Bedwetting
Alternate Names : Enuresis
Definition
Bedwetting is involuntary urination in children over 5 to 6 years old. It usually occurs at night. (See also incontinence.)
Overview, Causes, & Risk Factors
Children vary in the age at which they are physically ready to have complete control over their bladders. Nighttime dryness is usually the last stage of toilet learning. When kids continue to wet more than twice per month after age 5 or 6, we call it bedwetting or enuresis.
Children who were dry for at least 6 months and then started wetting again have secondary enuresis. The key here is to find what changed. It might be physical or emotional or just a change in sleep.
When the child has never been dry, that is called primary enuresis. Here, the cause is usually a combination of making more urine overnight than that bladder can hold and of being a deep sleeper (the child's brain has not learned to respond to the signal that the bladder is full). It is not the child's or the parent's fault.
Physical causes are rare, but may include lower spinal cord lesions, congenital malformations of the genitourinary tract, infections of the urinary tract, or diabetes .
Bedwetting runs strongly in families. More than 5 million children in the U.S. wet the bed.
At age 5, more than 7% of` boys and 3% of girls wet. At age 10, 3% and 2% still do.
|
