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Childhood Baby Blues
The Effects of a New Baby on Bedwetting
By Carma Haley Shoemaker
The arrival of a new baby is a wondrous event filled with love, joy and happiness. However, to an older sibling, an addition to the family can be stressful and can lead to the presence, re-emergence or worsening of one of the most embarrassing events of childhood: bedwetting.
Bedwetting affects nearly seven million children in the United States alone, according to the National Kidney Foundation. With the introduction of additional stress and trauma, including the stress of a new sibling, the occurrence of bedwetting in children increases significantly, especially in kids who have had previous occurrences.
Older children get excited about the thought of having a new brother or sister. They take pride in announcing that they are the older brother/sister and that this baby is theirs. But even the proudest big brother/sister will experience times when they wish that the stork would have delivered their "bundle of joy" on another doorstep.
According to Dr. Paul Coleman, psychologist, this aggravation is a result of now having to share his/her time with parents. "Older children may show their frustration at having less time with busy parents by either withdrawing or acting passive-aggressively," Coleman says. "They may get sloppier, more forgetful or less reliable, thereby forcing parents to pay more attention to them. Bedwetting is one of the more common examples of this type of frustration."
Crystel, a mom from Clemson, S.C., had challenges with her older daughter when her baby was born. "When my daughter found out she was getting a new baby sister, she could not have been more proud," Crystel says. "But shortly after our second daughter arrived, she began having 'accidents' at naptime and during the night. We discussed it with her, asked her to talk to us about how she felt and did all we could to reassure her that even though we had a new baby, we loved her very much."
Want to see more?
- Good Mornings: Bedwetting and Your Child
- Wet, but Dry
- Bedwetting and Special Needs Kids
- The Effects of Divorce on Children: A Potential Cause for Bedwetting
- Absorbent Undergarments and Special Needs Children
- Words That Heal: Incontinence Solutions for Special Needs Kids
- Talking About Bedwetting with Children