Bed-wetting in Lusaka suburb

Abstract

Bed wetting may sometimes be the result of physical pathology or psycho-social stress or it may be due simply to stow maturation - Kolvin (1975) but even when it occurs in older children it may •neither be classed as a behaviour disorder nor as an illness by the parents. There is no clearly accepted age by which a child should be dry and Swift and Asuni (1975) have stated for example that, "Among the Achofi of Uganda and among most tribes in Ghana parents become concerned only if bed wetting continues into the fifth year. In Nigeria the practice of permissiveness . . . is reported until the age of 6 or 7 (while) . . . in Tanzania this ready relaxed approach . . . changes to threats and punishment when bed wetting occasionally persists into the fourth year." In the investigation to be described the arbitrary definition will be taken (after Sin, 19_74) that "Enurests is said to exist when a child after the age of 3 frequently wets his bed." This investigation is a study of bed-wetting in children aged 4` to 15 years, living in.a Lusaka suburb.