What You Need To Know About Daytime Wetting In Children

Many children are potty trained around the time they are 3 years old. Some are earlier and some are later. Usually by the time the child is toilet trained they do not have too many accidents. However, there is a small group of children who have continual accidents during the day; this is called diurnal enuresis. Here are some things you need to know about daytime wetting.

Is Daytime Wetting and Nighttime Wetting Caused By The Same Thing?

Nighttime wetting is much more common than daytime wetting. This is because it may take the child a good deal of time to gain complete control of their bladder through the night, without having an accident. Daytime wetting is slightly different. The child has the ability to use the bathroom since they are awake, but they still have accidents.

Thus, if your child is bedwetting, but not daytime wetting, you shouldn't be too concerned. It takes many children until they are 7 years old to gain full control over their bladder throughout the night. However, continued daytime wetting is cause for concern in many instances and should be discussed with a medical professional.

What Causes Daytime Wetting?

There are many different reasons that the child would be having accidents during the day. In some cases the child has an underlying medical condition. One of the most common medical conditions is a urinary tract infection (UTI). If your child has a UTI they might have little amounts of urine escaping throughout the day. It may not be full accidents, but they might constantly be wet. The child could also suffer from diabetes, a spinal cord problem, or an overactive bladder.

Some children also have accidents because they are too distracted to notice that they need to go to the bathroom and then by the time they realize it, it is too late. These children might dance around, squeeze their legs together, or show some sort of signs that they need to use the bathroom, but just don't want to go.

It should also be mentioned that daytime wetting can also be caused by stress. This could be a change in school, birth of a sibling, bullying, or child abuse.

What Should You Do?

First of all recognize that the child is not trying to have accidents. It is not caused by laziness or disobedience. So try not to get angry at the child, this might make the problem worse.

The ideal solution is to take the child to a medical professional in children's problems. They can test for underlying medical conditions, and do an evaluation to check for stress in the child. This is not a problem to ignore; if you suspect it's a serious issue, take your child to an urgent care such as Harrison Medical Center.


Share