by Ahmad Sadli

Created on: July 16, 2009   Last Updated: August 10, 2009

Enuresis, the medical name for nocturnal bed wetting is an involuntary or unintentional passing of urine while asleep. It happens more commonly in boys than girls but there are also older kids that just cannot stop the enuresis habit.

Enuresis is quite normal in young children. It may indicates a delay in the maturation of muscles and nerves of the lower urinary tract, which often resolves over time on its own without any treatment.

Some of the other possibilities of enuresis may be that a child does not recognize the sensation of a full bladder during sleep thus does not awaken to urinate into the toilet. Some children will most probably have a realistic dream the he or she is in the bathroom peeing, only to wake up later and realize that he or she was all, but wet.

Children most probably tend to produce a large amount of urine water during the evening and night hours but cannot yet hold it for the entire night. Some of them will be trained by their parents to urinate just before going to bed to reduce the possibility of getting a wet night. Some good incentives or even praise can produce a positive result.

Looking from a technical aspect, a portion of bed wetting children may not produce enough of the Anti-Diuretic Hormone (ADH) which normally increases at night. If we look deeper, this increase however does occur in adolescent with enuresis. That should explain why children will outgrow enuresis over time and heal completely when they become adults.

A child that has not yet stayed dry on a regular basis is considered as primary nocturnal enuresis. Enuresis may sometimes stop and then begins again. That is called secondary enuresis where there is onset of bed wetting after having been dry at night for about six months prior to bed wetting again.

Enuresis may also occasionally caused by psychological problems, either in the child (victim) itself or in another family member (such as mother). There are also rare occurrences of enuresis that is part of constellation of symptoms that may suggest the possibility of sexual abuse.

Many parents believe that the best solution for enuresis is to train or educate a child's brain to wake them up so they can go to the bathroom together and stay dry until morning. In most cases, they are most probably doing a right thing. In some rare cases of chronic enuresis however, doctor may prescribes Imipramine, an antidepressant drug but somehow is used to treat enuresis because it relaxes the bladder and tightens the sphincter that blocks urine flow.

With a supportive parents, children with enuresis will gain confident and maturity. Over time, they will successfully overcome the problem without any undue worse effect than just a memory of their silly moments of those good old days.

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