Children who experience bedwetting (also called nighttime enuresis) may also be slow to reach certain language or motor skills milestones, say researchers from the University of Montreal in Quebec, Canada.
The parents of 1,666 children who participated in a Canadian national study on child development answered questions about their children's nighttime toileting habits when their children were 29, 41, and 53 months old. The parents noted how often their children wet the bed, birth weight, and whether the child was born prematurely. Parents also provided information on their children's motor skills when they were 5 months old, their language skills at 17 months, and their growth, development, and behavior at 53 months.
Most kids stopped wetting the bed between 29 and 41 months of age, but about 10% of the children still wet the bed at 53 months (4.4 years). Girls tended to achieve nighttime bladder control earlier than boys did.
Fewer boys who experienced bedwetting had achieved certain motor skills at 5 months (such as sitting up and starting crawling), compared with boys who didn't wet the bed. In addition, more girls who were bedwetting at age 4 had been born prematurely and had hyperactivity and other behavior problems, compared with girls who had achieved nighttime dryness. Children who wet the bed later in childhood also were slower to achieve language milestones, compared with children who didn't wet the bed. The study also found that children who wet the bed had sleep patterns similar to children who didn't wet the bed, which doesn't support earlier research that differences in sleep patterns contribute to bedwetting.
What This Means to You: The results of this study indicate that children who wet the bed may do so because of central nervous system delays, which may also affect motor, language, and behavioral development. Bedwetting is a common problem in kids, and most of the time, it goes away on its own without any treatment. However, you should talk to your child's doctor if you're worried about your child's bedwetting or if it is accompanied by developmental or behavioral problems.
Source: Evelyne Touchette, BSc; Dominique Petit, PhD; Jean Paquet, PhD; Richard E. Tremblay, PhD; Michel Boivin, PHD; Jacques Y. Montplaisir, MD, PhD, CRCPc; Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, December 2005.
Reviewed by: Steven Dowshen, MD
Date reviewed: December 2005
