There are children who are clean during the day, but not at night. Even though it may seem easy to understand, it can be painful for parents who have to get up in the middle of the night to change their little one’s sheets because he has wet the bed. Not to mention what parents think, how does a child feel when they see that they are always wetting the bed?

Parents often worry when their child, who controls himself during the day, can no longer control himself at night. They wonder why he continues to wet the bed when he’s grown up. In this article, we’ll take a look at why your child is always wetting the bed and how we can help them correct themselves.

Why does a child wet the bed?

When children are young, parents think that nocturnal urinary incontinence will pass with age. But time passes, the child grows and the problem remains. Often, children who pee in their panties when they are small learn to control themselves as they grow older. However, there are some who still don’t make it through their teenage years. It is for them that it is a problem, more than for the others.

Children who wet the bed do not do it because they want to, or to annoy their parents, or out of laziness to get up… It is not either a mental disorder or a question of development. In most cases, it is due to a physical or psychological problem.

Specialists point to different probable causes:

• Children cannot wake up when they have a full bladder.
• They make more urine when they sleep than other children.
• Some children’s bladder capacity is less than that of others.
• They go through a situation that changes their emotional state: the birth of a little brother or sister, the divorce of their parents, the death of a loved one, etc.

There can be many different explanations. It is essential to find the right one to provide an adequate solution.

The consequences for the child who wets the bed

A child who wets the bed sees it as a problem. He feels ashamed because he knows that at his age he shouldn’t do it anymore. Besides, if other children found out, they would laugh at him or her. This is why he often gives up sleeping with friends.

The child also develops a feeling of guilt, because he sees that his parents are forced to change the sheets, clean him and give him new pajamas every time he wets the bed.

Consequently, his self-esteem suffers. It can lead to other psychological issues like sadness, anxiety, fear, etc. The role of parents is to reassure the child, never to scold him or encourage him to solve the problem on his own.

What should parents do when their child wets the bed?

• You should not scold or punish a child for wetting the bed. He doesn’t do it on purpose.
• We must be careful what we say so as not to hurt him.
• Always be positive, focus on the nights when he doesn’t wet the bed and encourage him to move on.
• When he feels like a wee during the day, we can tell him to hold back for a little while to tame the sensation. He will better recognize his desire to go to the bathroom.
• When he goes to pee, tell him to practice stopping for a few seconds to tame the movements of the sphincter.

• On a calendar that you can do together, mark the days he doesn’t wet the bed with an eraser. If he has three stickers on three consecutive days, promise him a surprise. If he can master himself for three days, increase the number of days to get a reward.

There are solutions. No healthy adult wets the bed. You have to have a lot of patience and control your frustration and annoyance so as not to hurt the child. If you follow these tips, things should get better. If this is not the case, you can always call a professional who will be able to guide you to the solution.