In search of a dry night

Recent research into stress levels of mums whose children wet the bed found almost seven in 10 felt bedwetting was a constant worry for them, partly due to having to repeatedly change bed sheets, also to frustration felt when recommended techniques didn’t work.

Two-thirds of mums felt sad their child ‘has to cope with the condition’ and half worried the child mightn’t be able to overcome the problem. Close to 50% of mums waited six months to a year to seek medical advice for the child.

This doesn’t surprise Dr Nick Van Der Spek, consultant paediatrician at Cavan General Hospital. “I always have to go out of my way to say there’s help available. There’s a lot we can do to get the older ones dry before they’d do it by themselves.”

Fifteen percent of five-year-olds wet the bed, five percent of 10-year-olds do, and just under one percent of the adult population are bedwetters.

Strategies used by parents include lifting — taking child from bed and putting him on toilet during the night. “Lifting doesn’t cure the problem. It might give the child a psychological boost when they wake up in the morning and they’re dry,” says Dr Van Der Spek.

Parents also restrict fluid intake prior to bedtime. “It might give them a dry bed but it doesn’t make them dry,” says Dr Van Der Spek, who does three bedwetting clinics a month – children have to be aged seven before they’re seen.

Three out of four children wet the bed either because they have a problem with arousal, (the sleeping brain doesn’t communicate well with the bladder at night), or because the kidneys make too much urine due to a lack of the hormone vasopressin. Treatment for the first is a bedwetting alarm, which wakes the child when they begin wetting. Treatment for the second is a tablet, which concentrates urine so the child can hold on ‘til morning. These approaches help 75% of bedwetters.

A third group, accounting for 25% of bedwetters is more difficult to treat. “It could be a kidney infection or a small, lazy or overactive bladder. It’s not diseased but it doesn’t do a proper job.” These children will also have day-time problems. “We focus on the day symptoms first. Generally, treatment’s a variety of medication and exercises during the day. We get about one-quarter of these kids dry.”

* Visit www.bedwetting.ie