Bedwetting in Childhood in Cantonese

What is bed-wetting?

Bed-wetting (also called nocturnal enuresis) is when the bladder empties while a child is asleep. This can happen every so often, or every night.

Bed-wetting is common. About one in every five children in Australia wets the bed. Bed-wetting can run in families and is more common in boys than girls before the age of nine years. It can be upsetting for the child and stressful for the whole family. The good news is that you can get help.

甚麼是尿床？

尿床(也叫作夜間遺尿症)是指兒童在睡眠時排尿。這種情況可能經常發生，甚至每晚都發生。

尿床很普遍。澳洲大概每5個兒童中就有1個尿床。尿床可能會有家族遺傳，多發生在9歲前，男童比女童常見。這種情況可能會令尿床的兒童感到難過，並令全家人都感到緊張和壓力。好消息是你可以尋求幫助。

What causes bed-wetting?

Wetting the bed is caused by a mix of three things:

• the body making a large amount of urine through the night;
• a bladder that can only store a small amount of urine at night; and
• not being able to fully wake up from sleep.

Children who wet the bed are not lazy or being naughty. Some illnesses are linked with bed-wetting, but most children who wet the bed do not have major health problems.

Day-time control of the bladder comes before night-time dryness. Most children are dry through the day by the age of three years and at night by school age. However, this can vary, and children may have accidents every so often, both day and night, up until they are seven or eight years of age.

甚麼導致尿床？

尿床是由三個因素共同導致的：

• 身體在夜間產生大量尿液；
• 膀胱在夜間只能儲存少量尿液；以及
• 兒童無法從睡眠中完全醒過來。

尿床的兒童並非懶惰或不聽話。有些疾病與尿床有關，但大多數尿床的兒童沒有嚴重的疾病。

先控制白天排尿，再處理夜間尿床。大多數兒童到3歲白天就不再尿濕褲子，到上學的年齡夜晚就不再尿床。但是，這種情況會有改變，兒童白天夜晚都經常有可能出現意外遺尿，直至7歲或8歲。

When should you seek help for bed-wetting?

It is best to seek help from a health professional with special training in children’s bladder problems, such as a doctor, physiotherapist or continence nurse advisor. They can help children with their bed-wetting from when the child is about six years of age. Before this time it can sometimes be hard to get the child to be helpful. However, in some cases it might be wise to seek help sooner, such as when:

• the child who has been dry suddenly starts wetting at night;
• the wetting is frequent after school age;
• the wetting bothers the child or makes them upset or angry; or
• the child wants to become dry.

你何時需要尋求關於尿床的幫助？

最好向在兒童排尿失常方面受過特別訓練的醫護專業人士尋求幫助，如醫生，理療師或排便科護士顧問。他們可以從兒童6歲左右起幫助他們解決尿床問題。這個年齡前的兒童往往不願配合。但是，在某些情況下儘早尋求幫助是明智的，如當：

• 一直沒有遺尿的兒童突然開始在夜晚尿床；
• 學齡後頻繁尿床；
• 尿床令兒童感到困擾､令他們難過或生氣；或者
• 尿床的兒童不想再遺尿。

Can bladder control through the day be a problem?

Some children who wet the bed at night also have problems with how their bladder works through the day. They may go to the toilet too few or too many times, need to rush to the toilet in a hurry, have trouble emptying out all the urine or have bowel problems. Unless the child has wet underwear, families often do not know about these other bladder and bowel control problems. New day-time wetting by a child who is toilet trained should be discussed with a doctor.

在白天控制排尿會成為問題嗎？

有些夜晚尿床的兒童白天排尿也有問題。他們可能甚少或過多地去廁所，急需上廁所，排尿不盡或排便失常。除非孩子尿濕了內褲，否則家人通常不知道孩子有其他大小便控制失常。如果受過廁所訓練的孩子開始出現白天尿濕，就要和醫生討論。

What can be done about bed-wetting?

Many children do stop wetting in their own time with no help. Most often, if wetting is still very frequent after the age of eight or nine years, the problem does not get better by itself. There are many ways to treat bed-wetting. A health professional will begin by checking the child to make sure there are no physical causes and to find out how their bladder works through the day. Then, there are a few ways to treat bed-wetting that are most often used:

• Night alarms that go off when the child wets the bed. These work by teaching the child to wake up to the feeling of a full bladder. The alarm is used either on the bed or in the child’s underpants. The results are best when the child wants to be dry, wets very often, has help from a parent through the night, and uses the alarm every night for several months. Some children become dry using an alarm but later start to wet again. Alarms can work again after this relapse.
• Drugs that change how active the bladder is or cut down how much urine is made through the night can be prescribed by a doctor. These drugs can be used to help the bladder work better at night. Drugs alone don’t often cure bed-wetting. Bladder function must be improved or bed-wetting may come back when the drug is stopped.

針對尿床可以做些甚麼？

很多兒童會在到了一定時間無需幫助就能停止尿床。通常，如果在8歲或9歲之後尿床仍非常頻繁，這個問題就不會自己得到改善。有很多處理尿床的方法。醫護專業人士先會為兒童做檢查，確保沒有身體方面的原因，並且瞭解他們白天的排尿情況。然後採取一些最常用的尿床處理方法：

• 夜間鬧鐘會在兒童平常尿床時響起。這是透過訓練兒童在感覺膀胱漲滿時醒來而發揮作用。將鬧鐘放在床上或兒童的內褲裏。用鬧鐘效果最好的情況是：兒童自己不想再遺尿、經常性遺尿，以及父母在夜間幫助叫醒。鬧鐘要每晚使用，連續幾個月。有一些兒童在使用鬧鐘之後不再遺尿，但後來又再次尿床。復發後使用鬧鐘仍然有效。
• 藥物改變膀胱興奮程度或減少夜間產尿量，可由醫生開處方。這些藥物可以用來幫助膀胱在夜間更好地運作。但只靠藥物通常不能治癒尿床，還必須改善膀胱功能，否則當停止用藥時尿床可能會復發。

What can parents do?

• Seek help from a health professional with special training in children’s bladder problems, such as a doctor, physiotherapist or continence nurse advisor.
• Watch for constipation as this can make the bladder problem worse. Seek medical help if it is an ongoing problem.
• If your child is using a bed-wetting alarm, get up when it goes off and help to wake them up and change their clothes or sheet. Make sure there is enough light at night so it is easy to get to the toilet.

There are some things which do NOT help:

• DO NOT punish for wet beds.
• DO NOT shame the child in front of friends or family.
• DO NOT lift the child at night to toilet them. This may cut down on some wet beds, but it does not help the child learn to be dry.
• DO NOT try to fix bed-wetting when other family members are going through a stressful time.

父母可以做些甚麼？

• 向在兒童排尿失常方面受過特別訓練的醫護專業人士尋求幫助，如醫生，理療師或排便科護士顧問。
• 告訴孩子他們的身體如何運作。
• 留意孩子是否有便秘，因為便秘可令排尿問題更嚴重。如有持續便秘就要尋求醫療幫助。
• 如果你的孩子使用尿床鬧鐘，當鬧鐘響時，你也要起床叫醒孩子，並幫助換衣服或床單。要確保夜晚有足夠燈光令上廁所較容易。

有一些做法是沒有幫助的：

• 不要因為尿床而進行懲罰。
• 不要在朋友或家人面前羞辱孩子。
• 不要在夜晚給孩子把尿。這可能會減少尿床的次數，但對孩子學習不再遺尿沒有幫助。
• 不要在其他家庭成員正在承受重大壓力的時期嘗試解決尿床問題。

Seek help

Qualified nurses are available if you call the National Continence Helpline on 1800 33 00 66* (Monday to Friday, between 8.00am to 8.00pm Australian Eastern Standard Time) for free:

• Information;
• Advice; and
• Leaflets.

If you have difficulty speaking or understanding English you can access the Helpline through the free Telephone Interpreter Service on 13 14 50. The phone will be answered in English, so please name the language you speak and wait on the phone. You will be connected to an interpreter who speaks your language. Tell the interpreter you wish to call the National Continence Helpline on 1800 33 00 66. Wait on the phone to be connected and the interpreter will assist you to speak with a continence nurse advisor. All calls are confidential.

Visit bladderbowel.gov.au or continence.org.au/other-languages

* Calls from mobile telephones are charged at applicable rates.

尋求幫助

如果你致電國家排便節制熱線，有資質的護士會接聽你的電話1800 33 00 66* （週一至週五，澳大利亞東部標準時間8:00am—8:00pm）。

• 信息；
• 建議；及
• 資料單張。

如果你在講英語或者理解上有困難，你可以透過撥打13 14 50獲取免費電話傳譯服務以接通國家排便節制熱線。電話會用英語接通，因此請說明你要講的語言並且不要掛機。你會被連接到一個講你母語的傳譯員。告知傳譯員你想要致電國家排便節制熱線，電話是1800 33 00 66。待電話接通後傳譯員會幫助你與排便節制護理顧問對話，所有的來電均保密。

請登陸：bladderbowel.gov.au或者continence.org.au/other-languages

* 用手機打出會收取相應費用。