Omaha daily bee., 1921-07-30
ANOTHER DIFFICULT
PROBLEM

Rarely is my mail bag so nght
that it does not contain at least one
letter on bed wetting. This is a
model for the lot:
II am desperate. My child, years
old, vets the bed every night. !
have had him to seven doctors and
he is just as bad off as he was In
the beginning. What can do?"
Change the age Of the child and
the number Of physicians seen and
you have a letter that comes to me
by the thousands.
I am afraid when they get through
with me they have merely added
another to their list of useless ap-
peals.
AS in the case of nail biting. I
have been surprised at the number
of appeals which come from adults
who suffer from the affliction.
In early infancy the bladder Is
emptied when asleep or awake just
on impulse. The process is psyche
logical. AS children get older they
gradually acquire the ability to re-
strain this impulse first when awake
and later subconsciously VIII n
asleep.
Thus we see that bed wetting is
instructive and natural. The reverse
freedom from the habits arti-
fetal and unnatural, a power ac-
quired by an intellectual mastery
which. in turn. is social in its origin.
Some are unable to make the
grade.
The reasons are many. It is the
multiplicity Of the reasons, the
scores Of things. many of them
trifling, which make it difficult to
cure cases OF bed wetting.
That cause may be one Of 20, most
of which are removable. and there
Is no way to tell which 1t is in a
given case, except to try out each Of
the 20.
In Clark's method Of character
training normal babies learn to get
along without diapers by the time
they are three months old. Babies
trained by the Clark method are not
apt to develop into bed wetting
children. DR.. Hawke of Winfield,
Kan. says If a child still Is a per-
sistent bed wetter at the end of the
third year, treatment should be
started.
If the child is an idiot or an i'm
beetle. not much can be done. If he
has epilepsy, chorea, habit spasm
or night terrors, the case will prove
difficult, but it may not be incurable.
1t is estimated that about 80 per
cent of the bed wetters are neurotics.
In fact, all adults, adolescents and
children in the puberty period who
bed wet are either mentally incom-
petent. badly neurotic or have some
organic bladder weakness.
But most neurotics are far from
being untrainable. Among local con-
ditions responsible for bed wetting
at times are phimosis, adherent pre-
puce, Inflammation of the outer
urinary organs, poorly developed
bladder wall, stone in the bladder,
intestinal parasites. Among other
causes are faulty diet, especially one
too rich in sugar; diabetes, Bright's
disease and enlarged tonsils.
Prendagast cured Is cases out Of
so in boys orphanage by DOUGH-
ing the spine with cold water and
then giving vigorous rundown. The
boys emptied their bladders and
went to bed at once.
Pisck employs kind of bladder
training.
Several times day the subjects
are made to pass the urine on COM
mand. At the word "stop" they de-
sist This is done two or three times
at each urination, or about 10 times
a day in all. The subject keeps a
monthly record Of bed wetting and
nonbed wetting nights and mails 1t
to the doctor at the end of the
month.
Another method Is to give no
fluids after 4 p. m. The child
passes his urine at p. m. and goes
to bed. At 1890 p. m. the parents
awakens the child wide awake"
and has him empty the bladder
completely and then go back to
bed. Nervous children are not al
lowed to romp or play after s
o'clock in the afternoon.
Some children lack thyroid and
are cured by taking that substance.