Dear Editor:
I felt the need to write in response to an item contained in Paediatrics & Child Health. The publication contains an excellent review of enuresis (Paediatr Child Health 1997;2[6]:419–21,423–425). It is followed by a handout on the same subject (Paediatr Child Health 1997;2[6]:422,426).
My concern is with the comic strip section of the handout and specifically with the last frame in which Winston, the enuretic owl, “realizes that he has made a mistake” when he wakes up wet in the morning. I think the choice of the word “mistake” is unfortunate. Indeed the message in the article and handout is that this is a physiological event not under the conscious control of the sleeping child. To suggest that nocturnal enuresis is a “mistake” implies wrongdoing, albeit perhaps an inadvertent wrong choice. That negative connotation can contribute to the poor self-esteem which is a most serious complication of enuresis.
I wonder if the publication would consider modifying the handout and republishing it. To paraphrase the Great Bard, “Owl’s well that ends well”.