Doctors dispel myths about Bedwetting

New Delhi, May 9 (UNI) Millions of parents every night face the issue of bedwetting children but are unaware of the causes to the problem and don't have the perception about the treatment to it, which results in embarrassment and guilty consciousness in the child, health experts said.

Bedwetting is medically termed as 'Nocturnal Enuresis', which is the leakage of urine while sleeping in bed and is applicable to children who are aged five years and older. These children are neither woken up by the urge to void, nor the wetting incident itself.

A similar situation exists in the elderly people who suffer from the problem of waking up more than two to three times at night to pass urine which is medically termed as 'Nocturia'.

Bedwetting is a reason of embarrassment for a child and frequent discussions to it makes him psychologically disturbed. This turns into a trauma which also makes the family disturbed.

A scientific programme to spread increased awareness among medical fraternity about the need totreat bedwetting in children and Nocturia in the elderly people was organised here over the weekend by Ferring, a Swiss-based biopharmaceutical group.

The programme was attended by Professor Jens Peter Norgaard, as an expert in Urology, from University of Lund in Sweden and some leading medical specialists in the field of Urology and Paediatrics of the city like Dr Ashok Kohli from RML and eminent Urologist Dr N K Mohanty.

Adults do take bedwetting as a sign of psychological problems.

Due to their shyness and social fear they hesitate to consult a doctor about their child's problem. This leads to needless years of humiliation for the child and makes him feel like social outcast and ultimately he may lose confidence and self-esteem.

The specialists stressed that family support to the patients of bedwetting and Nocturia is very important to help them keep out of trauma and mental stress. If required, one can take help from psychological consultents while going through the clinical treatment.

The treatment to bedwetting is much left out to the nature as it could just be supplimented by the medical help.

There are various factors which contribute to this problem and the main factor is the genetic one.If both parents have been enuretic there are 75 per cent chances of bedwetting, one parent 45 per cent and no parents 15 per cent.

While in case of elderly people getting up frequently during the night to go the toilet leads to 'Nocturia'. They also feel shy to discuss their problem with a specialist. It needs a serious concern as most of these patients complain cases of hip fracture and other fatal accidents due to stumbling in the dark with a poor vision.

Dr Norgaard, who is working in this field for more than 25 years, emphasized that the parents should come forward at the right time with their child's bedwetting problem to the doctor. Once people consult the expert, half the problem is solved as the child with confidence and comfort level provided by the doctor and the family reacts more positively to the treatment.

UNI