Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Understanding the Enuretic child by Dr. Jacob Sagie and Tal Sagie

Knowing the causes for bedwetting is not enough. It is essential that the parents will understand what it is like to be a child with a bedwetting problem. Since it is a genetic issue, many parents have suffered from bedwetting themselves. Even this is not enough of a preparation to deal with their child's issue.
What is going in an enuretic child's mind? The following story will illustrate the typical situation;
I received a phone call from an ex-patient who is 25 years old. He told me that when he was 9 years old he came with his parents to my bedwetting clinic. His parents accused him of not trying hard enough to deal with the problem and then he reminded me of my response to his parents: "What do you want from him? Why do you blame him? He does not wet the bed on purpose; he doesn't feel when he is wetting the bed". The young man said, “For the first time in my life, I felt that someone understood me". Although many years passed since this meeting, he remembered every single detail from this session and was so grateful. By the way, he outgrew bedwetting after only 3 months of treatment.

If parents will realize what is going on in their child's mind they will certainly act differently by showing understanding, sensitivity, empathy and support.