Expert talks

How to Help Your Child Overcome Bedwetting: A Parent's Guide

Help your child overcome bedwetting with positive parental support. Learn about the emotional impact, communication strategies and professional treatments.

You can help your child overcome his bedwetting issues heres how

Shame and guilt are two major feelings that many children have around bedwetting. With early and positive parental intervention, your growing children can overcome this issue without much trouble. Although far from being a serious medical condition, if not dealt with in time, bedwetting can lead to self-esteem issues in growing children.

How Bedwetting Affects Your Child's Mind

Repercussions can range from embarrassment to developing an inferiority complex or social phobia.
Research by the University Hospital Ghent in Belgium on 30 bedwetting children aged 6-16 years found that bedwetting can have a significant psychological impact.
Children above five years generally understand their condition and feel ashamed, often choosing not to engage in social activities requiring sleepovers.
Children may have feelings of failure or fear of being teased and humiliated by peers.
Parental reactions to a child's bedwetting can deeply impact their emotional wellbeing.

Managing Your Own Feelings as a Parent

Parents are generally considerate about their children's bedwetting, but over time may get frustrated and lose patience. Remember that bedwetting is beyond a child's control. According to Dr. Howard Bennett, clinical professor of paediatrics at George Washington University Medical Center, parents must keep two important points in mind:

Bedwetting is common and children should not be punished for it.
Bedwetting occurs because a child's brain and bladder are not communicating with each other at night.

Helping Your Child Overcome Bedwetting

Parents should support children emotionally and psychologically from an early age so they develop a healthy outlook towards this problem. By giving much-needed support, parents help overcome feelings of shame and guilt.

Communicate Openly With Your Child

Explain what is happening in the body when they cannot wake up to use the washroom, either yourself or with an expert's help.
Share positive stories of family members or characters who overcame bedwetting.
When you take your child in confidence, feelings of shame and guilt tend to reduce.

Provide Emotional Support to Your Child

Instead of shaming or punishing, make them understand that bedwetting is normal and many other children go through it too.
Keep midnight accidents unceremonious and encourage improvement.
Encourage them to engage in social activities such as sleepovers.

Establish a Bedtime Bathroom Routine

Set a healthy routine of fluid intake and washroom use throughout the day. Get your child to use the washroom just before sleeping - after brushing teeth and other parts of the bedtime routine. Make it the last thing they do before going to sleep.

Focus on Solutions, Not the Problem

Educate your child about bedwetting and help them take positive actions.
Encourage them to change their own wet sheets and clothes.
Help them prepare for midnight accidents by keeping extra pyjamas and a bed-sheet close by.

Professional Treatments When Bedwetting Persists

Sometimes all parental efforts may not be enough. Professional treatments include:

Bladder control training: Exercises that stretch and condition the child's bladder.
Moisture alarm: Wakes up the child on sensing moisture in the sheets so they can finish urinating in the washroom.
Hypnosis: Research has shown children respond to this treatment within four to six sessions.
Support groups: These act as both an avenue to vent and a ray of hope for parent and child.

If your child has a bedwetting problem, take a deep breath, arm yourself with information, and push forward with constructive steps towards helping your child overcome this phase.

Kimberly-Clark India makes no warranties or representations regarding the completeness or accuracy of the information. This information should be used only as a guide and should not be relied upon as a substitute for professional medical or other health professional advice.

FAQs on Helping your child overcome his bedwetting issues

Bedwetting can cause shame, guilt, embarrassment, inferiority complex, and social phobia in children. Research by the University Hospital Ghent found it has significant psychological impact. Children above five often avoid social activities like sleepovers due to fear of being discovered.

No, children should never be punished for bedwetting. According to Dr. Howard Bennett, bedwetting is common and occurs because a child's brain and bladder are not communicating at night. It is beyond the child's control and punishment only increases shame and guilt.

Communicate openly, provide emotional support, establish a bedtime bathroom routine, and encourage them to focus on solutions. Make them understand bedwetting is normal, share positive stories, and help them prepare for accidents by keeping extra pyjamas nearby.

Consult a paediatrician if your parental efforts to address bedwetting are not working and the problem persists. Professional treatments include bladder control training, moisture alarms, hypnosis (effective within four to six sessions), and support groups.

Bedwetting occurs because a child's brain and bladder are not communicating with each other at night. It is a common childhood problem that is not a serious medical condition. Babies on antibiotics with diarrhoea may also experience increased bedwetting episodes.

No, encourage your child to engage in social activities including sleepovers. Avoiding social events increases shame and isolation. Instead, help them prepare by packing extra pyjamas and a bed-sheet, and teach them to handle midnight accidents independently.