Bed-wetting is a common problem among children. It is also a problem that is difficult to understand, difficult to prevent, and most of all difficult to correct by parents, caregivers and even doctors (The abc of childcare, pg. 27). Most doctors consider a bed-wetting child to be any girl over the age of four and any boy over the age of five who wet the bed (internet). There are many theories as to why children wet the bed as well as other possible reasons of why a child wet the bed.
The maturational theory (Gesell) believes that children inherit intellectual abilities at birth. According to this theory if both parents of a child were not dry through the night until ages six and seven, then their child won’t be. This theory also believes that until the nervous system is mature enough for a particular skill
Another theory is the learning theory (Pavlov) in this particular theory researches focuses on inner personality development over time, and pay less attention to inner changes. This theory believes that under certain circumstances a child can learn a new physiological response to a stimulus in the environment. For example to stop the bedwetting, the parent would set a timer on the child’s bed, whenever the bed got wet the timer would go off, making a very loud noise and it would wake the child. After a while the child will wake up before wetting the bed. (the book)
Even though, there are several theories that can explain why children wet the bed, there are also other reasons for this problem. There are many things in the child experience that can be responsible for bedwetting. Some of these factors could be fea