What Everyone Needs To Know About Bedwetting
Parents, I have unbelievable news for you. By paying attention to just three factors you can reduce, manage, or even eliminate bedwetting altogether. You and your child will benefit from improved sleep and mornings that focus the day ahead, rather than on laundry or dirty diapers.
These main pillars that affect bedwetting are broken down simply as diet, exercise, and sleep. I'm not kidding. By focusing on diet, exercise, and sleep you can sway how many dry mornings you will have. This information is so crucial to the foundation of what plays out in the brain that by making adjustments to these factors you will heavily influence your child's bedwetting. So let's begin!
Diet
I will break it down for you as simple and fast as I possibly can. And simple is the operative word here. Eat simple foods. Processed foods clog up the digestive system, which creates an enlarged rectum. An enlarged rectum puts undue pressure on the bladder, reducing its overall capacity. When the bladder has this slight constant pressure applied to it the nerve endings that tingle – signaling the bladder is full and it's time to go pee – become desensitized. This contributes to the perfect recipe for bedwetting.
1. Reduced sensation in the bladder plus
2. Reduced capacity in the bladder plus
3. A sleeping child = Nighttime bedwetting
Reducing processed foods and replacing them with simple foods will nourish the digestive system and begin to slowly flush it in a gentle way. The easiest way to start this gentle flush is by exchanging processed snack foods with juicy fruits, that kids love anyway! Apples, oranges, pears, grapes, and watermelon, are all fruits that children love and will do wonders for their digestive system.
And if you ever wanted to know even more about how to tell if your child has a clogged digestive system - ask them not to flush when they go potty. By examining their stool you can discover not only how often they are going, but also the size and shape of their poop - EEEEEEWWW! But hear me out. If your child is only pooping once a day chances are they are at least slightly clogged. By referencing the Bristol stool chart you will also be able to tell if your child is constipated. Just do a Google search on this, I will refrain from putting cartoon pictures of child's poop in this post.
You're welcome. But if you do find that your child’s stool is showing you signs of constipation, then you bet they are also experiencing a clogged digestive system and enlarged rectum. Enough about poop, let's move on to our second pillar of bedwetting.
Exercise
Exercise is important in bedwetting because it helps to strengthen the muscles in the pelvic area, including the bladder and sphincter muscles, which are essential for controlling urination. Regular physical activity can also help to reduce stress and anxiety, which are common triggers for bedwetting.
Additionally, exercise can improve overall health and well-being, which can lead to better sleep quality and a more restful night's sleep. This can be particularly helpful for children who wet the bed, as they may be more likely to sleep through the night without waking up to go to the bathroom.
But there is a caveat here. Lengthy exercise, especially in the evening hours can actually be a contributing factor to bedwetting. When a child gets their exercise in the earlier part of the day their body will naturally cause them to relax afterward to recover their energy. This lull in the mid-day in addition to a good meal helps the body and its recovery. When a child exerts a large amount of energy towards the later part of the day without a daytime rest & recovery session, the body will shut down in a deeper sleep state.
There's a portion of the brain that stays awake through the entire night with the sole job of ensuring we do not eliminate in our sleep. When you fall into a deeper sleep state, this portion of the brain also shuts down, allowing our children to wet the bed. Then why don't our kids poop in their sleep? Because pooping involves multiple muscular processes of contraction and sphincter relaxation, whereas urinating is a more simplified system of sphincter relaxation.
And finally my friends, the biggest impact pillar of them all...
Sleep
We've all heard the mandatory eight hours of sleep. Truth be told, your body needs a certain amount of sleep in order to recover the energy spent in the day, process what it's been through, and restore itself to its optimal level of energy in preparation for another big day. In addition, 90% of a child's growth happens in the time they are sleeping. To cover all this ground, a child needs upwards of 10 to 11 hours of sleep.
Getting an additional 30 minutes of sleep per day for one to two weeks can help the central nervous system recover itself to its perfect functional form. There’s nothing tough about this idea, except maybe the fight to get your kid to bed earlier!
The 12 main systems of the body all work together to hold us in homeostasis, a type of harmonic stability. On a cellular level, rest exercise and nutrition are the top level players that can make or break us. While bedwetting does not indicate a strong broken link, if we make sure these three areas are in top shape we have the best chance of reducing bedwetting.
Oftentimes when I follow up with parents who have implemented these ideas they report their child went from wetting every night to only wetting 2 -3 times per week. That’s HUGE!
It reduces what you're paying in diapers, it reduces what is heading to the landfill, AND it can boost your child's self-esteem by making them feel like they're growing up.
Now, this is by no means an exhaustive list of all the ways you can help reduce, manage, or even eliminate bedwetting. While we can't cover everything here, we can send you this article as well as ALL our strategies to improve your bedwetting situation.
Allow me to send you our comprehensive guide on bedwetting causes and control strategies, straight to your inbox, and I KNOW we can win more drier mornings in the week!