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Medical professionals never got to isolate a single specific reason for wetting the bed. There is more than just one factor.
This has been a widespread phenomenon among children aged six and lower. Fifty percent of kids around six years of age wet their beds regularly. Around five percent of ten year olds also do the same.
Children develop the ability to control the bladder during the day before they learn to control it at night. Most doctors do not link this condition to any serious psychological or medical problem.
Bed wetting may be divided into two categories: primary nocturnal enuresis (PNE) and secondary nocturnal enuresis (SNE).
In PNE, the child has already mastered bladder control when awake within a six month period but has had bed wetting episodes again that has turned into a chronic problem.
In SNE, the child has developed control of the bladder even when they are asleep during the night for six months and then begins to experience bed wetting again.
Professionals believe that there are a number of causes to PNE.
Genetics is one of them. A child has a higher tendency to develop the problem if someone in the family has had the same problem.
Some children may have very deep sleeping patterns that when the brain sends the message to the bladder that it is time be emptied, the child doesn’t awake.
The nervous system of some children may have developed slower than usual which affects bladder functions.
Some children may simply have a bladder that is smaller than average. This means it has to be emptied more often than most kids.
An undiagnosed and, therefore, untreated bladder infection may cause primary nocturnal enuresis. It can also be caused by an abnormality in the ureter or, for boys in their urethral valves.
Children suffering chronic allergies, some learning disability, or attention deficit disorder or ADD tend to be bed wetters more than other kids.
SNE is mostly related to a stress build up that could occur to the child’s life at any time. The bed wetting usually stops when the source of stress has disappeared.
Three of the most common stressful events that are triggers of a child’s bed wetting may be the birth of a new brother or sister, being hospitalized or seeing a parent or close relative hospitalized, or starting school for the very first time. These events can be exciting but they can also be very frightening to a child. This causes the secondary problems.
There are also problems that may be taking place in the family. These problems could include constant parent fights, divorce, neglect, abuse, alcoholism, or perhaps financial worries.
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