A recent study of children who wet the bed showed an interesting
problem: all of the bedwetting children were found to be constipated.
Constipation causes stool to build up in an area behind the urinary bladder.
This puts pressure on the bladder and causes the child to have problems holding
urine, especially at night.
When the children in the study were treated for the constipation, 83% of
them stopped bedwetting within three months.
Constipation is a very frequent problem for children. It is by far the
most common cause of recurrent abdominal pain, especially after meals. It can
cause loss of appetite and even cause recurrent vomiting. When a child is constipated, his stools are usually hard and large, but some stools can also be liquid
and explosive and the child can have recurring stooling “accidents” in his
pants.
Constipation is usually a long-term problem for children and even after
it has resolved, it frequently reoccurs because it results from habitual stool
withholding.
If a child has severe pain from constipation, enemas can give immediate
relief. Children’s enemas can be found in any pharmacy. But constipated
children need long-term treatment with daily laxatives. There is a commercial
product that is a powder parents can dissolve in water or other liquids. This
has no real taste and can be given every day. Parents should give larger doses
until stools are very soft and the child has no complaints of cramping. After
that, the dose can be lowered, but the child needs to stay on a daily dose that
keeps the stool soft and keeps the child pain-free. If the child begins to
complain of pain again, the dose should be increased.
Abdominal pain has many possible causes and a child with severe or
recurrent abdominal pain needs to be evaluated by his caregiver before any
course of treatment is attempted, but, for children with both problems –
bedwetting and constipation – curing the constipation could also cure the
bedwetting.
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