Coco Chanel once said “A girl should be two things: classy and fabulous.” So while your priorities as a parent may be for your daughter to be happy, the media and society might have somewhat different expectations. Bed wetting is not seen as classy or fabulous, and young girls are likely to place higher expectations on themselves than young boys. So, although bed wetting happens much less in girls than boys, when it is a problem it can be much more upsetting. A young girl’s self image is often more fragile than a boy’s and this fact should be taken into account while dealing with her bedwetting. Bed wetting is a common occurrence
e/your-stories for lots of little girls but if she has love and support at home, the embarrassment of wetting the bed won’t last long.
Bedwetting Girls
Parents who have had both sons and daughters who wet the bed often report that girls have a much harder time dealing with their “accidents”. This is for a few reasons, often girls experience bed wetting at a younger age than boys and have not had as much time to developed their self confidence. Secondly girls are much more worried that their friends would find out about their problem and make fun of them because of the bedwetting .
Little girls are much more likely to experience UTIs (urinary tract infections) than boys. This is because the urethra in girls is shorter than in boys. On some occasions your daughter’s bedwetting is actually caused by an undiagnosed UTI. Additionally, if a bedwetting girl doesn’t wake up, this prolonged period of lying in her own urine will significantly increase the chances that she might catch a UTI. It is important to keep this in mind to ensure your daughter lets you know if she has any discomfort while on the toilet.
An additional cause of bedwetting can be problems in the home. Big changes, such as starting at a new school, a new tot in the home or moving to a new house or city, can be triggers that lead to bed wetting. Keeping this in mind won’t solve the problem, but can make understanding the causes of bedwetting easier.
There are several things you can do to try make your daughter feel more comfortable during bedtime. Little girls often become attached to characters from their favourite movie/TV show, so getting your daughter sheets or pyjamas that feature that character from the show may help make her bedroom a happy place where she will love going to bed. Try to limit the amount of TV your daughter watches right before bed, too much visual stimulation can restrict your little girl’s ability to relax and get into “sleep” mode.
Bedwetting girls are also much more eager to get out of overnight absorbent pants than little boys and any delay to this will upset them. When you are going through the bedwetting stage with your little girl, let her know that delays and incidents are part of the process of growing up and it’s expected of her to have a few mistakes along the way. Most girls recognise that they are different to most of their friends and are uncomfortable admitting to their bed wetting. They may stop going to sleepovers at friend’s houses or resist going to school camp. Being open and establishing good communication between you and your daughter is imperative.
Discussing bedwetting with girls
There are several ways to speak to your daughter about bed wetting. The most important points of the discussion should be:
- There are different potential reasons why your daughter is wetting the bed and if you work together to find out why, you can both work on reducing and eventually stopping the accidents
- Many of the girls in her class are also wetting the bed so she shouldn’t feel bad about it
- Some girls might feel angry at themselves while others may feel upset and guilty, make sure your little one knows thats it’s not her fault
- Bring up the fact that bed wetting sometimes runs in the family and share any personal experiences you may have about it with your daughter
- Talk to your daughter about not drinking lots before bed, especially anything with lots of sugar or caffeine, such as coke, sweets or coffee
- Congratulate your daughter when she wakes up with a nice, warm and most importantly, dry bed. Praise and support from the family is sometimes the most helpful way of dealing with the bed wetting problem
- Reassure her that the little problem she has will remain completely private. Tell her only her parents will know, this will help stop teasing from other members of the family, especially brothers and sisters
- Make sure your daughter knows that the best cure for bedwetting is normally time, in the meantime there are DryNites® Pyjama Pants that can make her bedwetting less of a worry
Once your little girl has outgrown her bed wetting, it’s a wonderful feeling for you and your daughter. For some more tips on how to handle sleepovers and other outings have a look at our Bedwetting Tips for Girls page. It’s a great feeling once bedwetting girls can go through an entire night dry, both for your daughter and her diligent and supportive parents.
