Regarding this point, the opinions of experts are quite varied. There are those who consider that it is not at all advisable to use diapers in children and adolescents who have nocturnal enuresis problems, while others recommend them occasionally.
The reason that there are certain professionals who do not recommend the use of these diapers is that they negatively interfere with the child’s motivation to learn to control their sphincters and want to wake up dry the next day. They can make the child, when he notices that he has to urinate, instead of getting up and urinating, prefer to stay in bed, having the guarantee that the diaper will already take care of avoiding wetting the bed.
Besides, Those who defend the use of these diapers say that they help make children feel more secure and confident in themselves
Whatever the best option, it is advisable to ask a pediatrician about whether or not the use of diapers is appropriate for the child in question.
5. Control children’s bellies
It may be the case that the child has constipation problems, which can cause less control over the bladder. This is because the intestines, full of feces, They put pressure on the bladder, reducing its capacity
A good way to get your child to urinate less is to introduce more fiber foods into the diet, such as fruits and vegetables. Once constipation is overcome you can see your urinary control increased.
6. Avoid blaming the child
The child has wet the bed, but it is not his fault nor did he do it on purpose It must be understood that the child who suffers from nocturnal enuresis problems happens to him because he has no control over it, due to a problem in maturation.
Blaming the child and punishing him for bedwetting will only make the situation worse.
7. Be understanding
Parents or legal guardians must show that they are on the child’s side, that they are not blamed for the problem, and that they want the best for them.
You should avoid creating drama every time your child wets the bed. If it happens that a member of the family also suffered from enuresis as a child, they can be used as an example of what It is something that sometimes happens and, with the passage of time and with a little effort, it ends up being overcome
8. Do not bring up the topic when it is not appropriate
When it happens, you should comment on what is happening, but you should not talk more than necessary about the subject, much less when you are in front of family or acquaintances.
It is not that the matter should be treated as if it were a taboo subject, but one should not shout out loud that the child wets the bed. If you do, The child may feel humiliated and this may cause, in addition to trauma, a worsening of enuresis
9. Make the child responsible for his improvement
As we have already mentioned before, the child is not guilty of urinating on himself nor does he do it voluntarily. This does not mean that the child should not be involved in certain responsibilities related to the problem.
If he has wet the bed, instead of changing the sheets for him, he should help in the process He must also change his pajamas himself.
10. Urinating frequently
To prevent the child from relieving himself during the night in bed, he can be taught to go to the bathroom with a certain frequency, such as two or three hours. This will prevent too much urine from being retained in the bladder and unwanted accidents occurring during the night.
11. Wake up the child
If necessary, the child can be woken once during the night to make sure he does not have to urinate and, if he does, go to the bathroom and relieve himself.
This should be done carefully and only once a night Doing it too vigorously or on several occasions can very negatively affect the child’s necessary rest.
The objective of this is to prevent the child from urinating on himself at night and to solve this problem, not to cause insomnia that will later transform into drowsiness the next morning when he is at school, clearly affecting his academic performance in a very negative way.
12. Write a dry night diary
This tool can be very useful to have a long-term perspective of the successes achieved by the child This diary records the nights in which the bed was kept dry and also those in which it unfortunately became wet.
With this, you can have a more objective measure of the success that the treatment may be having, in case the child is undergoing one of them, and also the application of the advice described above.
13. Bladder training
Bladder training exercises are actions that children with enuresis problems can do that allow them to have better control over their sphincters.
For example, you can practice briefly holding back the urge to urinate for an hour a day or going to a bathroom, start urinating and stop the stream for a few moments to restart urination later
14. Make the child understand that he must get out of bed to urinate
Instead of crossing your fingers so that the child does not wet himself tonight, the best thing to do is to convince him how important it is that he go to the bathroom before going to bed and that, if while in bed he notices that he feels like go, make an effort and go to the bathroom.
The alarm or Pipi-Stop method
Although the tips explained here are useful to help overcome the enuresis that the child may suffer from, Going to a psychologist and pediatrician to start appropriate treatment is imperative, especially if the situation is serious. In cases where it is very difficult for the child to wake up to urinate or in which enuretic episodes occur between 5 and 7 times a week, one of the most popular and effective treatments is the alarm, also called Pipi. -Stop.
This technique, developed by Mowrer and Mowrer, consists of a device that is placed in the child’s pants, which is activated when the first drops of urination occur Once this happens, the device makes a noise, waking up the child and stopping the emission of urine. Thus, once the child has woken up, he goes to the bathroom to relieve himself. In this way, through classical conditioning, the child associates the urge to urinate with waking up.
This method will help the child to be more aware of how much he or she has to urinate while sleeping, preventing him from wetting the bed and, over time, having better sphincter control, combined with an increase in self-esteem and a reduction in emotional problems that could be associated with enuretic episodes.