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Survival Health


I


f you have a child that wets the bed at night, you might be feeling as if you are the only parent in the world whose child has this unwanted habit. It can be difficult to discuss the subject with family and friends, leaving you at a loss to understand why your child has failed to stop a habit that so many other children seem to get over easily.


But did you know that around a million children


in the UK (including many teenagers) accidentally wet their beds at night on a regular basis? And that figure may even be higher, because bedwetting isn’t a subject that parents are happy to discuss openly. In many cases, it isn’t even a subject that is talked about within the family. The repercussions of an ongoing bedwetting prob- lem can be wide-ranging – children can suffer from a lack of confidence and low self-esteem, often failing to reach their full potential. Invitations to sleepovers with other children have to be refused; school trips and camps are met with fear and family holidays are not the relaxing times they are meant to be.


Possible Causes


Many reasons are put forward as possible causes of bedwetting such as: a small bladder; a urinary tract infection; a lack of hormones to concentrate urine; something that runs in families, or stress and anxiety. Whatever the cause, it’s important to remember that it’s no-one’s fault and the good news is, there are steps you can take to help your child overcome this. A visit to your GP as an initial step is sensible to rule out the possibility of an infection, as this can easily be treated with antibiotics. Some children will go on to be referred to specialist Enuresis clinics at health centres or hospitals. Here traditional solutions such as the use of a bedwetting alarm, which buzzes once wetness is detected, will be suggested. If alarms are not successful, children may go on to be prescribed medication or drugs to concentrate their urine. I’ve been seeing children with bedwetting problems in my Harley Street clinic for 10 years now and in my experience, for many children, the cause is simply “habit”. Somehow over the years, your child got into a habit of wearing pull-up pants or similar absorbent protection and just never learnt how to stay dry all night - it can be as simple as that. Back in the days before disposable nappies had been invented, the incentive to get your baby dry and out of nappies was very much greater. Changing terry cloth nappies was hard work with hours of cleaning, boiling, sterilising and washing on a daily basis. Being a ‘stay-at-home’ mum was not so much a lifestyle choice but more of a necessity – someone had to do it. And ‘staying at home’ also meant staying in one place for most of the day – making it very much easier to build up a routine for toilet training. Modern day mums are much more likely to be working outside the home, resulting in young children being ferried to and from nurseries or childminders. Let’s face it, today’s children have busy social lives that include sleepovers with friends at a much earlier age than they used to. So it’s only natural that we do everything we possibly can to avoid those embarrass- ing accidents and encourage our children to continue wearing nappies or pull-ups for much longer. The nappy manufacturers have done everything they can think of to make our lives easier and over the years they’ve improved the quality, fit and design to


Bedwetting Solutions


Are our busy Western lifestyles creating a generation of bedwetting children?


such an extent that a child no longer needs to even feel wet when they urinate. How comfortable can life get? And have you noticed how the supermarket shelves are increasingly stocking night-time ‘pull-up’ protective pants for teenagers up to the age of 15? A decade or so ago these just did not exist to the same extent. But I believe these may well be the cause of the problem rather than a solution – and I also believe the problem is on the increase.


The true value of an accident Avoiding accidents can mean missing out on valuable learning opportunities. Babies growing up in pre- dis- posable nappy days very quickly made a connection between urinating and feeling wet.


Our brains can be likened to a piece of plastic that moulds and adapts to fit the experiences in our envi- ronment. If your child never experiences the feeling of wetness when releasing urine from the bladder, those valuable connections in the brain cannot be made. I believe that the super-absorbent quality of these nappies or night-time protection, actually tricks the child’s mind into believing that they’re simply not wet. And so the vital connection between the actions of the body and the results produced are never really made. It’s very much like trying to learn how to play the piano wearing sheepskin gloves – it’s not that easy. My advice to all parents of bedwetting children has to be to ‘bite the bullet’ and stop using this


protection after the age of 5 years. From this time onwards, it’s going to be better to protect the bed, rather than the child.


Alicia Eaton is a Montessori Teacher, Clinical Hypnotherapist and NLP Specialist based in London’s Harley Street. She is the author of the best-selling “Stop Bedwetting in 7 days” book and video programme. You can read more about her strategies for success in her latest book: “Fix Your Life…with NLP”. For more details see www.aliciaeaton.co.uk or www.7daystostopbedwetting.com


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