The fact is, any life change – no matter how normal – can cause anxiety and stress in your child that can lead to bedwetting. It can be a move, a new sibling, or a divorce, but it can also be the excitement of starting school that brings it on. What it is isn’t as crucial as determining whether it’s linked or not.
When people are under stress and are experiencing anxiety, they often start doing things differently than normal. However, the underlying reason for the behavior can vary.
For example, if you moved and your child started wetting the bed, it can be for a variety of reasons such as:
- Fear – If your child is used to where they were, moving can elicit uncertainty and even fear in them. Even if you’re happy about the move and they will be too, right now it’s stressful and anxiety-inducing, which may mean that they change how they do things.
- Unfamiliar Surroundings – Your child might be afraid to get up and go to the toilet at night in the new place. Check the path to the bathroom to ensure it’s well lighted and safe for them. Make the path with them so they can see that it’s fine.
- Not Knowing the Rules – It might seem silly to you, but maybe your child doesn’t realize that even though you moved it’s still your own home, and they can get up and go to the potty when they need to without asking first.
- Not Sticking to Former Routines – When you move, all the former routines have been busted. This is especially true if you’re busy unpacking. It’s hard, but try to keep your child’s routine similarly planned even during the move.
- A Diet Change – Moving can bring some dietary changes that hopefully won’t stick, such as eating higher salt, sugar, and fatty foods that can affect children differently. For example, eating high salt food can make them feel like they need more fluid.
- Drinking Fluids Too Close to Bedtime – Again, this is about routines. When traveling, routines get thrown off, including bedtime and when to eat and drink.
- Sleep Deprivation – It may seem strange, but when a child is not getting to sleep on time and sleeping through the night, they are being deprived of sleep. Once they do finally go to sleep, it’s so deep that an accident can happen.
As you can see, each of these issues can happen during a lot of life changes. If you have a baby, you probably change the night-time routine due to the addition. If you get a divorce, the night-time routine is also changed. The stress caused by the situation is not really what causes the bedwetting, but the stress causes the change in behavior that can lead to night-time bedwetting. This can become a circular problem too, as bedwetting leads to its own stress issues.
