That means that a child or adult can have an accident, and even hours later, the odor will not be present.
The underpad comes in 5 sizes. I highly recommend the Medium with Wings for children who sleep in twin beds. The wings secure the pad in place, even with children’s movement during sleep. The other larger sizes work well for Full or Queen size beds.
Even popular musicians have been bed wetters! In today’s interview with Ellen DeGeneres, “Diddy” Combs revealed that he used to be a bed wetter. He mentions the association of his bedwetting and mostly drinking sugar-laden Kool-Aid as a kid. He was on the show promoting his new water brand, AQUAhydrate, and used the example of his bedwetting to emphasize that water, not sugary drinks, helps bodies in more ways than one.
Both sugary drinks and food coloring have been implicated in contributing to nighttime wetting. One school of thought is that sugared beverages may increase urine production; another is that kids drink more if the drink is sweet. Another possibility is that the food coloring in the Kool-Aid affected his bladder. In some people, food coloring can make the bladder more irritable.
Whatever the association, I do agree that drinking plain water is much healthier than sugary drinks with food coloring. I don’t know that changing beverages is an automatic cure for bed wetting, but it is a positive step that I recommend in my book, “Seven Steps to Nighttime Dryness” and for my patients. It’s a simple step that any family can implement.
Combs mentioned how proud he was the first time he didn’t wet the bed at a sleepover. That feeling of pride when a bed wetter has a dry night is still something I hear about over and over again. Drinking water, having a healthy diet and regular stools are all important. If these changes do not solve the problem, bed wetting alarms (which Coombs probably did not have access to) can help speed up getting to dry nights.
Here are some suggestions beyond those listed above that help end bed wetting in school-age children.
-Make sure there are no urological reasons for the bedwetting. A urinalysis and visit with your health care provider should rule this out. 97% of bedwetting children do not have bladder or kidney problems.
-Insure that your child has a soft stool every 1-2 days. Ask him about his bowel movement frequency. Increase his fiber intake, either by foods or supplements, so that he feels the urge to have a bowel movement every day. Increasing fluids during the day also helps with this.
-Make sure he or she drinks enough during the school day. They should feel the need to urinate at least twice while at school if they drink enough. Doubling up on fluids during breakfast and lunch and taking a water bottle help with this. Well hydrated children feel less of a need to drink more in the evening.
-Begin using a bedwetting alarm every night. This will sense the wetness and sound so that they begin to realize when the wetting is happening. This is the first step in putting together the important brain-bladder connection. Over time, their body will begin to associate a full bladder with waking up or holding on until morning. Learning to stay dry at night is a process and does not happen overnight. Initially, many children even sleep through the loud sound so parents have to help wake them. Signs of progress are smaller wet spots in bed, less frequent wetting and wetting closer to morning. Chart when the alarm sounded and the size of the wet spot in the bed. Your child can see how well they are doing by looking at previous weeks.
Wireless bedwetting alarms are well-suited for older children because they have to get out of bed to turn off the alarm. These alarms can also be ordered with a receiver for the parent’s room, which is helpful in the beginning. The average child takes about 10-12 weeks to get to complete dryness (14 consecutive dry nights). When the alarm is used long enough, he or she becomes permanently dry with little relapse.
