Treatments Available For Bed-wetting

Many treatments are indeed available for bedwetting problems. They can be used in combinations or alone. They are as follows

1. Parental Waking

This is very effective. The parents must wake the child after a few hours of sleep and encourage him to use the bathroom. The important thing here is that the child must be fully awake to walk independently to the bathroom. Parents must use minimal stimulus like calling child’s name, switching on the lights, using a whistle, shaking the child’s shoulder, etc for waking the child.

Initially the child may get confused or find it difficult to wake. If so, try again after 20 minutes. The child must be awakened every night at the time the parents go to bed continuously. This must be done until the child himself wakes up or at least for a small sound. This has been found successful.

2. Alarms

Alarms have been identified to be the best option of all. They just emit a sound after the first indication of moisture which the child must recognize and rush to the bathroom in time immediately. Over time, it is believed that the child will learn himself to wake up whenever his bladder is full.

Sometimes the child may sleep so deeply that he will not wake to sound of alarm. Hence a parental waking program must be developed to wake the child for the sound. These alarms are very successful for treating children 10 years or above.

3. Motivational therapy

This treatment involves the parent to encourage and reinforce a sense of control for the child to overcome bedwetting. Parents must constantly say that he/she is capable of overcoming the problem easily with just some efforts put in. They can in fact design a reward system if the child stays dry. This will be a great encouragement. Sometimes, you can include counseling sessions using a professional. The child must be willing to participate in this. If so, this will be very effective.

4. Self-awakening training

This is mostly for children above 6 years. The parents must wake the child from sleep for some days after which the child must get a practice to wake up himself from sleep to use the bathroom. When both children and parents are motivated, this can be effective.

5. Dry-bed training

This technique involves the practice of adhering to a strict schedule of waking the child from sleep, whenever necessary and use the bathroom. This must be continued for seven nights after which the child must wake himself. If he again wets the bed for three consecutive nights, the seven-day training must be adopted again. This involves less time but a greater success in the long term if combined with other modes of treatment.

6. Drugs

Desmopressin and antidepressants have been found to be effective in overcoming bedwetting. Though this is effective, soon after the medicine is stopped, the bedwetting can resume. This is normally used for children above 8 years only after other modes have been found ineffective. They must be used in combination of others, since only then the practice of taking medicines can be stopped. Besides, they have side effects. It is just an encouragement to the child saying that he can stay dry if he tries.