Are you wondering why your child is still wetting the bed? You are NOT alone. Bedwetting (nocturnal enuresis) is more common than people realize–5 million American children wet the bed, (not to mention teens and adults.) Parents aren’t openly talking about bedwetting because it’s a sensitive issue that’s often associated with embarrassment and shame, and parents rightfully wish to protect their children. Let’s dive into this hidden struggle together so you’ll know that bedwetting IS a treatable condition, and that your child’s life can and will change for the better once it’s gone.
Why Does My Child Wet the Bed?
It’s not laziness. It’s not rebellion. There’s nothing wrong with their bodies. There’s nothing you, as parents, did wrong. Nothing. It is solely tied to a gene that your child inherited, which causes a deep-sleep disorder. Have you noticed how deeply your child sleeps? Many parents refer to it as being “dead to the world.” Others have told us their child slept right through a piercing smoke alarm or an intense thunderstorm. Bedwetting is not something that can be controlled by your child because their deep sleep is causing a disruption in the communication between the bladder and the brain, and the emptying of the bladder is involuntary.
Bedwetting Myths
There exists what we refer to as a Rabbit Hole of Misinformation when it comes to bedwetting, from online blogs and articles to recommendations from physicians and well-meaning family members. So let’s dispel the common myths and misinformation around bedwetting causes and cures.
What doesn’t cause bedwetting:
- Drinking fluids at night
- Toilet training mistakes
- A missing hormone
- A small bladder
- Improper diet
- Tongue tie
- Constipation
- A narrow palate
- Erratic bedtimes
- Spinal galant reflex
- Laziness / Rebellion
- Physical injury or abuse
- Behavioral challenges
- Physiological challenges
What doesn’t cause bedwetting:
- Prescribed drugs
- Alarm devices
- Pull-Ups/Goodnites
- Interrupting sleep to pee
- Restricting fluids
- Dietary changes
- Acupuncture
- Homeopathy
- Hypnotherapy
- Psychotherapy
- Palate expanders
- Tongue tie correction
- Constipation therapy
- Vitamins or supplements
- Waiting for it to go away
- Rewards or punishment
- Chiropractic adjustments
- Removal of tonsils/adenoids
- PTNS – Posterior Tibial Nerve Stimulation
Why Doctors Can’t Help:
Urologists, pediatricians, and healthcare practitioners of all kinds treat medical / physiological conditions. However, bedwetting is not a medical condition, and effective treatment is not found by altering something about the bedwetter’s physical body. To do so is akin to shooting a bow from an arrow and missing the target–every single time.
Doctors have relied on an outdated point of view that says bedwetting isn’t a serious condition, and that it’ll be outgrown eventually. Nearly all of our patients’ parents have heard that line on repeat through the years.
Given that bedwetting is out of their realm of expertise, they rely on what they’ve erroneously been taught to do: Prescribe medication or wait–and hope for the best.
What’s the Next Step?
As with any ailment or condition, the only way to change it is to get to the root cause. So why is enuresis only happening at night? Because it’s a sleep issue. It’s an inherited gene that created a sleep disorder. Changing the disordered pattern of sleep into a healthy, normal one is the only way to end bedwetting for good.
Are you willing to wait another year? Are you willing to continue to spend money on pull-ups or home remedies or doctor’s visits without any results? Are you willing to continue to live with the emotional, mental, and physical fallout from your child’s poor sleep quality and chronic bedwetting?
We’re here to support and guide you when you’re ready for a change that will last a lifetime, and then you can breathe a HUGE sigh of relief!
