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Home › Articles › Bedwetting › Bedwetting and Developmental Delays

Bedwetting and Developmental Delays

How the Urinary System Works in Kids

By Beth Skarupa

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When Laura Johnson's* son Jacob* was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome at age 4, no one told her it could be the reason he was having trouble potty training. Had she known then that sensory issues associated with his condition were to blame, she could have saved herself a lot of heartache.

"Training Jacob was very difficult," Johnson says. "At first, he showed no interest in trying. After countless videos and books, talking and bribing, he grew to absolutely hate sitting on the potty. He would sit there for half an hour and then get up and wet down his legs."

Although Jacob began reading when he was 3, he wasn't allowed to move up to a higher preschool class because he wasn't trained. "Being treated by family and educators as a worthless mother who would not properly potty train her child, when I spent the better part of two years of my life trying to, was pretty upsetting," she says.

Children with a developmental delay of any origin, if not too severe, tend to develop normal urinary control somewhat later than the usual age range, says Dr. Stanley Hellerstein, a pediatric nephrologist at Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Mo. He explains that parents of special needs kids may not be made aware of this when learning about their child's condition. "Everyone's usually so preoccupied with other aspects of the condition that they don't even think about discussing voiding issues," he says.

What is the Urinary System?

The urinary system consists of the kidneys, where urine is formed, and muscles, tubes and nerves that remove waste products from your body in urine. It consists of two kidneys, two tubes called ureters, the urinary bladder and the urethra.

Your kidneys are located just below your ribcage near the middle of your back on either side of your spinal column. They look like kidney beans about the size of your fist, and they filter waste from the blood. Water and other wastes form urine in tiny filters in the kidneys called nephrons.


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