Caregivers’ perception and reported challenges experienced by children affected with nocturnal enuresis in Ibadan, Nigeria

Background: Nocturnal enuresis (NE) is bedwetting (BW) at night; it is a childhood problem that involves a large number of children. However, the study aimed at investigating caregivers’ perception, and challenges experienced by the children affected with NE in Ibadan, Nigeria.Methods: The study utilized a descriptive case study to explore caregivers’ perceptions and challenges of NE on children and families using a multistage sampling technique to select 309 respondents. A semi-structured questionnaire was used in collecting data for this study and descriptive analysis statistics and Chi-square test were used for the analysis.Results: The results showed that 86.5% perceived NE as a psychological problem, and 83.3% perceived that bedwetting can be a result of the spiritual spell, NE as a source of shame (87.3%), bedwetting as a serious behavioural problem (94.4%) and teenage bedwetting as abnormal (94.8%). The study also that that 35.7% of the children exhibited unruly attitudes, 23.8% were bullied, 100.0% felt nervous most times, 39.7% felt intimidated, and 47.6% will rather keep to themselves by not socializing.Conclusions: The occurrence of nocturnal enuresis was high among children above ten years of age. Almost all caregivers perceived nocturnal enuresis as negative to the family. Hence, there is a need to design health promotion programs aimed at addressing these challenges and empowering both children and caregivers in the process for the resolution of the problem.