Bedwetting Solutions, focusing on the symptoms first, then tackle the cause

Let’s talk about bedwetting for a bit. There seems to be very little consensus as to how to deal with children with bedwetting. It seems like people are too concerned with finding the root cause of the issue, instead of taking the necessary steps to limit the damage of the symptoms both to the child’s bed, and to their self worth/self-esteem.  It also seems that people tend to try and consider age as part of how they solve the problem. For instance, "My child is 10 year old, they're too old to be wetting the bed." This is not true, and it doesn't natter if your child is six or sixteen, the solution should not change.

For example, for very young children, it’s considered a just fact of life that children will take longer to get night time trained, vs daytime trained. This is why you see some children up to five or six years old still wearing diapers or pull-ups at night. 

When kids get older, we tend to second guess our instincts as to how to handle night time accidents. We try bedwetting alarms and medications. Age should not be a variable that needs to be considered in this equation. If a child is wetting his or her bed, they should be first and foremost protected. Its much better for the mental wellbeing for them to wake up with a wet diaper, than a wet bed. 

We need to stop telling our kids that diapers are for babies, and should be something that they should feel embarrassed for wearing. This is the opposite of the message we should be sending to them. Diapers are nothing but a tool, there should be no positive or negative connotation to them. I read blog posts and articles about how parents are potty training their kids at insanely early ages, to get away from diapers. A child will use the potty when and only when they are ready. Not when you are ready.  You don’t want to change diapers? Then don’t have kids. 

I asked my Brother, Robert about Beth’s bedwetting, and he said that so far its only been sporadic, and has wet the bed now 4 times in the last month. I asked him what he was doing for her. He said nothing. If she were my daughter, I would have had her back in diapers at night after the 2nd wet night, but that’s just me. We’ll have to see how things are going when she comes to stay with us. 

My little girl, Valerie is two. She has no interest in using the potty any time soon, which is fine. She still has plenty of time to figure out when is ready. Until now, she hasn’t been exposed to any potty trained friends, so her playdate with  Bailey should be interesting. 

In other news, the story that Mary told me on Sunday, has got Vinny and I talking about thinking of adopting a brother or sister for Valerie. We haven’t really thought too much about it, only that it’s worth looking into. I am going to do some research and see where that leads me. 

Well, I think that will do it for today.

-Veronica