Bedwetting Problems

Series Summary

Bedwetting is involuntary urination in children over 5 to 6 years old. It may occur at any time of the day or night. Children develop complete control over their bladders at different ages. Nighttime dryness is usually the last stage of toilet learning. When children wet the bed more than twice per month after age 5 or 6, it is called bedwetting or nocturnal enuresis. Children who were dry for at least 6 months and then started wetting again have secondary enuresis. Reasons that children wet the bed after being fully toilet trained may be physical, emotional, or just a change in sleep. Children who have never been consistently dry at night have primary enuresis. This usually occurs when the body makes more urine overnight than the bladder can hold and the child does not wake up when the bladder is full. The child's brain has not learned to respond to the signal that the bladder is full. It is not the child's or the parent's fault. In this free parenting video series, a child psychologist offers helpful information about bedwetting, or enuresis. Learn about the problems and statistics of bedwetting. Discover the place of genetics and deep sleep in bedwetting. Find out the difference between daytime and nighttime bedwetting. Get strategies for helping a child who is having bedwetting problems.

Video Transcript

"Hi, my name is Dr. Randy Hyde. I would like to talk to you about enuresis, which is the clinical name for bed wetting, or daytime wetting. This is a big problem, not only for the child, but for the parent as well. All parties feel guilty and struggle with this difficult, difficult problem. There are actually four different kinds of enuresis. One is bed wetting, which is called nocturnal enuresis, and this occurs most often. The second is diurnal enuresis, which is daytime wetting. The third type is primary enuresis, this is where a child has not gained continence for at least a year, where the problem has been ongoing. And that's probably the most common. Secondary enuresis is where a child has gained continence, stopped bed wetting, and then regained bed wetting again, they regress or fallen back into the same old pattern. And there's a combination of the first two and the second two. For example, a person can have nocturnal and diurnal enuresis, where they wet the bed and struggle with wetting during the day. They can also have nocturnal and diurnal primary enuresis, where they've never had continence. There's a combination of all those. The reason I bring this up is because it's important for you to understand because the treatment is different for each one."