Is a messy bedroom the cause of your child's bedwetting?

Is this the cause of your child’s bedwetting problem?

When trying to solve a bedwetting problem a number of solutions will come to mind such as: expensive bedwetting alarms, visits to the doctor and even the prescription of medicines. What’s often overlooked though, are the simple things that parents can do to help get their bedwetting child on track – one of which is ‘clear the clutter’.

Your child might be dreading getting out of bed at night

During the transition from wearing nappies to learning how to become dry at night, there will be times when your child to going to have to get out of bed and go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. This can be quite daunting for some children, so it’s important to make this as easy as possible for them.

Start by ensuring that the floor space in the bedroom is completely clear. Left-over puzzles, games, toys and piles of dirty clothes that can be tripped over will not add to your child’s confidence to make it to the bathroom in the dark.

Be patient with your child when tidying their room

If you find asking your children to tidy their rooms a bit of a challenge, be patient and take the time to help them sort things out. Reluctance to tidy a bedroom can seem like ‘laziness’ but in fact children can often find it difficult to visualise a tidy room and if they can’t see it in their imaginations, they won’t be able to create it on the outside.

Once your child’s room is neat and tidy, it’s worth taking a few photographs and leaving them in the room as reference points. In the future you can simply ask your child to make their room look just like it did in the photo.

Help your child with positive visualisation

Avoid using phrases like “Don’t leave your room in a mess” for this will only create pictures in their minds of a messy room and it will be very much harder for them to tidy it up. Using sentences like “Let’s see if we can get the room nice and tidy” will be much more helpful to them. Always say what you do want to see happen, rather than what you don’t want.

Once the bedroom is clear and tidy, be sure to tell your child what’s expected of him, using clear instructions as well as pre-suppositions, along the lines of: “Now that your room is so tidy, you’ll easily be able to find your way to the bathroom at night, should you need it. I wonder if that’s the reason why you’ve haven’t been able to make it before…”

Alicia Eaton is a Children’s Behavioural Specialist based in London’s Harley Street since 2004.  She is the author of the best-selling “Stop Bedwetting in 7 days” book and online video training programme.  You can read more about changing children’s habits and behaviours in her book: “Words that Work: How to Get Kids to Do Almost Anything”.

For more details see www.aliciaeaton.co.uk