Bedwetting And Food That Can Trigger It

By Ben Adams

Adults and children alike burdened by bedwetting problems often find themselves in discomforting, upsetting and embarrassing situations. Bedwetting commonly affects children five years old and below, but children as old as 15 years old can have this problem. Adults can be affected by bedwetting too.

When properly handled, bedwetting can be treated without future incident. There is no single cause leading to bedwetting, but there are many different factors that contribute to the act, including excessive drinking right before bedtime or a bladder infection.

Caffeine in Chocolate
Excessive urination can be caused by food high with caffeine, and in the case of most of the children, that is found in chocolate. Whether through hot cocoa or a bedtime treat, the caffeine found in chocolate stimulates the child's body, especially if the child already suffers from a sensitive bladder.

Soda & Other Drinks
There's just something about those bubbles that gets the body going and if you don't have a fully developed bladder to handle the carbonation, your child may be in for unpleasant results. This is also true with other drinks, such as Gatorade, which literally seems to run right through drinkers of all ages. Sometimes, doctors will suggest that you even cut down the amount of water that a child drinks throughout the day. While adults are encouraged to consume 64 ounces on a daily basis, your child really only needs about 50% of that.

Oranges and Grapefruits
There is a high percentage of water in citrus fruits, like oranges and grapefruits. Moreover, their high acid levels have been proved to strongly affect sensitive bladders, resulting in the need to urinate in the middle of the night. Children whose bladders are not used to such nocturnal activities end up with bedwetting if they consume too much citric fruits.

Spicy Foods
Had a late dinner and your child really loves the extra salsa on their taco? The ingredients within the salsa, as well as in other spicy foods may contribute to bedwetting. Spicy foods have been known to speed up the elimination processes within the body.

Food Allergens
Some kinds of foods are known for their ability to create spasms in the bladder, which might lead to bedwetting. Thus, the reason behind your child's problem might be an allergic reaction to a food he may have eaten right before sleeping. Corn, peanuts, eggs, soy, wheat and dairy products are some of the food products that might trigger bedwetting. Also avoid giving your child foods that are high in preservatives, colors and sweeteners right before bedtime.

What to Do
When it becomes hard to keep your child away from certain foods that may trigger their bedwetting, you might want to consider using a variety of behavioral techniques to encourage a better response. For children over the age of seven, a bedwetting alarm may be used. It has been known to produce positive results in a relatively high percentage of children. In younger kids, a reward system for keeping the bed dry may work, which encourages your child to avoid the foods that may trigger bedwetting. As the child gets older, when they are told to change their own wet bed sheets, they might try extra hard to avoid this chore by any means necessary.

Discover the very latest tricks, tips and resources, to help you solve and overcome the problem of your child's bed wetting.
For up to date information: Bedwetting Tips
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Using Bedwetting Alarms As A Solution - Tips To Help Them Work

By Peter Crump

Bedwetting alarms are an effective solution to bedwetting because they involve behavior modification techniques. These devices are designed to sound an alarm at the first sign of moisture in the bed. The idea is to wake the child so that he/ she will have time to go to the bathroom and in so doing avoid a bed wetting accident. They are effective solutions for nocturnal enuresis because after using them continuously for two or three months, the child will learn to wake up when he/she needs to go to the bathroom. Bedwetting alarms are an effective alternative to medications, but they will need to be used with other methods of keeping the bed dry, such as liners and absorbent diapers.

There are many types of enuresis alarms available. Parents will want to look at all the different models of bed wetting alarms to find one that will prove effective in solving the bed wetting problem. Bedwetting alarms are designed to suit the age of the child as well as the gender. For example, the alarms that use small liners for underpants with a sensor in between the liner and the underwear may not be suitable for older boys because of the small size of the liner. Parents also have to test the sound of the alarm to make sure that it will wake children who are deep sleepers.

Some of the newer bedwetting alarms on the market come in bright colors that will be delightful for young children. The alarm is clipped to the nightclothes, close to the shoulder and is so lightweight that the child won’t even notice it. Even when the batteries are in place, this enuresis alarm weighs less than one ounce. However, this bed wetting alarm is connected to the sensor by means of a wire. Even though it is designed so that the child won’t get tangled in the wire during the night, it is relatively easy to disconnect the wire. Then the bed wetting alarm will not prove to be of any use.

You can get bedwetting alarms that are really effective for sound sleepers. These enuresis alarms have both sound and vibration to make sure that the child does wake up. The bed wetting alarm has a selector that lets you choose just sound or vibration or you can use both. This lets you experiment with the alarm to find the one that will wake the child the easiest, especially if the alarm is loud and wakes another child sleeping in the same room. The settings on this alarm also have flashing lights. Although it is a little larger, it is not heavy and with the batteries, it weighs about two ounces.

According to statistics, bedwetting alarms completely solve the problem of a child wetting the bed in about two or three months. This is because the child gets used to waking at a certain time and after continuous use, his/her sleeping behavior changes and he/she learns to recognize the signs of having to go to the bathroom. You can also buy alarms built right into a pad that you place on the mattress or the underwear that includes bedwetting alarms.

Find out more about Bedwetting, visit Peter's Website Bedwetting Answers and find out about Bedwetting Alarms and more, including Adult Bedwetting and Bedwetting Diapers
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A Bedwetting Teen Back In Diapers – Could Be A Serious Medical Problem

By Peter Crump
A bedwetting teen back in diapers is a stressful situation both for the teen and the parents. Even if you are concerned, you should never let your fears transfer to the child. However, you should try to be as sensitive as possible because any teen that has to wear diapers for a bedwetting problem does not feel very good about the situation. He/She knows there is a problem and the stress of worrying about the possibility of bedwetting could actually make the situation worse. When you have a bedwetting teen back in diapers, you need to look very carefully at the diet, the amount of liquids consumed, any stressful triggers and any medication that he/she might be taking.

One thing that you should do with a bedwetting teen back in diapers is to take the teen for a full check up by the doctor. This will help to rule out any medical problems, which could be causing the bedwetting, especially if this is something new that has developed. Once the doctor has done necessary tests to rule out diabetes, problems with the excretory system, then he/she will help you look for solutions to help the bed wetting teen back in diapers. While disposable diapers and pull ups do help the teen in situations where others might find out about the bedwetting, bedwetting diapers are not a cure for the problem.

A bed wetting teen back in diapers will probably try to hide that fact that he/she is wetting the bed. This is easy to do by changing the bed early each morning while you may be wondering where all the laundry is coming from. If you try to be sensitive, you can have a stack of bed sheets handy so the young person can do this without being conspicuous to others in the house. You do have to be careful you don’t let the teen know that you are worried because a bedwetting teen back in diapers can pick up these vibes quite easily. Point out that it is not his/her fault, but that you need to consult with a doctor just to make sure there is nothing wrong.

With bedwetting teens in diapers, if you make cleaning up a form of punishment, this will make the teen more uncomfortable. He/She will dread waking up in the morning just in case they find that the bed is wet. If you discuss the problem and discuss possible solutions along with bedwetting diapers, chances are the teen will be very receptive to various bedwetting solutions. Behavior modification may be one method you can use with the many models of bed wetting alarms that are on the market. These will help a bedwetting teen back in diapers to wake up at the first sign of moisture so that he/she can get to the bathroom in time.

There are also medications to help a bedwetting teen back in diapers. One of these is DDAVP, a medication that works by reducing the amount of urine that the body produces during the night. According to the research results of this medication, bed wetting teens back in diapers relish the thought of something to help ensure they do not wet the bed. They may use bedwetting diapers when they first start taking this medication because they are not sure if it will work or not. However, a bedwetting teen back in diapers usually has low levels of the hormone that regulates the amount of urine their bodies produce and the DDAVP helps to bring this into the normal range.

To find out more about Bedwetting visit Peter's Website Bedwetting Answers and find out about Teenage Bedwetting and more, including Adult Bedwetting, Bedwetting Alarms and Bedwetting Diapers
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Bedwetting – Causes and Cures

By Lucy Bartlett

Every night millions of families face the issue of bedwetting. Mostly children under the age of six suffer from this problem and sometimes it lasts right into their teenage years. Medical practitioners are not very sure about the cause and how this problem suddenly stops. Most children normally grow out of it naturally and without any medication. It is not usually a sign of any emotional or medical issues.

There are two types of bedwetting, namely primary enuresis and secondary enuresis. In the primary bedwetting the child is rarely dry during night and continues to wet the bed at least twice a week for a year. As the child grows up and with good parental guidance most of the children stop the habit. Secondary enuresis is when the children start wetting the bed after a temporary respite of a year. Sometimes this continues until the affected child reaches their teens. Doctors consider hereditary traits as one of the causes for primary and secondary enuresis.

Another factor is the non development of a hormone cycle which consists of a tiny burst of antidiuretic hormone which should occur around sunset to reduce urinary output from the kidney through the night to prevent the bladder getting full. This development is not present at the time of birth and children normally develop this cycle when they reach two years of age. In some children this development occurs late. In some cases this hormone cycle never develops at all leading to frequent bedwetting. Find more info at www.bedwettingresourceonline.info
Diaper usage leading to a very comfortable and dry feeling also makes the child unable to learn how to control the bladder movement while asleep.

Families and the affected children can become very stressed due to this problem. Guilt and embarrassment causes anxiety among the affected children when they have to spend nights outside their family circle or when they have to attend camps. By reassuring the child that this habit can be cured easily and lending emotional support will be very helpful to the child to overcome this problem.

By reminding the child to use the bathroom one last time prior to their bedtime will be a good practice. Waking the child during their deep sleep is not a big help at all to overcome this problem, although it may provide dry nights as a temporary solution.
In some rare cases, if abrupt bedwetting is combined with other symptoms may indicate a medical condition. It is better to consult the doctor immediately who will check for signs of constipation, bladder trouble, infected urinary tract or stress.

Bedwetting alarms can help cure the problem because of the noise it makes immediately after the first drop of moisture is sensed by the built-in pad. Upon hearing the alarm, the child awakes and goes to the toilet to clear the bladder. Alternative medicine such as Homeopathy claims that some formulas developed by them can help the child to attain good bladder control.

Lucy Bartlett is a proud contributing author. Find more articles here. For more info visit Enuresis or Enuresis Alarms
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Bedwetting Can Be Treated

Bedwetting Can Be Treated

By Gabe Mirkin, M.D.

When I was a resident in training, researchers were actively trying to find a cause and cure for bedwetting. They thought that bedwetting was caused by having a small bladder and they thought that stretching the bladder would cure bedwetting. So they fed children diuretics that caused them to produce copious amounts of urine and asked them to sit in chairs and hold the urine. Needless to say the treatment didn't work, the children were miserable and today, more than 40 years later, a study from Denmark shows that bed wetting is not caused by having a small bladder. This confirms several studies showing that wetting the bed is usually caused by lack of antidiuretic hormone that is produced by the brain at night to shut down the kidneys and that this condition in young children can often be cured by taking a nasal spray or pill, called desmopressin, that shuts down the kidneys at night.

Desmopressin can also treat many men who urinate frequently at night, and do not have a prostate infection or cancer. Lack of antidiuretic hormone is genetic because fathers and mothers have children who also are bed wetters.
Bedwetting is common up to the age of eight, with most bed wetters growing up to become normal healthy adults. All children who wet the bed after age five should be evaluated by their pediatricians. They should have their urines checked for infection and perhaps a kidney x-ray to see if there is any abnormality in their urinary system. Most of the time, no cause is found. Bed wetters do not have more emotional or behavioral problems.

During the day, your kidneys are supposed to produce urine, but at night, your brain should produce an antidiuretic hormone called ADH, to shut down your kidneys. The brains of many bed wetters don't produce enough antidiuretic hormone at night, which causes their bladders to fill. When it happens to adults, they usually wake up and go to the bathroom, but bed wetters sleep through the night and wet the bed. For the last five years, doctors have treated bedwetting with a special nasal spray containing an antidiuretic hormone called desmopressin, but many children continue to wet their beds. Several studies show that taking a new 400 microgram desmopressin pill at bedtime and restricting fluids helps reduce bedwetting by almost 50 percent. Check with your doctor.

Dr. Gabe Mirkin has been a radio talk show host for 25 years and practicing physician for more than 40 years; he is board certified in four specialties, including sports medicine. Read or listen to hundreds of his fitness and health reports at http://www.DrMirkin.com

http://www.drmirkin.com/email/newssign.asp - Free weekly newsletter on fitness, health, and nutrition.

http://www.drmirkin.com/morehealth/G201.htm - Journal references on bedwetting
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