Bedwetting: Why Sibling Support is Essential

A bedwetting child often lives in fear of his siblings spilling the beans about his or her secret before his friends, and that’s why may end being subject to sibling bullying or teasing. However, sibling support and understanding is essential to help a bedwetting child achieve dryness.

 

Why Your Child Needs Sibling Empathy?

A little harmless banter between siblings forms the basis of many happy childhood memories, however, no matter how harmless, teasing a child about bedwetting often creates more stress on an already stressed out bedwetter.

Although stress may not cause bedwetting (enuresis) directly, the behavior that child engages in when under stress definitely contributes to bedwetting. For e.g. a child may seek comfort of food such as salty snacks that can lead to fluid retention, and if the child has small bladder, he or she may end up wetting the bed. An overwhelmed bedwetter may become sleep deprived, which may result in bedwetting. This is because most of the bedwetting children are deep sleepers and when these children are completely drained out and exhausted, they may experience even deeper sleep.

Moreover, a bedwetting child usually has low self-esteem and confidence. Therefore, it is pivotal to educate and sensitize your child’s sibling toward bedwetting.

 

How You Can Encourage Sibling Support?

Explain to them that their bedwetting brother or sister is not wetting the bed out of choice and that it is involuntary. It’s a good idea to educate other children in your household about nocturnal enuresis, bladder control and other related conditions. You might want to consider a variety of bedwetting solutions like reading a bedwetting book or watching a video for a better understanding. Help them understand different causes of bedwetting, and if bedwetting runs in your family, share a few stories of success and family support.

Involve the sibling in the treatment process. For e.g. if you are using a bedwetting alarm, spend some time in getting your bedwetter as well as other siblings use to different functions of alarm. Often alarms have loud sounds and can wake up other individuals of the house along with the bedwetter. If it’s the younger sibling who is wetting the bed, ask the older ones to help younger one keep a track of his or her dry nights.

Enforce a no-teasing rule in your house and ensure that other children in your household don’t discuss their brother’s or sister’s bedwetting problem in the peer group or in front of other relatives and friends.

Bedwetting alarms are clinically proven to stop bedwetting in children. Get a variety of alarms at the store for Shield Bedwetting Alarm.