If you are wondering why your ten year old child wets the bed, you are not alone!
You have found the right place if you are a parent in search of a solution for your child’s bedwetting, daytime involuntary urination (enuresis) or constipation (encopresis). We are Purple Mountain Physical Therapy and our pediatric voiding dysfunction program is designed to provide kids who wet the bed (ages 4 years and up) customized, natural therapy to resolve their bladder and bowel issues. Our licensed physical therapists have advanced post-doctoral training in pediatric bladder and bowel voiding dysfunction, bedwetting, constipation and pelvic floor dysfunction. We are located in Grand Rapids, Michigan and offer in-person treatment or remote consultations to those who qualify. To talk with one of our knowledgeable staff members call us at 616-516-4334 or contact us here.
If you have a ten year old who is frustrated and embarrassed about wetting the bed, help is right here for you! We are a specialty bladder and bowel physical therapy clinic treating children who have voiding problems, including kids who may be experiencing bedwetting after four years of age.
In this article we share insights into pediatric bedwetting, when it becomes a problem, why a ten year old may be wetting the bed and what you can do about it. We know that bedwetting is a challenging problem for both parents and your child and can be embarrassing and limiting to social interactions. Our licensed physical therapists offer you and your child comprehensive treatment to resolve bedwetting and improve your child’s strength, bladder control, constipation and ability to participate in social events like sleep overs.
If you have questions about your child’s bladder or bowel condition and whether pediatric physical therapy for bedwetting may help your child, you can talk with one of our knowledgeable team members by calling 616-516-4334 or contact us here.
Bedwetting is treatable and does respond to physical therapy! Here at Purple Mountain PT our caring, licensed physical therapists reduce parents’ stress around their child’s bladder and bowel struggles while providing your child a positive, encouraging place to receive treatment for their bedwetting or daytime pee accidents. Sometimes parents tell us that they thought their child’s problem was genetic and there was nothing that could be done about it. This couldn’t be further from the truth and we explain more about this down below! Even if there is a family history of bedwetting, your child shouldn’t be expected to deal with bedwetting for years when there is effective care available. Contact us here to ask about cost and availability of treatment.
At what age should I expect my child to be able to sleep through the night without wetting the bed? Why is my ten year old wetting the bed sometimes, is this normal? Our PT helps clear up all of your questions!
There is no absolute age by which we have to insist a child be fully in control of their bladder, but by 4 years of age most kids do not wet the bed. Our physical therapists recommend treatment for any child who is bedwetting and is older than 4 years of age. When searching for answers as to why a ten year old, or any child older than 4, is wetting the bed, we must look at your child’s daytime bladder and bowel habits.
We should never punish a child for bedwetting and should not make a child feel badly, ashamed or less accomplished simply because they are wetting the bed. A ten year old who wets the bed is not doing it due to laziness, instead the “why” behind their bedwetting will be discovered with your physical therapist.
When a child sleeps and wets the bed, they quite literally have no control over their bladder. Punishment is not helpful and is not appropriate.
Bedwetting, even at ten years old or 15 or 17 or 21 years, is not intentional and is not because your child is at fault. They are not bedwetting to defy a parent’s wishes or to be naughty. They are bedwetting for many reasons including things such as impairments or delays in their body’s bladder control system, pelvic floor muscle coordination, bowel regularity (especially constipation) and bladder & bowel habits. Please be gentle with your bedwetting child. If you are asking yourself why your ten year old wets the bed, it is most definitely NOT because they are doing it on purpose. Research has found that bedwetting carries with it psychological impacts on the child, so feeling diminished or punished by a parent for bedwetting that they cannot control is not useful or effective. Instead, look to a well-trained medical provider, such as our pediatric bladder and bowel physical therapists, to give you and your child guidance for how to improve your child’s bladder control when sleeping. If you are frustrated with ongoing bedwetting and have some questions about our physical therapy, call our office at 616-516-4334 or contact us here.
If your child has special developmental needs and is younger than 4 years of age, but may need more intensive help with potty training (such as a child who is autistic), you may benefit from starting physical therapy earlier than 4 years of age to begin the support and PT treatment that can benefit your child’s bladder and bowel control development. For a child who has developmental delays, waiting until they are ten years old to try to find out why they are wetting the bed is counter-productive. It would be better to start earlier.
At 5-7 years old, approximately 15-20% of kids wet the bed.
By 10 years old, this reduces to 5%.
At 15 years of age and older, 1-2% of children still wet the bed.
While it is encouraging to see that bedwetting reduces over the years, it is important to understand that bedwetting is treatable and that getting treatment at a younger age will improve quality of life, mental health, sleep habits, bowel regularity, stretched-out colon adaptations and bladder function. If your child is older than four years and is bedwetting, our pediatric bedwetting physical therapy treatment, from a licensed doctor of physical therapy, offers your child comprehensive treatment and support for the parents to help optimize your child’s bladder and bowel control. We treat kids of all ages, including kids who are ten years old and bedwetting or kids who are graduating high school and eager to learn why they are wetting the bed and how to stop bedwetting so they can go to college and have a roommate. If you are interested in getting information about our pediatric bladder and bowel PT program, call 616-516-4334 or contact us here.
While it may be tempting to simply say “let’s see how this goes and wait for my child to outgrow bedwetting”, we know that the negative self-esteem that develops with bedwetting can be avoided if treatment begins sooner, rather than helplessly waiting and hoping your child will outgrow this and eventually experience dry nights.
Why does your ten year old wet the bed? Have you considered that it is likely that your child is constipated and this is contributing to bladder problems, including bedwetting?
There are numerous reasons a ten year old is wetting the bed and the first thing to consider is where they are constipated
Constipation. Constipation. Constipation is a strong reason why your ten year old may be wetting the bed. Don’t underestimate this one!
What does constipation have to do with the bladder and wetting the bed? A lot!
Because the bowel and bladder are located next to each other, if the bowel is filled up with constipated stool it can be bothering its nextdoor neighbor, the bladder, and causing bladder spasms or incomplete emptying of the bladder. Copious amounts of stool backed up in the colon place pressure on the bladder and prevent the bladder from filling up as much as it should or cause the bladder to spasm and empty when it should not be emptying. The large quantity of stool in a colon can also make it so that the bladder does not fully empty its urine. This incomplete emptying of the bladder can result in bladder dysfunction and wetting the bed at night. Also, the muscles and nerves that control the bladder are closely related to those that control bowel movements. For all of these reasons, the bladder and bowel are considered “dancing partners” and each influences the other tremendously. This is true in adults, but is more obvious and true in kids who wet the bed.
Constipation in kids tends to be caused by holding in stool. Withholding stool occurs when your child does not go to the toilet and empty their bowels when they need to. They might not go because they fear it will hurt, they might avoid the toilet because they don’t want to stop their fun playing, they might not go because they don’t feel an urge to go. Whatever is causing their withholding, our physical therapists help you and your child figure it out and begin to pass bowel movements without pain.
It is important to treat your child’s constipation first if we want to get their bedwetting or other bladder symptoms resolved.
Constipation is a driving cause of bedwetting. If your child is older than 4 years, such as a ten year old who wets the bed every night, and you are wondering why they are wetting the bed, you must assume your child is constipated until that is absolutely proven to not be the case.
Constipation happens if stool stays in the colon for too long or moves too slowly through the colon. To prevent bedwetting it is recommended that parents be aware of their child’s bowel movement habits, shape of their stool and tendency towards constipation. When the stool stays inside too long, fluid is reabsorbed by the body, making the stool very dry and can be painful to pass. This pain can cause fear of bowel movements and lead to withholding. If you suspect your child is holding in their stool, call us to learn more about our pediatric voiding dysfunction PT program: 616-516-4334 or contact us here.
If your child is withholding their stool, punishment and coaxing them to use the toilet often are ineffective and simply serve to frustrate the parent and make the child feel badly. Instead your child would benefit from physical therapy to teach them how to recognize that they need to defecate (they usually don’t know what the urge to have a bowel movement feels like) and to learn how to pass stool by opening the passageway and releasing their pelvic floor muscles (Our PTs will teach them how to do this, usually they have mixed-up pelvic floor muscle control). Many parents are surprised to learn that one reason why their ten year old is wetting the bed is that they are not having daily, complete bowel movements. Our pediatric voiding dysfunction physical therapist will also talk to your child about dietary choices and proper chewing habits, so that their digestion and gut health can be optimized as they are working to reduce constipation.
Our pediatric bedwetting and voiding dysfunction physical therapy program offers a comprehensive and natural approach for addressing kids bladder and bowel dysfunction so that wetting the bed can stop.
We provide your child (and parents) a private, one-on-one appointment that may consist of a variety of physical therapy treatment modalities that are developmentally appropriate for your child. We create physical therapy that is fun and enjoyable for your child, while achieving their goals of improved bladder and bowel control and while teaching your child proper habits. Our physical therapy for bedwetting, pediatric urinary urgency and frequency, urinary holding, recurrent urinary tract infections and stool accidents may include biofeedback, exercises, games, methods to help your child recognize the signals that they need to defecate or urinate, the M.O.P. protocol, dietary recommendations, toileting posture practice, breathing exercises, pelvic floor muscle retraining and other interventions that help facilitate your child’s bladder and bowel control development. If you would like to learn more, contact us here.
To speak with one of our team members about our pediatric bedwetting physical therapy services, call us at 616-516-4334 or contact us here. We are located in Grand Rapids, Michigan and because we specialize in providing solutions and effective treatment for pediatric bedwetting, you can be assured you are working with professionals who have helped countless children overcome wetting the bed and other bladder and bowel problems.
Our physical therapist is trained in the M.O.P. program, an enema-based protocol to resolve your child’s constipation, stretched out colon (the colon can shrink back to normal size, but it takes time), bedwetting and urine and stool accidents that occur during the day.
Treating and resolving constipation has at least two stages:
- The clean out stage. In this stage all of the retained stool needs to be defecated so your child’s colon is emptied and has an opportunity to begin to heal and a fresh start to work on achieving daily, complete bowel movements. In the clean out phase the M.O.P. regime can be your best opportunity, especially if your child has considerable constipation. Implementing the M.O.P. program can be overwhelming and confusing. Our licensed physical therapist will customize your child’s physical therapy to help bedwetting based on your child’s evaluation findings.
- The maintenance phase of healing. In this phase, which takes 6-12 months, your child is healing the bowel and bladder, over time, by keeping the colon cleaned out and adhering to the other exercises, techniques, toileting habits, chewing habits, fluid intake habits or methods that your physical therapist has taught your child to optimize their bladder and bowel control.
We understand that when you have a ten year old who wets the bed and you want to know why this is happening and would like a do-able plan and program to support your child, it can be overwhelming for the parent.
Our physical therapist is here to provide you complete, wrap-around support. We don’t simply give you a confusing paper with a written protocol. Instead, we teach you what to do, we generate buy-in from your child, we work on improving your child’s voiding posture, breathing, pelvic floor coordination, habits, strength and more. In short, we are here to be the partner you wished you had, to take the guesswork and frustration out of the process and to ensure your child’s success at cleaning out their colon. Often you may have questions about how to modify it, whether your child’s experience is normal when undertaking the regime and how to tell if you need to increase or decrease your M.O.P. routine.
The M.O.P. program is endorsed by the Mayo Clinic’s pediatric urology department and can resolve your child’s daytime pee accidents (enuresis) as well as poop accidents (encopresis). The M.O.P regime has been shown to be more effective than pharmaceuticals, bedwetting alarms (that disrupt everyone’s sleep!) and just waiting with fingers crossed that your child will outgrow their bedwetting.
To work with one of our licensed physical therapists to help your child and to learn why your child is wetting the bed, call us at 616-516-4334. We can answer all of your questions, explain our program and determine if this is a good fit for you. You also can contact us here.
Some children do not need to implement the M.O.P program or enemas and we can tailor the approach to what is best for your child. We have many interventions and alternatives to provide you and your child the best opportunity to improve constipation and bedwetting, even if your child is ten years old and has not shown any progress towards being dry at night.
Family history may play a role in bedwetting
It is common that children who wet the bed have adult family members who recall they were bedwetters when they were children. However, bedwetting is not simply a “genetic” issue. In general, our genes can be “turned on” or “turned off” through lifestyle and daily habits. The thing that is often a common denominator for these family members who wet the bed is that everyone has (or used to have) constipation and non-optimal daytime bladder habits. So if you are wondering why your ten your old wets the bed, you cannot blame it all on genetics.
The evidence is very clear that a major cause of bedwetting is constipation and that instead of blaming the bedwetting on genetics, you should strongly consider that both the child and the parent who used to wet the bed both had constipation.
When we are working with parents who want to know why their ten year old is wetting the bed, we provide private appointments with the parent, child and your licensed physical therapist. The parent may recall being constipated as a child, or sometime the parent says they were not constipated or cannot remember. Regardless of whether the parent believes they had constipation as a child or not, with regard to their child who may be ten years old and bedwetting, based on advanced training in pediatric bedwetting treatment and our clinical experience treating countless kids who wet the bed, if your child wets the bed we always, always check for signs of constipation and give you and your child treatment, a protocol and enhanced support for implementing the protocol to improve the constipation.
Bottom line: wetting the bed after 4 years of age cannot be solely blamed on genetics and family history.
There are many things contributing to the bedwetting that can be treated, especially constipation, daytime bladder habits, pelvic floor muscle coordination, your child’s attention to and ability to sense when they need to urinate and more. Our licensed physical therapists will work with your child and you, the parent, to develop and implement a comprehensive treatment program customized to your child’s needs and to what you, as a parent, can implement to support your child. If you are interested in learning more call 616-516-4334 or contact us here.
Non-optimal bladder habits during the day can contribute to bedwetting at night. It is recommended that during the day your child should urinate every 2 to 4 hours
To establish a daytime urination pattern of voiding every 2 to 4 hours, your child must drink enough water and must be attentive to their body’s signals of needing to urinate. Often, our PTs find that kids are not drinking water or other fluids in sufficient amount to get their bladder to fill up and empty every 2 hours. We also find that kids, including kids with ADD or ADHD, are often happily playing or involved in a fun activity and ignore (or simply don’t recognize) the urge to urinate. This is an important issue that our physical therapists help your child to improve. Holding your pee for 4 hours or longer during the day is not healthy and actually stresses and can over-stretch the bladder, leading to greater chance for wetting the bed at night. When the child goes to bed, even if they are ten years old and fully trained with daytime bladder control, at night their bladder is finally able to fully relax and empty and bedwetting can occur.
Bottom line: Keeping the bladder happy during the day is important to keeping the bladder functioning well (and holding urine without bladder spasms) at night.
Stress and family changes can contribute to bedwetting
Bladder and bowel control is a complicated neurophysiologic mechanism. When looking at why your ten year old may wet the bed, we know that stress can play a role in making a bladder anxious and contribute to bedwetting. Children, like adults, respond to stress (even “good” stress) with a bodily response. Disruptions to your child’s routine and schedule can be a stressor that alters both their daytime bladder habits and their ability to hold their urine at night. If your child is experiencing bedwetting, consider any stressful triggers that may be present. The addition of a younger sibling, change in a bedtime schedule, excitement anticipating a birthday party or going on a vacation are all examples of events that may lead to a child experiencing some difficulty with being dry at night.
Bottom line: When looking for answers and solutions for why your ten year old wets the bed, it is important to consider stress and your child’s schedule and routines, as well as disruptions to routines.
Staying dry at night requires a complicated bladder/brain/pelvic floor muscle system to function properly. Stress can impair this system and lead to bedwetting. If your child is experiencing stress, even “good” stress, that is causing bedwetting consider teaching your child stress management strategies such as talking to a trusted adult, breathing, having fun playing with friends, optimizing sleep routines and eating a healthy diet filled with fruits, vegetables, fiber and water.
Our physical therapy will help your child stop bedwetting. We provide you with answers for why your child, who may be 5 years old, 10 years old, 15 years old or in college, is wetting the bed at night. We also customize a treatment program that is multi-dimensional and includes behavioral changes, toileting postures, pelvic floor muscle training, core strengthening, dietary strategies, chewing recommendations, sleep suggestions and more. The answer to why a ten year old is wetting the bed can include numerous contributors to bedwetting; this is why our PT program provides you appointments that are 55 minutes in length and include strengthening, games, toileting practice, breathing training, pelvic floor muscle exercises, chewing and dietary suggestions, support for bowel clean out and more. Kids have fun when they come to see us. Parents express relief at getting a solution to the bedwetting. If you would like to learn more about what to expect with our PT, call us at 616-516-4334 or contact us here.
If you are a parent who is reading this because you have a ten year old child, or child older than 4 years old, who is wetting the bed and you want to know why this is happening and you need meaningful solutions, you have found the right place.
The kids and parents who come to our physical therapy clinic tell us that they are proud of themselves and so relieved to have help to improve their child’s bedwetting. We help you answer the question as to why your ten year old is wetting the bed and we give you proven solutions to improve this problem. Our physical therapists specialize in pediatric voiding dysfunction, so this means that we have advanced training specific to helping kids achieve daytime and nighttime control of their bladder and bowel function. If you would like more information about how you can work with us, what the one-on-one treatment sessions might look like and cost and availability, please call us at 616-516-4334 or contact us here. We love this work and believe every child deserves to be fully supported to achieve the complicated neuromotor coordination that bladder and bowel control involves.
Peace,
Dr. Maureen O’Keefe, DPT specializing in pelvic health, bladder, bowel, pelvic pain and TMJ disorders and founder of Purple Mountain Physical Therapy. All of our licensed physical therapists specialize in this treatment.
If you are asking yourself why does my ten year old wet the bed, give us a call at 616-516-4334. Also, you may be interested in reading these other articles we’ve written:
Pediatric Bladder Physical Therapist Near Grand Rapids, Michigan
Why is My Child’s Poop So Big?
How Much Bedwetting is Normal?
Why Does My Child Keep Wetting Their Pants?
