Does your child still wet the bed? A lifestyle change could be the answer…

[24 October 2007 - 16h25]

When a child is still wetting the bed after the age of 5, specialists talk about isolated primary nocturnal enuresis. This is a condition that can and needs to be treated. At the recent Entretiens de Bichat conference in Paris, doctors have been discussing the best advice to give about healthy living in this respect.

Enuresis is a condition with established physiological and medical causes, such as having a particularly small bladder, excessive production of urine during sleep and insufficient awareness of the need to urinate. Another reason is excessive drinking in the late afternoon and evening. According to Dr Ilona Alova, a paediatrician and specialist at the Necker Hospital for Sick Children in Paris, experience shows that a large number of enuretic children drink almost nothing at breakfast time or at school. When they come home they are thirsty and dehydrated and drink a lot before bedtime.

You should encourage your child to drink adequately at breakfast but also throughout the day and to cut down on drinking in the evening. Also make sure you don’t give your child fizzy or sweet drinks as they encourage bedwetting.

Another important piece of advice is to get your child in the habit of urinating at set times. You can help your child to keep a record of when they drink, when they urinate (and if possible the volume of urine passed), when they have dry nights and when they wet the bed. A micturition calendar is an essential tool throughout treatment of the condition. To begin with it will provide your doctor with information on your child’s lifestyle and will also help when re-evaluating the diagnosis and measuring your child’s degree of motivation.

All these are techniques proven to be effective. By simply following a healthy lifestyle one child in five can be cured, points out Dr Alova. For the rest a specific, complementary therapy may possibly be necessary.

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