What is enuresis?

Enuresis means that one cannot control the urge to urinate. Some babies know when to urinate after they are 3 years old, but some children are prone to enuresis because their urethra is easily infected and they do not pay attention to hygiene. When a child exhibits this condition, if physiological factors are excluded, then it is related to the parents' bad parenting habits.

What is enuresis in children?

Enuresis in children refers to the phenomenon that children over 5 years old cannot control their urination, often wet their beds at night and sometimes wet their pants during the day. Enuresis is more common in children. According to statistics, 10-20% of children wet the bed at the age of 4 and a half, about 5% at the age of 9, and only 2% still wet the bed at the age of 15. This disease is more common in boys, with the ratio of boys to girls being about 2:1, and the highest incidence rate is in children aged 6-7 years old. Most children with enuresis can recover on their own a few years after the onset of the disease, and the recovery rate is higher in girls. However, for some children, if not treated, the symptoms will persist into adulthood.

Urinating during sleep at night due to irritation of the urethra, epileptic seizures at night, spinal cord diseases, diabetes, diabetes insipidus, etc. is not considered enuresis.

Some young children do not have the habit of waking up to urinate at night; some can already control nocturnal urination, but experience enuresis due to mental stress, changes in environment, or general weakness. Enuresis mostly occurs in the first half of the night, and in severe cases, the patient may urinate 3 to 5 times a night. Some parents ask their children to urinate every night, but it is difficult to wake them up. Even if they are woken up, the children may urinate anywhere (on the bed). For this, they are often punished by their parents, which affects their physical and mental health.

Causes of enuresis in children

1. Normal bladder urination function is controlled by the brain. Under normal circumstances, when the bladder is full, an impulse is sent to stimulate the spinal cord urination center, which will cause urination. During sleep, the area of ​​the cerebral cortex that receives the urge to urinate remains functional. If this neural regulatory function is underdeveloped or disordered, it can cause enuresis.

2. The baby sleeps deeply and is difficult to wake up. If the cerebral cortex is insensitive to the filling of the bladder and the baby cannot wake up to urinate consciously; or the cerebral cortex's ability to control the bladder is weakened, the bladder will contract autonomously, resulting in enuresis.

3. Genetic factors Epidemiological data show that enuresis has a clear genetic tendency. Surveys show that if both parents of a baby suffer from enuresis, the incidence of enuresis in their offspring is 77%. If only one of the parents has the disorder, the incidence of enuresis in their offspring is 25%.

4. Parents have incorrect views on child rearing. Parents fail to train their baby to develop a good habit of regular urination in time. In order to sleep peacefully themselves, the baby is still using diapers even when he is big, and is allowed to urinate at will.

5. Psychological factors: sudden death or injury of a relative, quarrelsome divorce of parents, long-term separation of mother and child, fear and fright in the dark can all lead to enuresis in children. Some children have not developed the habit and ability to control urination since childhood. Once they wet the bed, they are blamed, beaten and scolded by their parents. They are in a state of excessive tension for a long time. They are always worried before going to bed every night, fearing that they will wet the bed again. This leads to inferiority complex, which makes enuresis difficult to heal for a long time. Psychological factors can not only cause children who previously had the ability to control enuresis to relapse, but can also cause a small number of children to gradually form a habit after having enuresis, and some children may not be able to change it even into adulthood.

6. Poor urination habit training. Some children use diapers for too long, so they have not developed the habit of controlling their urination since childhood. Some mothers use incorrect methods to train their children. After waking up the children at night, they let them sit on the potty and play while urinating. In the end, they put the children to bed without checking whether they have urinated. In this way, it is impossible for young children to associate urination with the potty and form a conditioned reflex. Because the child sometimes urinates, and sometimes sits on the potty to play without urinating, this will cause the child's urination disorder and it is impossible to form a regular pattern. Some mothers often wake their children up at night and force them to urinate. No matter how the children struggle or cry, they will not let them leave the potty until they urinate. This will make the children fear and nervous about urination, and is also not conducive to cultivating regular urination habits.