January 7, 2010
Not uncommon.
Dear Mrs. Figgins:
Our son Adam was injured in a car accident when he was 3. He is now 5 years old and still wets the bed.
My husband is losing patience, and say’s Adam is down-right lazy and needs to learn to get up and go to the bathroom like other kids. It hurts me, because Adam has been thru so much.
Is this normal? What can I do?
Maureen, Bend OR
Dear Maureen:
I don’t know what your son’s injuries were, and I want to start off by saying how very sorry I am.
Children achieve bladder control at different ages, and most children no longer urinate in their sleep, by the age of 6.
Frustrating as it may be to some parents, up to that age, bed-wetting is not unusual – and it does not happen because kids are too lazy to get up from bed and go to the bathroom.
Some of the causes of bed-wetting include the following:
• Genetic factors (it tends to run in families)
• Difficulties waking up from sleep
• Stress
• Slower than normal development of the central nervous system (which reduces the child’s ability to stop the bladder from emptying at night)
• Hormonal factors (not enough antidiuretic hormone is produced, which is the hormone that slows urine production at night)
• Urinary tract infections
• Abnormalities in the urethral valves in boys or in the ureter in girls or boys
• Abnormalities in the spinal cord
• A small bladder
Your doctor will do a physical exam and probably a urine test (called a urinalysis) to check for infection or diabetes – may also check for problems in the urinary tract and the bladder – and may even ask about how things are going at home and at school for your child.
Studies have shown that children who wet the bed are not more likely to be emotionally upset than other children.
Mrs. Figgins
Children Issues,Love,advice
