(HealthDay News) — Bed wetting is common in young children who are learning to control the need to urinate during sleep.
The American Academy of Family Physicians says bed-wetting isn’t from naughty behavior or laziness. According to the academy, there may be a medical problem behind the bed-wetting child’s behavior, such as:
- Having a family history of bed wetting.
- Having difficulty waking from sleep.
- Being under physical or emotional stress.
- Having a urinary tract infection.
- Experiencing slow development of the central nervous system.
- Having a hormonal imbalance.
- Having an abnormality that affects the spinal cord, the urethral valve in boys or the ureter in girls or boys.
- Having a small bladder.
Reducing fluids before bed and having your child go to the bathroom when starting the bedtime routine (and again just before sleep) will often help reduce bed-wetting, the academy advises.