Bedwetting Myths and Facts

For parents who have children who suffer from an inability to stop wetting the bed it can be vital to find out why these things happen. All too often, parents are masked with various beliefs or ideas related to bedwetting and often times these beliefs are based primarily on myth. Here are some myths and facts about bedwetting that every parent should know.

Bedwetting Myth #1: Bedwetting is a Psychological Problem
While some children do suffer psychological issues that actually cause bedwetting, most children who wet the bed do not do so out of psychological reasons. Bedwetting Fact: 3% of children who wet the bed do so out of physical or psychological reasons as reported by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Bedwetting Myth #2: Bedwetting is a Behavioral Problem
Many parents think that their children wet the bed just out of a pure resistance against the rules of the house just like a child may resist the rule to go to bed on time. Bedwetting Fact: Children do not wet the bed in an effort to gain attention or to disobey their parents. Bedwetting is just something that happens and children have no behavioral control over it.

Bedwetting Myth #3: Bedwetting is Curable
Some parents find themselves thinking that there must be a cure for their bedwetting child. Whether it's medication, physical therapy, or mental therapy. Bedwetting Fact: The American Academy of Pediatrics says that there is no cure for bedwetting. In most cases, a cure is not needed anyway because children usually outgrow it on their own. Certain medications have been used to reduce the likelihood of an accident by slowing the kidneys from transferring fluids but this is not a cure and will not stop bedwetting from occurring all together.

Bedwetting Myth #4: Bedwetting is the Parent's Fault
Parent's will sometimes blame themselves for the bedwetting problems that their children may have. Some parents think it has to do with their lifestyle, attitude or something that they did wrong during the potty training process. Bedwetting Fact: Nobody causes bedwetting-not the parent or the child! Genetics do play a role and a child who has two parents who also wet the bed as children is 77% more likely to be a bed wetter himself.

Bedwetting Myth #5: Bedwetting is Due to a Child's Laziness
So many parents or other adults think that if a child wets the bed it's simply because the child didn't feel like getting up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night-laziness on the child's part. Bedwetting Fact: Children who wet the bed are not lazy! They wet the bed due to an uncontrollable bladder function and the lack of receptors that send the message to the brain to wake the child up and go to the restroom. Laziness does not, in any way, play a part in bedwetting!

Sources:

American Academy of Pediatrics, www.aap.org