Children still wet the bed when they are 5 years old, is it normal?

Children like to wet the bed, it has become a common problem. You too as a parent must have a way to teach children to stop bedwetting. However, what if the child is still wet, even though they are five or six years old? Is it still normal? Check out the full review below.

Until what age is wetting it still normal?

Bedwetting (enuresis) is a disorder that is often found in children. This disorder is neither a child intentionally nor a form of laziness to a child. The habit of bedwetting will actually continue to decrease with age.

Before the age of five years, the habit of bedwetting in children can still be considered normal. This begins gradually, starting over three years of age, children generally no longer wet the bed during the day. According to the Indonesian Pediatric Association (IDAI), it is said that children are not normal to wet their bed if this habit occurs continuously or persists over the age of five. This is why children who are still wet should receive proper treatment because it can cause urinary tract infections, cause stress, and lack of confidence in children.

What if a five year old child is still peeing?

Although later your child will be able to control their bladder on their own, this will happen at different ages. Reporting from the National Sleep Foundation, the habit of bedwetting in children aged five years or more needs to get supervision from a pediatrician if it occurs more than 2-3 times per month or wet the bed during the day and night regularly.

Bedwetting habits can affect the social life of children from the age of six or seven years. This can cause children to become embarrassed and less confident in their social environment. Take, for example, they will feel ashamed because the "bedwetter" teased by their siblings. If they have to spend the night at a friend's house, they'll be anxious for fear of being caught wetting their beds.

In fact, there are many causes of bedwetting in children, including:

• The child does not wake up when the bladder is full
• Some children produce excess urine while sleeping
• Some children have bladders that cannot hold more urine than others

Starting from the age of three, children will start learning to go to the bathroom during the day and at night as soon as their bodies start producing a substance called antidiuretic hormone (ADH). This hormone inhibits urine production. As children get older, children will be more sensitive to holding urine, making it easier to prevent bedwetting.

If after the age of five years the child is still wet, it is probably because the child is still not producing enough ADH hormone at the right time and has not been able to pick up signals from the brain that the bladder is full of urine. As a result, the child does not wake up or only dreams of going to the bathroom so that he ends up wetting the bed.

Does the child still wet the bed because of a health problem?

Simply put, bed wetting is a sign that your child is not mature enough to control his bodily functions. The reason is, holding urine is a process that involves the coordination of muscles, nerves, spinal cord, and brain. These functions will mature with age.

However, bedwetting can also be a sign of health problems such as blockage of the urinary tract, constipation, diabetes, or not drinking enough water. For example, when a child is constipated, the large intestine becomes full, so it puts pressure on the bladder. Now, to find out if your child is constipated, you can monitor the intensity of your child's bowel movements. The normal intensity of bowel movements ranges from three times a day to four times a week.

So, how do you distinguish bed-wetting caused by immature body functions or health problems? This can be seen from how often the child wet the bed. If this happens every day in a row, this habit of bedwetting is caused by immaturity of bodily functions. Meanwhile, bedwetting that is triggered by health problems is usually less frequent, usually occurs after the child has not wet the bed for six months or more.

Even if it's only occasionally, if your child is still wet at the age of five to seven years, you need to get your child checked by a doctor. If it is due to health problems, then you must undergo a urine test to see if there are kidney problems or urinary tract infections.

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