Health advisers launch Dry Day

IRELAND’S first nationwide campaign to raise awareness of childhood bed-wetting, which affects 46,000 children, gets underway next week.

On Thursday, National Dry Day, health professionals will be available at special desks in major shopping centres to provide parents of children who wet the bed with information on how the problem can be successfully treated.

“We want to encourage parents to identify bed-wetting as a medical problem which can be successfully treated by contacting their family doctor, public health nurse or continence advisor,” said Dr Sami Ahmed, consultant Paediatrician and chairman of the Irish Enuresis Advisory Committee.

Almost 50% of parents of bed-wetting children between three and 15 years, wrongly believe that bed-wetting is because of laziness or deep sleep patterns.

In fact, most bed-wetters over the age of five simply produce more urine at night than their bladder can control.

It is only in a minority of cases that the problem is stress-related. Bed-wetting can start when children are bullied or experience a learning difficulty in school or when there is a family disturbance. Such cases can also benefit from a trip to the GP who can explore the problem.

Medical treatment involves either training the child to recognise that their bladder is full during sleep or by doctors prescribing tablets that reduce the amount of urine that enters the bladder overnight.

Dr Eddie McGrath, a consultant paediatrician, said bet-wetting was a problem for about 5% of children under 10 years and 15% of children under five years.