Do Bed Wetting and Snoring Have A Connection?
It was once believed that bed
wetting was due to a sleeping disorder.
This is because in some children snoring
appears to accompany bed wetting. Snoring in children can
sometimes be a result of what is known as obstructive sleep
apnea (abbreviated to OSA). This breathing problem is much more
common in adults, especially middle aged men, than it is in
children but children can still develop it. Obstructive sleep
apnea means, "there is a partial blockade to or intermittent
interruption of the flow of air to the lungs, enough to
seriously interfere with breathing." The most common reason for
OSA to develop is children are due to large adenoids.
The adenoids are to be found situated
behind the nasal passages and are similar in their function to
tonsils as they are "collections of lymph glands" that serve to
fight infection.
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Making a Comparison Between
Bed Wetting and Riding a
Bicycle
It is generally considered
by physicians that bed wetting
is not a problem until it
begins to take place on a more
or less consistent basis in
girls who are five years or
older and boys who are six
years and older. Boys tend to
be developmentally slower in
more areas than girls and this
includes both daytime and
nighttime bladder functions as
well.
Often children who have dry
beds for weeks or months on end
and then begin bed wetting
either have a medical problem
such as a kidney infection, a
bladder infection or the onset
of juvenile diabetes or else
they are suffering from severe
stress that has brought it on.
The latter is often referred to
as secondary enuresis. If an
illness is the cause of the bed
wetting the emphasis has to be
on proper treatment. However
children who always have wet
beds are not likely to have a
physical oriented problem. It
is more likely that they simply
need to learn how to control
their bladders.
Remaining dry all night long
can be compared to learning to
ride a bicycle. Some find it a
simple skill to learn while
others have a more difficult
time mastering it. Learning to
ride a bike is similar to
nighttime bladder control
because both are learned
skills. When it comes to
learning to ride a bicycle, the
brain has to become attuned to
the nuances of balance and it
has to learn to shift and
correct the body’s position as
it moves about on the bike. At
the same time the brain has to
remember to watch for
pedestrians and traffic, avoid
bumps in the road as well as
potholes and it has to make
sure the feet using the pedals
are in sync with the action of
the brain.
When it comes to both
sleeping and waking up dry in
the morning, the brain has to
be aware of when the bladder is
full to capacity with urine and
its response must be one of two
things- it either must send a
message to the brain that the
child must be woken up
immediately in order to urinate
or it must squeeze and close
off the urethra in order to
keep the urine in place until
the person is fully awake and
can let the pee out of the
body. All of these messages
between the bladder and the
brain must take place while a
child is asleep in his bed.
Both learning to master the
skills that can enable you to
ride a bike as well as learning
to remain dry all night long
seem almost impossible until
you actually do. After that
both bike riding and nighttime
bladder control get easier.
This analogy works well for
children who suffer from the
angst of bed wetting. A child
who admits with pride to having
effectively learned to ride a
two-wheeler can see the
correlation between that and
learning to stay dry. It is all
a matter of learning how to do
it and then to keep on doing
the learned behavior
properly.
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Plenty of children who have large adenoids do snore but
don’t necessarily suffer from obstructive sleep apnea. Nor are
they any more likely to wet their beds on a consistent basis.
Those children who do develop obstructive sleep apnea suffer
short periods of time throughout the night when they actually
stop breathing all together. This can be a dangerous condition
that can affect many areas of a person’s life including
endangering their physical health, causing problems with school
and friends and problems in the family. Obstructive sleep apnea
in children can result in restless sleep at night, which can
lead to excessive daytime tiredness. It can also lead to waking
up feeling unrefreshed in the morning and morning headaches.
Children who suffer from OSA have more trouble concentrating in
school than do other children and they often suffer from memory
loss and can be inattentive and grouchy towards others.
In those proponents who see a connection between OSA and bed
wetting, they believe that it is the chemical imbalance that
takes place in the brain due to obstructive sleep apnea that
increases the potential for bed wetting. It is important to
keep in mind that it is in only a small amount of children that
snoring and/or OSA happens along with bed wetting. In the case
of OSA for children, the adenoids and tonsils are often
standard medical procedure and this seems to have a positive
effect on the incidence of bed wetting as well. However this
does not automatically mean that in children who both wet their
beds on a regular basis and snore that they should have their
tonsils and adenoids taken out. It is best to consider other
options before going straight to surgery.
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More Things to
Consider about the Bed
Wetting Alarm
Keep in mind that even
with practice in the
daytime the majority of
children do not wake up
right away when they first
begin using a bed wetting
alarm. Often children need
to be coaxed to hear it and
any help that a parent can
give them can prove useful.
It may mean some more or
less sleepless nights for a
parent but it would prove
beneficial for a parent to
go into the child’s room
periodically throughout the
night and listen for the
alarm and/or wake up the
child to see if he has to
use the bathroom. Children
can be disoriented in the
night so if the child does
need to urinate it would be
wise to help your child to
the bathroom. Doing this a
few nights should get your
child into the habit and
pave the way for them to
help themselves for that
point on. Keep in mind that
the aim of a bed wetting
alarm (or moisture alarm)
is to encourage a child to
wake him or herself up
before the buzzer goes off
or to be able to hold in
urine throughout the night
and be dry upon waking in
the morning.
Don’t allow your child
to drink fluids right up
until it is lights out and
turn the radio, television
and/or computer off fifteen
minutes to a half an hour
before the child crawls
into bed. Having a bright
strong night-light in the
child’s bedroom can help
facilitate a better
response time to the
moisture alarm and a safer
trip to the washroom.
Once started a bed
wetting alarm should be
made use of every single
night up until the point
the child can go three to
four weeks without wetting
the bed. It is important to
be patient and supportive
during this time but also
persistent with the
nighttime training ritual.
It takes most children an
average of two to three
months for the alarm to
effectively work and for
bladder control during the
night to be achieved.
Keep a special bed
wetting calendar for your
child to record his or her
progress. Every morning
when he gets up have him
write entries in the
calendar according to what
kind of a night it was. For
example use the word "dry"
to describe a night that
the child successfully
slept through the night and
did not wet the bed at all
and "wet" to describe a
night when he did not get
up and also for whatever
reason did not hear the
alarm or failed to respond
to it. Other entries you
could use include "dry,
woke-up without alarm" and
"wet spot" meaning that the
child was woke up by the
alarm and did get up to go
to the bathroom.
There are some things
that you must consider when
you go to purchase a bed
wetting alarm for your
child. First of all be
aware of the cost. Most bed
wetting alarms range in
price from fifty to one
hundred dollars, but
sometimes the more
expensive styles are not
necessarily better. Always
buy an alarm that is easy
to put together and will be
comfortable for the child
when he is asleep. Buy an
alarm that is reliable to
operate and sturdy enough
that dropping it on the
floor will not cause it to
break. Buy an alarm that is
easy to both clean and
disinfect, as you will need
to do both on a regular
basis. Make sure the alarm
won’t fall away from the
child if he or she is a
restless sleeper and always
buy an alarm that senses a
small amount of urine but
will not be set off by
sweat.
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In instances where snoring and bed wetting began around the
same approximate time it might be a good idea to discuss with
the doctor if the tonsils and adenoids might be to blame. While
snoring and obstructive sleep apnea is both considered
"uncommon causes of bed wetting" the fact that they started
occurring close together might be an indicator of where the
problem lies. It is important to schedule an appointment with
your child’s doctor to discuss all the health possibilities and
implications of both snoring and bed wetting.
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