Parent & Patient Information System 06/09/2015 Page43 / 51 Chapter 9 - Bedwetting (Enuresis) What is bedwetting? Bedwetting is when a child wets the bed during the night when they are asleep. It is not their fault and they are not being lazy. Bedwetting, or enuresis, is very common. It affects 5-10% of children below the age of ten years, and for a few children it can continue into adulthood. It is equally common in all cultures and among all social groups. Boys are more often affected than girls and the condition can often be inherited. What can cause bedwetting? Research has shown that bedwetting has three major causes: 1. Some children are not able to wake up when the get the signals to wee because they sleep very deeply, bedwetting children are difficult to arouse from sleep, 2. The kidneys of many bedwetting children produce too much urine during the night because they do not produce enough of the hormone vasopressin, 3. The bladder may be too “irritable” and squeezecontract too easily (is overactive) or the bladder maybe too small. Bedwetting can also triggered by urinary tract infections, anxiety and stress or constipation. When should it be treated? Enuresis will usually go away by itself, but it may take many years. The older a child becomes, the more likely that bedwetting will stop. For a bedwetting child who is six years old or older, and is upset by his/her problem, active treatment should be offered
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