Bedwetting is NOT Your Child’s Fault

Bedwetting.

The very word is upsetting to a lot of kids, particularly those who feel like they should be old enough to not wet the bed at night.

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sleepy boy in bed - bedwetting is not your child's fault

Bedwetting is NOT Your Child’s Fault

Children who wet the bed at night aren’t lazy. It’s a medical condition known as nocturnal enuresis.

1 in 6 children between the ages of 4-12 in the U.S. suffer from bedwetting (according to a GoodNites brand study).

In fact, a study on bedwetting showed that children who were punished for wetting the bed at night were more likely to be depressed and had worse overall quality of life overall compared to bed-wetters who were not punished.

That just breaks my heart.

boy sleeping in bed

Also, researchers think the most important causes of bed-wetting are related to the physiology of nighttime urine control. 

A child’s bladder might be overactive.

The child might produce too much urine during the night.

Or the child might sleep too deeply to awaken when he or she needs to urinate.

My son, who’s now 8, still wets the bed even though he’s been potty trained for years.

After talking with his pediatrician, we understand that Vman’s body just isn’t ready to make it through the night.

He sleeps so soundly and deeply that any signals his body might be sending just don’t wake him up.

As a parent, my biggest concern is that he’s embarrassed about bedwetting.

We have skipped several sleep overs and camping opportunities because just thinking of having to manage this issue makes him cry.

I can’t imagine how upsetting it must be to wake up wet every morning wet despite wishing and wanting to be dry.

His will is there.

His body is not.

And so the key for me as a parent is to be patient and give him the confidence he needs that just because his body doesn’t wake him doesn’t mean it won’t happen — just not right now.

5 Comments

  1. dawn rader says:

    thanks for sharing this. My son is 10 years old, will soon be 11. His self confidence level was so low, he was like yours, embarassed to have sleep overs. This would have been a great product to have. I reassured him constantly that it was not his fault and that his body just wasn’t ready yet. Just before Christmas was the last time he wet the bed…so we are headed towards the 3 month stretch and he couldn’t be happier.

    1. That’s awesome! It’s so hard to watch my son and see how upset he is that he still bed wets at night. Especially considering his younger brother has been dry at night since he was three (which was three years ago). But his body just isn’t ready.

  2. I know that my older son has accidents. He takes medication at night for his ADHD and it must put him in a deeper sleep. It causes him to urinate in his sleep. I love that Goodnites were created to give kids confidence.

    Bed wetting is more common and often not talked about because it is embarassing. I hope our blog posts help create awareness and give parents the tools to help their child. Thank you for sharing.

    1. It is definitely a lot more common than people talk about. Whenever we went to buy nighttime protection it was always sold off of the shelves — definitely an indication that there are a lot of people out there who have kiddos who are managing bed wetting.

  3. Anonymous says:

    Many years ago, when my son was 14 years old, he had a temporary bedwetting problem. He had injured his leg playing sports at school, and was bedridden for about 2 weeks. Our family doctor gave him a mild pain pill to take, and told him to drink plenty of water, which he did. As a precaution, I put a plastic mattress cover under his bed sheets. It was warm at this time, and he usually slept naked on top of his bed sheet, which was fine with me. Most mornings, I would walk into his room to check on him, and he was usually sound asleep. One morning, I had a bottle of baby oil in my hand, and started gently rubbing down his injured leg. As he began to wake up, he started peeing on his bed sheet. He quickly sat up in bed, and grabbed himself. He looked so startled, and was squeezing his little penis so hard to stop it from peeing. I sat on the edge of his bed, hugged him, and told him not to worry about it because I had put plastic down on his bed. I removed his death grip on his poor little penis, and he litrally soaked his bed. For a moment, I thought he was never going to stop peeing. He went so much, but he had drank a lot of water. Afterwards, I remember him being so embarrassed about wetting his bed in front of his mom, but the mess, and him, was easily cleaned up. After putting down a clean bed sheet, I talked him into wearing a cloth diaper, just at night, which he agreed to. There were a few more wet mornings, but it was mostly in the diaper. One morning I went into his room to check on him, and he was still sound asleep. I started carefully removing his damp cloth diaper, and his little penis started peeing. He mostly went into the cloth diaper, but I don’t think he ever wolk up.These were trying times, but we got through them together. Once his leg was healed, and he was off his medications, the bedwetting stopped.

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