Just what exactly is the link between ADHD in children and bedwetting?
Does your son or daughter wet the bed overnight?
Have they also been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder?
If a child has been diagnosed with ADHD, but also wets his or her bed, a parent may be inclined to wonder if there’s a connection.
“ADHD does not cause bedwetting, though ADHD kids are more likely to have bedwetting than the general population,” says Dr. Robert Myers, creator of the Total Focus program at Legacy Publishing.
Dr. Myers is a clinical psychologist with 30+ years of experience working with children, adolescents, families and parents, specializing in children and adolescents with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
“Bedwetting is a sleep disorder in which the child is sleeping so soundly they are not awakened by signals from the bladder letting them know they need to get up, or for the brain to tighten the muscles to hold it for a while longer.
“Because children with sleep disorders are more prone to sleep issues, they are somewhat more likely to have the problem.
“But bedwetting can and does occur in children who do not have ADHD.”
Wetting the Bed Is not Defiant Behavior
Bedwetting should never be considered as a misbehavior or a way to seek attention.
Kids can’t help it when it happens, and what child would want to deliberately soil their comfortable, dry sheets anyways with urine?
It’s a medical issue, and children should not be punished for this.
Parents also should not expect prescribed drugs for ADHD to put an end to bedwetting — which is medically known as nocturnal enuresis.
See your child’s pediatrician for treatment options.
