An extremely embarrassing question: bed wetting

[Dr.Girlfriend]

Okay, luckily, this is my youngest kiddo with this issue. He's 2, and we use night diapers. EVERY SINGLE NIGHT he pees through them. It's horrible. He wakes up soaking wet and the sheet and mattress (plastic covered mattress) are soaked. He's in the largest available night diapers and we limit liquids as we get closer to bedtime, but he still manages to completely soak the full diaper and himself.

I'm very worried about this on our trip next month. Mainly because I'm going to be very embarrassed if he pees through the sheets, the blankets, etc. and I'd feel bad if our stateroom host has to deal with it. I bought a plastic mattress cover to put on the mattress in the hopes that if he does soak through (which I pretty much know he will), it won't soak the mattress.

Anyone have any advice/ideas? I feel bad that he wakes up every morning drenched in pee but we have no ideas what to do. Even using those overnight bed wetting fake underwear things don't help!

 

[drparoo]

Have you talked to your doc about this? Does he drink a full bottle before bed, or in the middle of the night?

 

[allonte]

Look into Diaper Doublers (aka disposable diaper liners). They'll help absorb more liquid.

 

[Dr.Girlfriend]

Have you talked to your doc about this? Does he drink a full bottle before bed, or in the middle of the night?

Pedi says that some kids just urinate more than others. Weirdly, he tends to do it more so at night that he does during the daytime.

No more bottles, and we limit his liquid from about 5 p.m. until bedtime at 7:30 p.m.

 

[cph706]

I for one do not see any need whatsoever to be embarassed about bed wetting at any age but especially at only 2! My very bright and able DS (now nearly 13) soaked his pullups every night until he was 6. Then he just stopped. One thing that I found helped a little were liners (sort of like feminine pads) that you could put "in front" to add to the absorbance of the diaper. If you were really worried about the extra work for housekeeping, you could strip the bed each morning & have the sheets/blankets etc. in a ball ready for the staff to throw into the laundry basket.

Hope it's a great trip for you!

 

[kittycruize]

I had the same problem. I got up like clockwork every night for many years and took my son to the bathroom about midnight or 1 am. It really helped! Also, ice cream seemed to always make him go even more! Do you limit his intake after 6 pm? I had to do that also. I always felt so bad for him, because I knew he couldn't help it. I really tried not to make an issue of it as he got older, as I knew he was embarressed! You could lay a towel underneath him also.

 

[Dr.Girlfriend]

Look into Diaper Doublers (aka disposable diaper liners). They'll help absorb more liquid.

I have never even heard of those before. Where can you buy those?

 

[3monkeys4me]

A heavy night wetting 2 year old is why we switched to cloth. For him I used motherease cloth dipes, with a wool cover over and we never had a leak.

Have you tried a diaper doubler? They make them for disposible diapers too. Really all it is though is a giant overnight maxi pad (like the ones used post partum)

Also, fleece jammies will be harder to leak through than cotton or flannel which will absorbe the fluid.

I would probably try a test run with an overnight diaper (possible one size bigger than he has been using, moving up a size, even if the diaper seems to fit sometimes helps) diaper doubler/maxi pad inside and fleece jammies.

I hope any of that helps. My son eventually potty trained at night but not until he was 5.

ETA: I know they sell the diaper doublers at toys r us/babies r us. I am sure you can find them online too.

 

[dursin]

Does he normally go right before bed? If not, perhaps there's some way you could coax him into doing so. As the previous poster ask, is this something you've discussed with your pediatrician? Perhaps they would have suggestions.

 

[HallsofVA]

I have actually heard that the stateroom hosts have a waterproof cover they will put on the bed if you tell them there is a bedwetting concern. Could save you some baggage, or give you another option should the one you bring from home become soiled mid-trip, other than you having to do laundry onboard. (though you might be washing PJs anyway.)

 

[CocoaCup]

I agree with the double diaper idea. Or maybe an adult diaper type pad. Maybe do some experimenting with the different items.

 

[Weedy]

My son had the same problem (actually he was 4 at the time) I found out he was dry most of the night and was waking up in the early moring and going then. You may want to try and catch him when he is first waking up and see if he has wet the bed yet.
It will be extra hard on the cruise because of alllllll the extra food and drinks.

 

[jac1976]

First of all, I totally understand how you are feeling. My 5.5 year old still soaks through his nighttime pull ups every single night, and we are headed out on our cruise in March.

I am bringing one of those waterproof sheets that go on top of the sheets, so if DS does leak it doesn't get on the bed or even on Disney's sheets. I plan to bring warm PJ's and DS's blanket to limit our use of the Disney linens. (Because yes, I get embarrassed even though our doctor assured us it was a developmental thing and that there is nothing to be embarrassed about.)

I don't know if you are familiar with the world of cloth diapering at all, you can always try putting a diaper cover over his diaper. It will just add another waterproof barrier. I like wool covers as wool is natural, breathable, and has antibacterial properties. The PUL covers are easy to clean with a quick wipe down. Wool doesn't need to be washed daily, but it does take a long time to dry when washed. Here is a link to show you the different kind of covers I mean.

 

[allonte]

I have never even heard of those before. Where can you buy those?

There are a bunch of different brands on Amazon. Good luck!

 

[stephent92]

Don't worry about your trip... when you work with kids you expect things like this. You are not the first (by a long way), or the last. Let your stateroom host know when you board - I know that they had mattress protectors back in the day (if you don't want to talk to them about it, just leave a note). What you can also ask for is for them to leave spare sheets and a couple of 'Yellow Bags'. They will know what you mean. The yellow bag is a 'Bio Hazard' bag, sounds awful but because the sheets would have body fluids on them they need to be dealt with specially. You will see many-a-parent walk out of the kids clubs with a child in a very long DCL T-shirt carrying one of these bags!

Your kiddo will be fine in the long run, the stateroom crew have been thru this many times before, and you will have a great cruise. Don't worry about it.

 

[syng0]

I had this problem during my past cruise in December. We had to call housekeeping 2 nights our of 4 nights since we have not had any bed wetting problems at home for my 4 year old in the longest time but it happened during the cruise ! He was too tired to even know he needed to wake up for potty. I was really embarassed the first night but the mousekeeper was quite nice about it. I confirm they do have a layer in the bed that mousekeeping can just strip and replace. I saw them do it twice. I made sure I gave him extra tips both time as soon as he changed the matress. It was no problem at all !

 

[jxd]

My 8 yr old son still has trouble at night. We told our stateroom host and he put a plastic liner underneath the sheet on the first night during the turndown service. After that he put a waterproof protector on the bed and we were fine. We had one wet night and our host was very understanding. I did strip the bed for him and it was no problem. You will be fine...you may have a little extra inconvienence with your laundry but I wouldn't worry.

 

[Dizzyworld]

Check your PM box.

 

[Pixieflip]

My son had the same problem (actually he was 4 at the time) I found out he was dry most of the night and was waking up in the early moring and going then. You may want to try and catch him when he is first waking up and see if he has wet the bed yet.
It will be extra hard on the cruise because of alllllll the extra food and drinks.

We've been there, too. We had one wet the bed every night until he was 9 or 10 and still a few times a week till he was about 12. In addition to walking him to the bathroom before we went to bed around 11pm and waking him up before he wakes up and relaxes and goes in bed, we also used those big 36" square waterproof hospital pads. With four deliveries, I collected quite a few! Just put it right on top of the sheets where he sleeps. And they are super easy to grab and wash, even in a hotel/stateroom sink, give it a quick rinse and hang it to dry for the next night. Better than all the bedding getting wet with a waterproof mattress cover underneath the sheets. If the top sheet gets wet, well, that's not as difficult to replace as the whole bed.

Good luck and have fun on your cruise! Hope all is dry!

 

[Erickson99]

This is a very common thing with boys....our pediatrician said it can happen up until they are 10/11/12 years old. Our DS 7 still uses the Goodnights at night just for this reason. Although in the past few months I am noticing it is not as soaked through so I am hoping this is starting to subside.

I am just going to bring a few extra pads for the beds, extra Goodnights and hope that it isn't too much of an issue. For a 2 year old I wouldn't worry much about it.