Consultant Pediatrician and Head of the Rebecca Akufo-Addo PICU at Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital has advised parents with bedwetting children to avoid putting them in diapers.

Speaking on Ultimate Health on Sunday, Dr Frank Owusu-Sekyere said putting children in diapers will not motivate them to stop bedwetting.

He believes that putting a child between the ages of five and eight in diapers only adds to the child's stress.

“One of the things that parents must always avoid is the easy way out of putting them in diapers,” he advised.

 He noted that parents should institute a no teasing policy when their child wets the beds, adding that the children should not be made to also carry their mattresses and mats to be paraded along the street as punishment.

According to him, when those methods are applied to the children, they rebel, which normally worsens the situation.

He suggested that to prevent a child from bedwetting, parents should make the child understand that “whatever is happening to the child is not their fault or the result of the child's inaction or laziness, but rather because he or she is struggling to master certain aspects of control.”

He added that parents should make their children understand that although it is a problem, they are determined to help find a solution to it.

“Once we rope in the child, then we have analysed so the child is involved - its an active partner and the child is likely to come along with every effort that we put in,” he said.