Article Showing Association Between Disposable Diaper Over Use and Primary Enuresis (bed wetting) in Children

[NabePup]

I imagine this has already been posted somewhere on here or would be surprised if it hasn't. But I found THIS interesting article that discusses an association between the over use of disposable diapers and enuresis (bed wetting) in kids. It points out some interesting statistics. Like:

"The overall prevalence of childhood enuresis varies from 2.3 to 25%. Liu reported a prevalence of 4.3% in mainland China in 1997, which was markedly lower than that reported in Western countries during the same period."

So apparently there are or were more bed wetters in the US.

"...in 2006 and 2017 respectively, and found that the overall prevalence of primary enuresis increased significantly in 2017 compared to 2006..."

There were more bed wetters in 2017 than 2006.

"The age at which toddlers become diaper-free has increased from 1.5–2 years of age in the 1950s to 3–3.5 years of age currently worldwide."

It goes on after the above statement to discuss that there's been much disagreement about whether bladder control is a result from development/maturation vs can be affected with training and conditioning.

In part of the results section it also points out:

"Recent research has indicated that childhood enuresis mostly occurs because the brain does not respond to the bladder’s signal that it is full. We speculate that bedwetting may be due to years of practice sleeping with disposable diapers, which conditions the brain to ignore the bladder. By eliminating the sensation of wetness, disposable diapers may impact bladder-brain links."


"If the autonomic urination reflex is interrupted, enuresis ensues. Extended use of disposable diapers could deny the neurological pathways the chance to form and create an autopilot. Meanwhile, by eliminating the sensation of wetness, disposable diapers cause insensitivities and delay the establishment of a conditioned reflex."

• DD = disposable diaper
• AITT/EC = assisted infant toilet training/elimination communication

"In conclusion, our study has demonstrated that the children diagnosed with primary enuresis after age 5 stopped using disposable diapers at daytime later than the control group. Association between duration of DD exposure and the risk of childhood enuresis is modified by AITT/EC practice. Timely cessation use of disposable diaper and practice AITT/EC may shorten the time to nocturnal continence, and this may or may not be a causal association, the prospective cohort studies are needed to verify our discoveries."

I didn't read the entire article word for word, it's pretty lengthy and while it states it found a possible association between prolonged disposable diaper use and bed wetting, it states that is not definitive. Pretty interesting though.

 

[TheGazelle]

I would say there is most likely some form of connection but there are so many other variables. The societal norm for potty training age has increased as well as I’m sure the probability that bed wetting will be reported. There is just less stigma around it all in general.

I could also see bed wetting being affected by the way society functions now. Basically it more or less being a side affect. There are definitely people that view it negatively but I wouldn’t view it as positive or negative.

 

[ade]

it states that is not definitive. Pretty interesting though.

Not really. We've all pondered the whysandwherefores of bedwetting, this 'study' just tries to dress that up as science.
Any statistics about childhood development need to taken with a huge pinch of salt as the reported states are typically heavily biased by the social attitudes and expectations of what's expected of a child and what's expected to be reported (especially, where there's a deference to or fearful obeyance of authority).
And what would such 'conclusions' about the ['over']use of DD mean for sleepwakers and sleeptalkers? That they should be bound and gagged to teach them not to do it?

Sounds to me like a piece of propaganda.

 

[mattyd]

It’s interesting, but some is probably psychological too. I suspect my bed wetting generally was, I was very uptight and prone to explosions. When I moved to a state several days drive away, I shutdown emotionally for damn near a decade. I quit exploding as social pressure to fit in better. Same time I quit wetting the bed regularly. I’ve since wet the bed randomly as an adult, but mostly exhaustion or excessive alcohol use proceeding it (usually peeing dreams that I wet in real life).

 

[NabePup]

I would say there is most likely some form of connection but there are so many other variables. The societal norm for potty training age has increased as well as I’m sure the probability that bed wetting will be reported. There is just less stigma around it all in general.

I could also see bed wetting being affected by the way society functions now. Basically it more or less being a side affect. There are definitely people that view it negatively but I wouldn’t view it as positive or negative.

I kinda feel the same. I could see it in some cases having at least some sort of affect, but at the same time not being as simple as "it has this effect 100% of the time" sorta thing either. Social/societal, physiological, developmental, and other variables and influences probably play huge roles as well.

 

[Edgewater]

There seems to be yet another 'study' every decade or so that compares historical, regional and current ages of potty-training! As have been so well pointed out, there are far more than simply the use of disposable baby diapers that effect when a child becomes potty-trained. Both of our kids and their kids have been cloth diapered and all became potty-trained at about the same age.

The baby disposable diaper giants have as a result of such studies reduced the use of wetness barriers, added wet straps to increase the babies feeling the wetness of their disposable diapers. They found no measurable difference regarding the age in which babies became potty-trained. But did see an increase in diaper rash! Shocking!!!

 

[NabePup]

Not really. We've all pondered the whysandwherefores of bedwetting, this 'study' just tries to dress that up as science.
Any statistics about childhood development need to taken with a huge pinch of salt as the reported states are typically heavily biased by the social attitudes and expectations of what's expected of a child and what's expected to be reported (especially, where there's a deference to or fearful obeyance of authority).
And what would such 'conclusions' about the ['over']use of DD mean for sleepwakers and sleeptalkers? That they should be bound and gagged to teach them not to do it?

Sounds to me like a piece of propaganda.

I just thought it was interesting that there was at least some attempt to gain statistics and insights between the correlation of disposable diaper use and bed wetting. Of course no study and research is ever 100% perfect, really the most that can be done is try to account for as many variables and things that affect the results as possible and include that in the findings. They did also utilize questionnaires as a means of collecting data which is still a viable way of collecting data but can also not always be the most reliable or accurate.

I don't really get the feeling of "propaganda" from it though. More like, they collected some data the best they could, based on the data they found some potential associations, but then stated that research into such things hasn't been conducted much and further data is needed to support their findings and that they aren't conclusive, at least that's what I gained from these paragraphs:

"Most notably, to our knowledge, this is the first study of the relationship between disposable diaper overuse and childhood nocturnal enuresis. We are aware of some limitations of this study. First, although the study is multicenter, our subjects were ethnically and geographically limited due to the study design as a hospital-based case–control study that is observational in nature and focuses on a functional disorder. Second, as a retrospective study, biases could not be avoided completely during the collection of data.

In conclusion, our study has demonstrated that the children diagnosed with primary enuresis after age 5 stopped using disposable diapers at daytime later than the control group. Association between duration of DD exposure and the risk of childhood enuresis is modified by AITT/EC practice. Timely cessation use of disposable diaper and practice AITT/EC may shorten the time to nocturnal continence, and this may or may not be a causal association, the prospective cohort studies are needed to verify our discoveries."

Admittedly I didn't thoroughly look into the backgrounds of those who conducted the research nor the data they collected and cited, so I'm by no means taking it as some huge finding and truth, I don't think (and hope) no one is. But I doubt their conclusions would support bounding and gagging sleep walkers and sleep talkers to teach them not to do it!? If that's a conclusion anyone gets from such a study then that'd be messed up! It's just looking into a possible association between disposable diaper use and bed wetting!