14 tips to avoid bedwetting in children

Most boys and girls have wet the bed at some time. This, which is seen as something normal in most cases and that will end up being solved, can be a real headache for parents when they see that the problem is becoming chronic.

Bedwetting is a real problem, which requires treatment and understanding by adults towards the child. Neither the child is to blame nor does 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 is necessary on the part of the child's family environment.

• Related article: "Anxiety disorders in childhood: symptoms and treatments"

What is nocturnal enuresis? brief definition

Peeing on oneself is one of the most common problems in childhood.. According to the DSM-5, enuresis is the inadequate emission of urine at least twice a week for at least three months in children older than five years of age.

This problem can be a major intrusion into the child's life, since no one wants to urinate on themselves, something that It can cause problems at the level of socialization, their autonomy and their emotional state, generating high levels of anxiety.

Tips to avoid bedwetting

Follow these guidelines to prevent bedwetting from happening again.

1. Control what you eat and drink

The child should consume liquids, but his intake should be reduced after 7 at night and, above all, avoid drinking them during the two hours before bedtime.

It is especially important to avoid consuming beverages that contain caffeine, such as tea, coffee, or soft drinks. cola, since this methylxanthine has diuretic effects, that is, they contribute to the formation of urine.

Light food should be eaten at dinner time., without too much salt or sugar.

2. Go to the bathroom before bed

Although it may seem like an obvious choice, you should make an effort and go to the bathroom before lie down, to make sure the bladder is as empty as possible and thus avoid accidents nocturnal

3. Have easy access to a sink

Related to the previous point, sleeping in a room far from the bathroom can make it difficult for the child to want to get up and go urinate.

The best solution to this is to ensure that he falls asleep close enough to the bathroom so that he doesn't get too lazy to get up and pee.

You should also avoid having obstacles between your room and the bathroom and, if necessary, place night lights to mark the way so that you are not afraid to go. If necessary, place a portable urinal in the room.

4. wear diapers

Regarding this point, the opinions of the 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 bedwetting 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 interfere Negative in the child's motivation to learn to control his sphincters and wanting to wake up dry every day following. They can make the child, when he notices that she has to urinate, instead of getting up and urinating, prefer to stay in bed knowing that the diaper will take care of avoiding wetting the bed.

Besides, those who advocate 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 the belly of children

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, press on the bladder decreasing its capacity.

A good way to get the child to urinate less is to introduce more foods with fiber in the diet, such as fruits and vegetables. Once constipation is over you may see your urinary control increased.

6. Avoid blaming the child

The boy has wet the bed, but it is not his fault and he did not 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 wetting the bed 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 what is best for them.

Dramas should be avoided every time the child wets the bed. If it happens that a member of the family also suffered from bedwetting as a child, you can use them as an example that It is something that sometimes happens and that, with the passage of time and putting a little effort, ends up being overcome.

8. Do not bring up the subject when it is not relevant

When it happens, you should comment on what is happening, but you should not talk more than necessary about it, much less when you are in front of relatives 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. to do so, the child may feel humiliated and this may mean, 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 made to participate 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 by himself.

10. frequent urination

To prevent the child from relieving himself in bed at night, he can be taught to go to the bathroom with a certain frequency, such as two or three hours. In this way, too much urine will be retained in the bladder and unwanted accidents will occur during the night.

11. wake up the child

If necessary, the child can be woken once during the night to make sure that she does not feel like urinating and, if she does, that she goes to the bathroom and relieves herself.

This should be done carefully and only once a night.. Doing it too exalted or on several occasions can have a very negative effect on 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 later it will turn into drowsiness the next morning when you are at school, clearly affecting your performance very negatively academic.

12. Write a diary of dry nights

this tool can be very useful to have a long-term perspective of the successes achieved by the child. In this diary, the nights in which the bed has been kept dry and also those in which it has unfortunately gotten wet are recorded.

With this, it is possible to have a more objective measure of the success that the treatment may be having, in case of that the child is being subjected to one of them, and also the application of the advice previously described.

13. bladder training

Bladder training exercises are actions that the child with enuresis problems can do that allow them to have better control over their sphincters.

For example, you can practice holding in for a short period of time the urge to urinate for an hour of the 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 urinate on himself tonight, the most appropriate thing is to convince him of the importance of go to the bathroom before going to bed and, if already in bed you notice that you want to go, make an effort and go to the sink.

The alarm method or Pipi-Stop

Although the tips explained here are useful to help overcome the enuresis that the child may suffer, Going to a psychologist and pediatrician to start the appropriate treatment is imperative, especially if the situation is serious. In cases in which the child finds it very difficult 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 are given. Once this happens, the device makes a noise, waking 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 badly she urinates while sleeping, preventing her from wetting the bed and, over time, having a better sphincter control, combined with an increase in self-esteem and a reduction in emotional problems that could be associated with the episodes bedwetting

Bibliographic references:

• Bragado, C. (2009). nocturnal enuresis Effective treatments. Madrid: Pyramid Editions.
• Glazner, C. M., and Evans, J. h. (2004). Simple behavioral and physical interventions for nocturnal enuresis in children. Cochrane Database Syst Rev, (2),
• Naitoh, Y., Kawauchi, A., Yamao, Y., Seki, H., Soh, J., Yoneda, K., Mizutani, Y., and Miki, T. (2005). Combination therapy with alarm and drugs for monosymptomatic nocturnal enuresis not superior to alarm monotherapy. Urology, 66(3), 632-635.
• Rodríguez, L., and Gracia, S. (2008). Diagnosis and treatment of nocturnal enuresis. Therapeutic Diagnostic Protocols of the AEP. Pediatric Nephrology Spanish Association of Pediatrics, 116-126.