| You may have
heard... |
When in fact... |
| “Parents are responsible
for mistakes made at toilet training.” |
Parents do not have any control
over deep sleep. |
| “Enuresis
is an emotional or physical problem.” |
You don’t
just close your eyes at night and suddenly have emotional or physical problems. |
| “Something may be
medically wrong.” |
Less than 1% of bedwetting is
caused by a medical problem. |
| “The
bladder is too small.” |
Bladder size
is determined by individual demand and grows mostly at night. Enuresis retards growth by
emptying the bladder one or multiple times during the night. The bladder responds by
staying underdeveloped. |
| “Restricting fluids after
dinner and getting the bedwetter up during the night will control enuresis.” |
Both are counter-productive;
they contribute to further under development of the urinary system and it is unhealthy to
deprive the body of the fluids it requires. |
| “They
will “outgrow” it!” |
Enuresis is
the number 1 reason for medical discharge from the US Military. When bedwetters do
“outgrow” the bedwetting...they are most often left with the unhealthy sleep
disorder for life. |
| “Wetting less frequently is
a sign of improvement.” |
No, it is just a change in the
wetting frequency. |
| “The
bedwetter is lazy and just waits until the last minute to go to the bathroom.” |
At night, the
deep sleep prevents the bedwetter from awakening. It is totally out of their control.
During the day, the small bladder capacity and the weak and insensitive sphincter muscle
prevent the bedwetter from feeling the urge to go to the bathroom, often until it’s
too late. |
| “Since they rarely talk
about it, Bedwetters are not bothered by the problem.” |
Bedwetters often live with
feelings of shame, low self-esteem and chronic failure. Talking about the problem often
makes the problem worse if no one can help. Denial and depression are common. |
| “The use
of drugs is frequently effective” |
Drugs are
artificial ways of elevating the sleep and/or decreasing the production of urine. Most
have harmful side effects and the bedwetting reoccurs when the drugs are discontinued. |
Return to Media
