HOW TO STOP BED WETTING

Funke! Otun ti tole” (meaning Funke, you have wet the bed again!)

I woke up with a loud noise followed with a big slap on my face! It was my mum trying to wake me up after I had had an accident 😃 (bedwetting) I was 10 then. I won’t be able to share the gory details of what I had to go through because it is considered child abuse now 😃

My son also stopped wetting the bed at age of 10. So, I get it!! I often hear stories from parents about their kids’ bedwetting. 

Bedwetting can be frustrating and annoying for parents, especially if you have a child that is still bedwetting at 12 years old.  

By age 7 children are expected to have stopped bedwetting, although some children continue to bed-wet due to medical reasons.  However, today’s talk is about kids who bed=wet due to laziness and reluctance to wake up to go to the bathroom and pee. 

Today I’m going to talk about 4 steps on how to stop bedwetting before your children are 10. You can still use this method if your child still bed-wets at 11 and over. 

You may think that bedwetting should be addressed before children turn 7, but developmentally speaking age 7 is about when we start to get concerned about it. 

What causes bedwetting,

According to one Doctor Barbara, it comes down to two primary causes. 

1.A deficiency in antidiuretic hormone which is the hormone that wakes us up when we’re sleeping.

2.The other cause has to do with DEEP SLEEPING 😴 

Laziness is one of the reasons why some kids wet the bed, because they can’t be bothered to get up and go to the toilet. In my research, I learnt that there is a part of our brain that talks to our body when it’s time to pee. We all understand the urge we get when our bladder is full and we have to go ease ourselves, that is the communication between our brain and our body. 

However, because children who are bedwetters are in deep sleep, they get the message or the feeling, but their body do not think it is important enough to get up, so they ignore it and have accidents on the bed. 

In order to help manage your child’s bedwetting habits, you have to train your child to stand up, whenever she feels the need to pee in the night. For this to work you need to be able to follow through and stick to it until you get the result you want. 

So how are you going to do that?

It requires positivity and commitment!!

1. Firstly, you need to stay positive! This is really important because the reality is that so many accidents will happen before things get better, and positivity will be needed so as to not get frustrated with yourself and your child. 
2. Secondly, make sure they go to the bathroom twice before the go to bed. This act is called “Double Urinating”
3. Thirdly, you need to buy a bedwetting alarm 🚨 (an underpants alarm). Alarm system – Set an alarm, for every 2 hours so you can wake your child up to go to pee. With some practice, you’d get to the point where the alarm wakes the child up, and with more practice the alarm won’t be needed because the internal alarm, the feeling that comes from the bladder wakes the child when they need to go. 
4. Fourthly, you need to teach your child how to do her own laundry. they need to be responsible for their own hygiene. teach them how to wash the bed sheet and their pyjamas and how to say clean

REMEMBER THIS – The alarm may not wake the child, but it should wake you the parent up so you are able to wake your child to go use the loo at night. When you do this enough and keep practicing this, your child will start to wake up …) 

You have to do this with positivity and commitment because it could take anywhere from 3 – 4 nights, to 10 to 15 nights to get results. 

It doesn’t happen overnight and be ready for one or more bedwetting incidents. Be ready for that, expect it

My final thoughts 

Dear parents, there is no need to punish or shame your child because they wet the bed, remember it was an accident. Your child already feels ashamed and sorry, which is why most of them hide their wet clothes away from you. 

It also causes low self-esteem, most girls who bed-wet will not want to go on school trips or on sleep overs because they wouldn’t want to be embarrassed. So, parent all you need to do is help and support them. If you stay committed and positive, it will pass.

Your children need your help, so help them. No more excuses, because we know better now. Also, because we are intentional about how we parent our children now

Happy parenting

Olu

#Positiveparentingwitholu