Bed Wetting and Deep Sleep

Is there a correlation?

The doctor says no, but other parents agree with me!!

When researching the topic of bed wetting, I came upon a very interesting point that I wanted to share with you as a parent. I encountered this situation with my own child as a toddler who kept having ear infections.

As parents, there are certain things we observe with our children and will therefore share with each other. However, when we ask our children's pediatricians, we will get a completely different response.

In my case, it was the fact that my son kept getting ear infections and was on antibiotics all the time. Everyone agreed on the reason my son kept getting infections all the time was that he had fluid build up in his ear and everyone also agreed that he would out grow this in time. What I could not get the physicians to agree on is the course of action.

The physicians at the children's hospital recommended that I have him on a low dose of antibiotic continually to keep the infection under control. The ear, nose & throat specialist recommended surgery to insert drainage tubes in his ears. These tubes would drain the fluid as it build up and would fall out on their own as he got older.

The physicians at the children's hospital were completely against surgery. The told me that there was no study or evidence that showed tubes worked, so why take the risk with your child.

I really appreciated the advice my child's pediatrician at the time gave me. He confirmed that there was not an official study done to prove that these tubes worked, however, every parent that he had ever talked to agreed that having these tubes made a big difference. So the decision was mine to make.

We did get the tubes and the infections were not an issue. In fact, my son had to get a second set, because his own tubes had still not grown after the first set fell out, so he got a second set of tubes and his own tubes had matured by the time the second set fell out.

There is a similar situation here with bed wetting and deep sleep. Physicians will tell you that there is no EEG evidence to indicate any difference in sleep stages and frequencies between children who wet and who don't wet. But as parents of children, who wet, know that their children are deep sleepers and are very difficult to awaken.

A study was done in Canada to measure the minimum volume it took to wake up children. The study confirmed what parents have know for years; children who wet at night were dramatically more difficult to wake.

So, now what you have know as a parent all along has been confirmed - well sort of!