5 year old child wetting the bed

There are generally several types of bedwetting in children, some are indirect, some are primary, and many people have congenital diseases, so they will have symptoms of bedwetting. If the ureter has been inflamed or the children are often given diapers, they will gradually develop the habit of bedwetting. Many five or six-year-old children often wear diapers to sleep at night because they are worried about bedwetting. Let us learn about some related issues about children's bedwetting.

Disease classification

Bedwetting in children can be divided into primary and secondary.

The vast majority of bedwetters are primary. In 2-4% of children, enuresis symptoms may persist into adulthood. The harm of enuresis is a psychological disorder caused by long-term damage to self-esteem.

Secondary enuresis in children can occur day or night, in bed or not, awake or unconscious. In addition to bedwetting, there are other more obvious clinical symptoms and pathological manifestations, mostly organic diseases, such as lower urinary tract obstruction, cystitis, neurogenic bladder (urination dysfunction caused by neuropathy), etc. Most of them are concomitant and transient, and will improve with the improvement of other diseases.

Generally speaking, children begin to control urination at the age of 3-4. If they still wet the bed frequently after the age of 5-6, such as more than twice a week and lasting for 6 months, it is medically called "enuresis". Nocturnal enuresis is a common disease. In my country, boys are more likely to suffer from this disease than girls. Excluding diseases that cause bedwetting, the exact cause of primary nocturnal enuresis is still unclear, and it may be related to the following factors:

Genetic factors

Nocturnal enuresis usually runs in families. If both parents have been nocturnal enuresis patients, their children have a 3/4 chance of wetting the bed. If one parent has a history of bedwetting, their child has a 1/2 chance of developing the condition.

Disease factors

Pinworm infestation (irritation of the urethral opening by the worm), urinary tract infection, kidney disease, local inflammation of the urethral opening, spina bifida, spinal cord injury, sacral nerve dysfunction, epilepsy, incomplete brain development, small bladder capacity, etc., but enuresis caused by illness only accounts for a small proportion. For the vast majority of children, bedwetting is related to mental factors, hygiene habits, environmental factors, etc.

Deep sleep and inability to wake up in time to urinate

Some children have not received urination training, such as using diapers for a long time, parents do not wake up their children at night, and carry their children to the toilet to urinate, and some parents even help their children urinate while they are sleeping in bed, which causes children to develop the habit of urinating during sleep. Over time, bed-wetting at night is likely to occur.

Delayed development of nighttime bladder control

As patients with nocturnal enuresis grow older, their symptoms may improve and they may stop wetting the bed, but it may take several years to stop. Even 1% of people continue to wet the bed after entering puberty.

Environmental factors

A sudden change of environment; climate change such as cold weather, etc. In addition, children drinking too much water before going to bed; eating fruits such as watermelon that are high in water and have a diuretic effect; parents not taking care of their children in time when they feel the urge to defecate at night, etc. can all cause children to wet the bed.

Not producing enough ADH, the hormone that controls urine flow

In addition, 20-30% of children with nocturnal enuresis cannot produce enough ADH, a hormone that is naturally produced by the human body and can reduce the amount of urine, during sleep.