A child should be able to keep dry at night from the age of 3. However, about 6% of all children, a majority of which are boys, have this recurring nightly problem in spite of an in other ways normal bladder function.
Some of these children produce increased amounts of urine at night. This can be caused by insufficient production of the hormone ADH (anti-diuretic hormone) in the pituitary gland, which regulates the production of urine when we are asleep.
Other children may have a small urinary bladder, which is unable to conain the amount of urine produced in the night because of its limited size. In this case, the problem will decrease with time, in turn with the natural increase in bladder volume as they grow up, when the depth of the sleep is less heavy than in early age, and in turn with the increasing development of bladder control.
These above mentioned types of bedwetting show inheritance.
Earlier, the main focus in the research on the bedwettng of children was on psychological factors. Bedwetting can in itself be a reason for psychological problems in children. As they grow older, the experience of lying awake at night in a wet bed becomes an increasingly traumatizing experience, and psychological factors indeed need to be considered in the general view of the condition.
Research shows that quite a few children stop bedwetting after having had their nasal polyps or tonsils removed. In this context, food intolerance might be an underlying cause. Some practitioners point out caffeine-containing drinks and foods (cola, chocolate) as the most common cause, but also citrus fruits, including juice, a carbohydrate-rich diet and in some cases colouring agents are possible provoking factors.
If left untreated the problem will usually abate spontaneously in puberty. However, there is still a percentage of 1 who continue to be bedwetters in their first years of puberty.
Researchers have also looked into the problem perhaps being partly related to blocked airways during sleep. A too tight palate, for example, can cause the tongue to prevent breathing causing too little oxygen to get into the blood. This seems to be the case even though it is not yet known why.
