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Home › Articles › Bedwetting › Just Like Mom and Dad

Just Like Mom and Dad

Let Your Bedwetting Child Know He's Not Alone

By Teri Brown

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Being Proactive

Besides just helping parents be more understanding of their child's nighttime enuresis, having gone through the same thing also helps parents be more proactive in treating the problem.

Nicole Sherman from Townsend, Del., wet the bed until her late teens. She believes the experience helped her be more proactive in finding a solution for her child. "I didn't want her going through what I went through," Sherman says. "My parents were great, but they took the don't-talk-about-it-and-she'll-grow-out-of-it approach. I wanted to be more proactive about it with my daughter."

Talking to her daughter about her own experiences was a natural thing. "We talk about everything in our home so telling her about my own bedwetting wasn't a big deal," Sherman says.

Sherman used an alarm and her daughter was dry at night within a week. She believes that open discussion about her own issues and being proactive helped her daughter overcome nighttime enuresis.

Being honest with your children about your own childhood bedwetting helps them on several levels. It not only shows them that you understand what they are going through, but also provides a model of someone who has overcome the problem. And having experienced it also makes parents more proactive in treating the problem.

Open for Discussion

The following tips will help you discuss nighttime enuresis with your child:

  • It's best to have open and honest communication with your child as an ongoing thing, rather than sitting them down and having a "talk." This way nighttime enuresis is not a big deal, but a part of life.
  • Tell your child about your own experiences while cleaning up his bed or during his nighttime routine. A simple, "You know, Mommy (or Daddy) used to wet the bed at night, too," will be enough to start an ongoing dialogue about the problem.
  • Tell children there are different things that you can try that might help with the issue as soon as they are ready to try them.
  • It's important for your child to understand that others have gone through the same experiences. Mention other family members who might have had nighttime enuresis, as well as tell your child what a common problem it is.


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