Your Baby – July 2019

Imipramine (trade name Tofranil)

Imipramine is an antidepressant

prescribed for bed wetters. It has

a high success rate but also a high

repeat rate and is only prescribed

under strict medical supervision

because 40 percent of patients

present with side effects such

as anxiety and behavioural or

personality changes.

Anticholinergic (trade name Ditropan)

Anticholinergic helps to relax the

nerves of the bladder muscles, which

means children can hold urine for

longer. It doesn’t normally work for

nocturnal enuresis, unless there are

also symptoms by day.

Desmopressin (trade name DDAVP)

Desmopressin decreases the amount

of urine that’s produced and works

for about seven to 10 hours after it’s

been taken – long enough to ensure

a dry night. Desmopressin is only

prescribed for children older than six,

and also only after all avenues have

been exhausted. It’s only prescribed

for short periods, such as when your

child wants to sleep over at a friend’s

or when you’re going on holiday.

“Children usually react fast when

they start using desmopressin, but it

has a high repeat figure – it means

the agent only works while they’re

using it. It’s not a long-term solution

and most children start wetting their

beds again once they stop with the

medication,” Dr Botha explains.

BABY FILES: TODDLER YB

JULY & AUGUST 2019 | 75

before dressing her in clean pyjamas.
✓ Don’t make your child feel bad by
saying things like: “Only babies
we a r n appie s.”
✓ Try and cut out caffeine (including
Ceylon tea, chocolate and Coke)
because it will make your child
produce more urine.
✓ Buy some DryNites Pyjama Pants.
These discreet pull-ups come in two
sizes and in boy and girl designs.
✓ Open the windows nice and wide in the
morning, and spray aerosol so it doesn’t
smell like wee all day.
✓ Put a dry almanac on the wall and
give your child cute stickers she can stick
on herself for the nights she remains
dr y. Reward her with a small gift or
an outing if she stays dry for a specific
number of nights.
✓ Tell your child if one of you also wet
your bed when you were children.
Reassure her that it gets better over time
and that you no longer wet your bed.
✓ If your child also has accidents during
the day, it could be a sign of a bladder
infection. First eliminate this possible
cause before addressing the bed-wetting.
If nothing works for you, you might
have to give nature itself a chance
to solve the problem. Most children
outgrow enuresis. If you bother
too much, you’ll just further upset
your child.

GADGETS ON THE MARKET
Conditioning therapy (think of Pavlov’s
dog) in the form of an enuresis alarm
works very well.
It’s an alarm that starts vibrating when
an electrode in the child’s underwear

Medication is usually a last resort and only with children older than seven.

The remedies that could be prescribed include:

becomes wet so that she wakes up and

finishes weeing in the toilet. “Your child

becomes conditioned over time to wake

up and get up at the first sign of a full

bladder,” Dr Botha says.

The alarms are on the expensive side –

about R800 – and you need to find out if

your medical aid will pay for it.

Ask your urologist about the

medication options that will see urine

production decrease. But although

medication starts working quite

quickly, the percentage of children who

regress once they stop taking the meds

is quite high. YB