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Eating to Stay Dry
Nutritional Triggers and Bedwetting
By Kelly Burgess
Chocolate, in heart-shaped boxes tied with pretty ribbons, is a traditional Valentine's Day treat. If your child is dealing with a bedwetting issue, however, it's probably best to find a different sweet for your sweetie.
Tradition or no, chocolate contains caffeine, which increases urination. While it doesn't have as much caffeine as coffee or tea, the caffeine combined with a possible sensitivity to sugar can definitely have a stimulant effect on a sensitive child's bladder. In fact, there are other foods that experts say may trigger bedwetting in children and should be avoided.
According to Dr. Kirk Pinto, director of the North Texas Center for Pediatric Urology, some foods do stimulate urination, including spicy foods such as salsas, citrus fruits, sodas and tea. Dr. Pinto will suspect that bedwetting may be caused by a nutritional issue if the bedwetting happens occasionally but always at the same time. He asks his patients to use a voiding diary to try to pinpoint what foods may be causing the problem.
"If you see episodic voiding, say he only wets the bed on Fridays, then you need to find out what's different about Friday," Dr. Pinto says. "Is he having a huge bottle of PoweradeŽ [drink] after sports practice, or does the family watch a video and eat popcorn and drink soda before bed on Friday? There may be a very simple explanation [for the child's bedwetting]."
Another thing Dr. Pinto says he's noticed through use of the voiding diary is parents who insist their children drink far too much water. He assumes it's because of the emphasis in recent years on hydration for adults and the bottled water trend. The fact is that, while it may be recommended that adults drink 64 ounces of water per day, children need half that amount.
