My stepson is 9 years old. He is a very light sleeper. He is also a bedwetter. He has been taken to the doctor, and nothing is medically wrong with him. I am afraid that his bedwetting is not due to immature signals between his bladder and his brain. We constantly have to remind him to use the bathroom before bedtime and no longer allow him refreshments two hours before bedtime. I am beginning to fear his bedwetting is caused more by laziness. He is not embarrassed that he wets the bed and has to be forced to shower, so personal hygiene is also an issue.
Answer
If your stepson is not embarrassed about his bedwetting, he is using the indifference as a defense mechanism to deal with the problem. The same goes for his hygiene and reluctance to take showers and bathe.
I would make sure your doctor has checked for the following things: small bladder capacity and genetic element (30 percent chance that a child will be a bedwetter when one parent was, a 75 to 80 percent chance if both parents were).
And, when all the physical things have been ruled out, you could consider a child psychologist to look at the emotional aspects that might be causing the behavior. This is a very complex question that is tough to evaluate without seeing your stepson, but I hope to have given you some alternative ideas to pursue.
John Dorsey,M.D.
Pediatrician
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