When you first notice that your little one has wet the bed, then it might cause you to think that he/she only did that out of laziness. But it is a mere myth that laziness is what causes bedwetting. There are quite many reasons that may result in your child wetting the bed, and it has nothing to do with laziness! If your child has frequent bedwetting episodes, then by now, waking up in the middle of the night to change his/her sheets, might have become a habit. But you also need to remember that this problem is quite common in kids, and is nothing the child or you should be ashamed of discussing. Gaining bladder control during night time is a process that your child develops over an extended amount of time, and at different ages too. For a lot of kids, bedwetting will prove to be a part of growing up, but it does not have to be embarrassing or confusing if you and your little one can only understand what might be the underlying cause of bedwetting! Did you know that bedwetting can easily be traced to the DNA? Bedwetting is a common issue that can easily be classified as an inherited problem. A lot of parents, when they let their kids know that they had had the same issue growing up, can help the child feel like he/she is not the only one facing this problem. Apart from being an inherent problem, bedwetting can also be caused due to a few more reasons.
- Heavy Sleepers: There are a lot of kids out there who are heavy sleepers in particular, and as a result of this, sometimes it happens that the signal of the bladder being full is not received by the brain.
- Late Bladder Maturation: Once the bladder and your child’s brain start communicating with each other and sending signals, the problem of bedwetting goes away. But you also have to keep in mind, that this process or the development of this communication, might take a different amount of time to evolve.
- Low Amount of ADH: ADH, i.e. the anti-diuretic hormone, is the one that is responsible for telling the kidneys to make less urine. So, usually, it so happens that the kids who wet their beds frequently might have lesser amount of ADH in them, thus letting the kidney produce more urine. And obviously, if there is more urine, there will be more bedwetting.
There are ways in which you can incentivize your baby and try to avoid accidents like bedwetting sometimes. From encouraging your baby to pee before you go to bed and letting your little one have less water before he/she goes to sleep, to covering your kid’s mattress with plastic and sometimes even medications, if the need arises, bedwetting is an issue that can be controlled. Just remember, it is an issue that gets better over time without much intervention!