Thread: Diapers for bedwetting

I am assuming you have done all the research into the physiological issues that are causing an older child or teenager to still bedwet? My daughter is ADHD and although she did not wet the bed, she had these daytime accidents that made absolutely no sense. It wasn't behavioral and I couldn't pin down why she did it in the day and not night. After many doctor's visits to her ped, we were referred to a pediatric urologist who diagnosed her in five minutes worth of questions and no physical exam. Had to do with how the brain received the signals from her body that she had to go. This doctor saw this problem in many of her ADHD patients and put her on a medication that immediately worked. She said the problems usually corrects itself by adolescence when her brain and body are finally on the same wave length and she was right.

I know this isn't your original question, but since you didn't put any history, I thought I'd put that out there because as a mother, before I just accepted that this was the way it is, I would want to be sure I explored every avenue of trying to correct the problem instead of just putting a band aid on it.

Actually I posted this because I wanted to get a feel for people's opinions on this topic. I am a psych major who is interested in the stigma surrounding older children,teenagers,and adults using diapers to manage their bedwetting and how we can reduce this stigma. You are right that a person should see a physician and/or specialist to find out if there are any physical reasons for the bedwetting in order to rule out any potentially serious condition. That being said if there are no physiological causes for the wetting and if attempts to cure the bedwetting are unsuccessful(or if the person does not feel comfortable with the treatment options available-for example some people do not like medicines,some people don't like surgical options or the surgical options might have unpleasant side effects,etc.) then the person should wear protective garments such as diapers to bed in order to maintain comfort,to avoid skin problems,and to minimize cleanup. I do agree that in some cases diapers might be considered a band-aid,however with certain individuals diapers might be the best(or only option) to deal with the bedwetting.

Interesting. I got my undergraduate in Psych as well. But honestly, I don't know that the stigma surrounding incontinence in older kids and adults will ever really go away. Unless there are other issues surrounding the incontinence, it is one of those issues that people will always hide or be ashamed of. I don't know a lot about some of the possible reasons why a person would continually have bed wetting issues, but if that is the only problem, and the child/teen/adult functions typically in every other aspect of their lives, I don't know that you will ever get away from the stigma, even more so for older kids and teens. Adults are better equipped to deal with this than kids. Sleep overs become a time of major stress. What if their friends find out? Kids can be cruel. They would never live it down. Kids are teased mercilessly for much less. I agree that they should wear protective garments, but something that is not the norm for most of society will always be fodder for others to taunt and tease. It is sad to say but that seems to be human nature--belittling the weak to make oneself feel superior.

I have an idea for a waterproof sheet to use for bedwetting and I wanted to let people know about it. I found out about this years ago. A friend of mine had a young daughter with a bedwetting problem. She used a regular plastic sheet on her daughter's bed(the kind you use for a drop cloth or to cover materials outside). If you go to a hardware store such as Ace,Lowes,or Home Depot,you can purchase rolls of clear plastic sheeting in different sizes and thicknesses. The most popular thicknesses are 4 and 6 mil. I would buy the clear 4 mil plastic to cover the bed.

Some people have complained about regular vinyl mattress covers ripping or tearing and the hardware store plastic is real tough. The only drawback to using this type of plastic is that it makes a rustling sound whenever you move around but this can be minimized by putting cloth covers over the plastic such as bath towels,extra blankets,an extra mattress pad,terry cloth,or similar materials. Since many bedwetters are deep sleepers(many children can sleep through a nuclear blast!) the crinkling sound the plastic makes might not bother them or they might be able to adjust to it over time.

The advantage of buying a roll of plastic sheeting are several-you can cut off multiple sheets of plastic so you have more than one bedwetting sheet(while one is drying on the clothesline you can put another plastic sheet on the bed) and having plastic around the house comes in handy. Plastic sheeting has many uses such as drop cloths for painting,to cover outside materials such as mulch and firewood,for concrete work,as a protective cover during remodeling work,to cover plants during the winter time,to use for yardwork to rake up leaves as well as put under mulch in flower beds,as well as many other uses.

I originally suggested using 6 mil plastic for this purpose but I've since changed my mind-the 4 mil is cheaper plus it makes less noise. There has been a lot of stuff written on the different types of waterproof sheets you can use for bedwetting. For example Vicki Lanski's book "101 Parenting Tips" mentioned using garbage bags as a bedwetting cover. I've also heard of people using shower curtains and vinyl table cloths for this purpose so the hardware store plastic seemed like a good option as well. Another book on bedwetting said that any type of plastic can be used as a bedwetting cover.

Even though you might use the hardware store plastic to protect the bed from bedwetting keep in mind that it's still good to have the child or teen wear diapers to bed such as pin-on cloth diapers covered with plastic pants or disposable briefs(the term for disposable diapers with tape tabs for older children,teenagers,and adults)The bedwetting sheet should be used just in case the diapers leak.I would suggest trying this idea out for a while and if the child or teenager can't adjust to the crinkling sound of the plastic you can use another type of waterproof sheet to protect the bed.I'd be interested in hearing what anybody thinks about this idea.

I have a tip for parents who may be having a difficult time finding a suitable product to manage their older child or teenagers bedwetting. One option to consider is pin-on cloth diapers covered with plastic pants. Cloth diapers have superior wicking abilities. Wicking refers to how well liquid is dispersed throughout the diaper. In addition pin-on diapers allow a certain degree of flexibility in terms of how you layer,fold,and fasten the diapers to increase absorbency. For example if the bedwetter has problems with side leakage you can layer and pin the diaper to deal specifically with this problem. I realize that there's a lot of stigma attached to older children,teenagers,and adults wearing diapers and most people are more inclined to wear products that look and fit like underwear but I think it's time to rethink how we look at diapers. They make pin-on diapers to fit older children,teenagers,and adults.Keep in mind that if you do decide to use pin-on diapers on your child or teen that you need to cover the diapers with plastic pants. Also the child should be responsible for diapering themselves so they don't feel embarrassed about wearing the diapers.I hope this helps bedwetters and their parents and if anyone needs more information please feel free to post a message.

I have another tip for parents who might be having a difficult time finding a suitable product to manage their older child or teenager's bedwetting. Disposable briefs are a good product to use for the management of heavy incontinence such as bedwetting. Disposable briefs look and fit just like baby diapers such as Pampers,Luvs,and Huggies-they have tapes to fasten the garments,elastic leg gathers to prevent leaks,and many have an elastic waistband which is also designed to prevent leakage. They have an outer cover which is either cloth(also known as a non-woven outer layer) or plastic. Many people consider disposable briefs more effective than garments such as pull-ups or "Goodnites" for the management of heavy forms of incontinence such as bedwetting and I thought I'd pass this information along. Another type of diaper to consider to deal with the bedwetting is a pin-on style diaper which I talk about in another post. Or you can use both types of diapers to manage the bedwetting-you can alternate use of the cloth and disposable diapers(on some nights they wear the cloth diapers,on other nights the disposable diapers) or you can have the child or teen wear cloth diapers and plastic pants during the cooler seasons such as fall and winter and the disposable diapers during the warmer times such as spring and summer.They make disposable briefs to fit older children,teenagers,and adults. I think it's good for parents to be aware of other options besides the ones traditionally used to manage bedwetting with older children and teens.If you have any other questions please feel free to post a question.

In my previous posts I talked about various diapers that are good for managing bedwetting such as pin-on cloth diapers covered with plastic pants and disposable briefs and while these types of diapers are very effective,many parents might be wondering the following:how do I convince my older child or teenager to wear them to bed? There are a number of different ways you can encourage and motivate an older child or teenager to wear diapers to bed to manage the bedwetting.

One such way is to implement a reward system. You could have a system set up that if they wear the diapers to bed you give them a certain amount of money which they can use to buy a present they're really looking forward to such as a c.d.,a video game,or some other item they want. If they don't wear the diapers to bed they don't earn any money. They could also earn a certain number of points which they can cash in for presents. If they don't wear the diapers they don't earn any points.

Another way to encourage them is to let them know that people of all ages wet the bed(including many adults) and a large number of these individuals wear diapers to bed.I would also let them know that there are cases where married couples deal with bedwetting and the spouse of the bedwetter requests them to wear diapers to bed. There are also situations where a parent has Alzheimer's disease.Since many Alzheimer's patients suffer from incontinence often the child of the parent will purchase adult diapers to manage the incontinence. I would tell the child or teenager that is embarrassed about their parents requiring them to wear diapers to bed about these types of situations. It might make them feel less embarrassed and ashamed about wearing the diapers.I have written a lot on the topic of bedwetting and diaper use and if people are interested they can post any questions they might have on the forum. I hope this helps parents who might want their older child or teenager to wear diapers to manage their bedwetting but are afraid that the child or teen will refuse.