Punishing a child for wetting the bed is counterproductive. It will not solve the problem and actually appears to make it worse.
Children whose parents punished them for wetting the bed at night were more likely to be depressed and have a poorer quality of life overall compared to those whose parents did not punish them for wetting the bed. They were also found to wet their beds significantly more often than the children who were not punished. This is according to a study conducted at King Abdulazziz University in Saudi Arabia.
The effect was worse for children whose parents physically punished them. The more often the punishment occurred, the more likely the children were to be depressed or have a poorer quality of life.
The researchers studied 65 children aged 7 to 13 who wet their beds and 40 children who did not have a problem staying dry at night. They divided the children with a bedwetting problem into those who were punished for it and those who were not punished.
About 15% of children who are at an age when bladder control occurs wet their bed at night. Most girls stay dry at night by age 6 and boys by age 7.
The medical term for bedwetting is nocturnal enuresis. It is three times more common in boys than in girls. Most bedwetting is just a developmental delay, where the child lags behind a bit but will catch up, and is not due to an emotional or medical problem. Only 5% to 10% children who are bedwetters have a medical problem. Bedwetting is frequently runs in families. It can also be a source of low self-esteem and a loss of self-confidence.
The study was published in the journal Child Abuse and Neglect and was reported on at Reuters Health.
