Understanding the Enuretic child

Understanding the Enuretic child

Knowing the causes of bedwetting is not enough. It is essential that parents understand what it is like to be a child with a bedwetting problem and understand how to stop bedwetting in an effective way. Since it is a genetic issue, many parents have suffered from bedwetting themselves. Even this is not enough preparation to deal with their child’s issue.
What is going in an enuretic child’s mind? The following story will illustrate the typical situation.
I received a phone call from an ex-patient who is twenty-five years old. He told me that when he was nine years old he came with his parents to my bedwetting clinic. His parents accused him of not trying hard enough to deal with the problem, and then he reminded me of my response to his parents: “What do you want from him? Why do you blame him? He does not wet the bed on purpose; he doesn’t feel when he is wetting the bed.” The young man said, “For the first time in my life, I felt that someone understood me.” Although many years had passed since this meeting, he remembered every single detail from this session and was so grateful. By the way, he outgrew bedwetting after only three months of treatment.
If parents will realize what is going on in their child’s mind, they will certainly act differently by showing understanding, sensitivity, empathy, and support.