Top 5 Tips: Bedwetting & Your Child’s Self Esteem
Wondering what you can do to prevent bedwetting from affecting your child’s self-esteem? Here are some practical ways to provide your child with comfort, support, and reassurance on the journey to dryness:
Ensure that sure your child understands that bedwetting is not something they should feel embarrassed or ashamed about. Bedwetting is about biology, not behaviour. Tell your child you know it’s not their fault and let them know that many children go through the same thing. It’s important to be supportive and to let your child know that they are not alone.
Respect your child’s privacy when it comes to the bedwetting issue. Try to avoid discussing wet laundry and related issues in front of siblings and other relatives; and insist that other family members treat the bedwetting issue with similar sensitivity and discretion.
Avoid techniques that attempt to reward or punish a child for dry or wet nights. Such techniques are hugely unfair and since bedwetting is about biology and not behaviour, they are likely to backfire by stressing out your child. It is difficult to convince a child that a wet night is nothing to be ashamed of when dry nights are rewarded. The failure to achieve rewards for dry nights can contribute to poor self-esteem.. The goal should be to reduce frustration and conflict and to treat bedwetting as being no big deal.
Protect your child’s mattress by covering the mattress with a breathable, waterproof, cotton mattress protector.
Protecting your child’s mattress with a breathable, waterproof, cotton sheet is ideal as it keeps your child’s night time sleep experience similar to those of your child’s peers. Furthermore, when friends come over to play, they are unaware there is a specially formulated sheet on the child’s bed. Avoid plastic mattress protectors as they give themselves away the moment one of your child’s friends sits on your child’s bed.
Don’t allow bedwetting to become the focus of your interactions with your child. Zero in on all the other things that make your child the unique and wonderful person they are. This will encourage them to focus on issues other than the bedwetting, giving their confidence an important boost.
Written by Roo Wyda, Managing Director, Oops! Sheet Inc.
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Lianne
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