Hello lovely kids, hope you had a wonderful holiday? Welcome back! I trust we are all doing great? Something happened yesterday hence the need to write about this. A neighbour of mine has a daughter of about 8-10 years if i am not mistaken, yesterday she whipped the child furiously and i was wondering what she did to beget this beatings. The girl ran to me, i was forced to asked her mum what she did. The mum said she urinated on the bed at night. I am particularly interested in this topic because i did this while growing up and not once or twice. It got to the point that my mum gave me those greenish fruits on afang leaves( okasi leaves). She even reported me to almost all my friends. Then i was in primary 6, i was so ashamed that i stayed away from school for 3 days, i couldn't face my friends. What is bed wetting? What causes bed wetting? What are the possible solution?

the bed wetting girl back then

WHAT IS BED WETTING

Bed wetting which is also known as nighttime incontinence or nocturnal enuresis is involuntary urination while asleep after which a child has passed the age at which staying dry at night is expected source

From the above definition we see that bed wetting is an involuntary action meaning it is not a deliberate act. The person involved would not deliberately wet his or her bed. To me i see this act as a normal part of a child's development, so whenever i see a child going through such experience, i look for ways to help that child rather than making him feel ashamed. I witnessed a man of 27 years going through this because he drinks too much, he comes home half drunk and bed wets at night, it can happen to anyone . You can only get scare if that child has painful urination or if the child is unable to control his bladder even at day time when he is pressed. See a doctor if you notice any thing alarming, do not mistake all bed wetting to be a normal development in a child.

Try to find out how he feels to know if it is something that needs doctor's attention . Do not leave him in this state hoping he will stop one day. Yes, he will stop but you need to help him do that

Image source A child feeling bad after bed wetting.

CAUSES OF BED WETTING

There are many causes of bed wetting, i will talk about the ones familiar to me, which are:
√ OVER FEEDING/ LATE NIGHT FOOD: When a child eats heavy food before bed time, or eats plenty of food before bed time, there is a high tendency for the child to bed wet.

√ DRINKING WATER BEFORE BEDTIME: Limit a child's intake of fluid before bed time, give water within few hours of bed time. If a child drinks much water few minutes to his bed time, his bladder will be full thus making him uncomfortable and he will likely empty it on his bed. I personally feed my little nephew once it is 6:45 or 7p:m, give him a little water and he sleep by 9pm. This way he will emptied his bladder before his bed time.

√ DIABETES: If someone is diabetic, the body does not process glucose and may produce urine in large quantity. This can cause bed wetting.

√ STRESS: Stress is another thing that cause bed wetting. A child may play the whole afternoon , in between that play is a little conflict with his peers, by the time the young man gets home he is exhausted. When he asleep, his body is relaxed and there is a tendency for him to bed wet.

POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS

What are the possible solution to this? Like i said earlier, it is a normal part of a child's development. What you need to do is to talk to the child about it so as to know if it is something that needs doctor's attention, if not, see how you can help the child in these ways:

√ Do not give him heavy food at night
√ Limit his fluid intake before bedtime
√ Avoid late night food
√ Make him rest especially in the afternoon after playing
√ Most importantly talk to him about it and when he makes effort to stop commend him

Image source

I know it can be annoying because as a mother you expect your child to out grown such thing at a certain age. Like i defined earlier, it is an involuntary action, trust me if it was a deliberate action i wouldn't have done that. So when next you see that bed wetting child please talk to him and not criticise him.
Thank you for going through my page.