Camp and bedwetting?

amother

Orchid

Tue, Jun 14 2016, 12:47 am

Hi,

My 10 year old is dying to go to sleep away camp this Summer. But he still wets the bed EVERY SINGLE NIGHT unless I take him to the bathroom in the middle of the night.

He has ADHD but aside from that, there's no medical reason for him to be wetting the bed. (aside from maybe sleeping too deeply)

Anyone have experience with this? he really wants to go but I don't see how...

studying_torah

Tue, Jun 14 2016, 12:57 am

I recall when I was a waitress , some of us slept in the campers bunkhouse. There was one kid who wet the bed every night, and it was not fair to the counselors, the bunkhouse always smelled, etc.
Plus, it's likely the other kids will make fun of your child.
Why not use this desire as an incentive to work on the bed wetting?

amother

Pumpkin

Tue, Jun 14 2016, 1:33 am

rachel6543 wrote:

Maybe something like this would work?

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Good.....about

I second that idea! One of my kids used it for sleepovers and it was great - the only thing I would suggest is to make sure he brings shopping bags along to dump them in before putting them in the trash to cut down on the smell. Try them at home first - if he leaks through those, there are disposable underpads that can be used under him too, but fellow campers may notice them Sad

There are also kinds that are made to go in underwear - almost like a maxi pad, but made for night time wear. I'm not sure which are more absorbent, so you may have to do some testing at home.

BTW, my pediatrician had mentioned that there are medications that can be used to cut down on nighttime wetting. We didn't go that route, but it might be something to discuss with your doctor, even if only for while he's at camp.

Have you tried any of the alarm training systems? If he's going for second half, maybe there'd be enough time for it to help. We used this brand for a different child (not sure if it's the same model) -

http://bedwettingstore.com/mal......html

Would you feel comfortable asking a counselor to bathroom him in the middle of the night? Can you trust the camp to be discrete about that request?

amother

Ecru

Tue, Jun 14 2016, 2:26 am

Some of my kids have suffered from bed wetting until their early teens. We tried everything - including alarms and medication. It was mostly a physiological issue that they had to grow out of. I would never send my kid to sleepaway camp without medicating them. Even if it's not long term solution, it'll help your kid get through the summer without dealing with this issue. Camp can be hard enough without other kids teasing or even worse. Because everyone will know from the smell. And kids are cruel.
Speak to your pediatrician right away bc he might refer you to a urologist for treatment. (my son actually needed minor surgery to help deal with this).
The medication suppresses production of urine. You have to stop drinking 2 hours before bed and take a pill (melts under your tongue) an hour before bed. The urologist also gave other instructions (no caffeine, carbonated drinks...)

amother

Burlywood

Tue, Jun 14 2016, 4:31 am

I am in Israel and went to Dr. Sagi http://www.bedwettingtherapy.com/. I had amazing results on a 9 yr old, 8 yr old, and currently working on a 6 yr old. He uses a combo method, but the alarm system he uses is very similar to the one posted. The advantage of his is that it has a Shabbos mode, so you don't have to break the training.

amother

Smokey

Tue, Jun 14 2016, 7:39 am

As a mother of an ADHD bed wetter, I didn't send him to camp at 10 as it's too young for an ADHD kid who will have a hard time following rules and has a high chance of being kicked out or not welcomed back next year. Unless the camp is geared to kids like this.
As far as bedwetting, I used medication about 2 months before camp to see if it worked and when it did, around 11 1/2 for me, I sent him. He was dry all summer, went back to bedwetting when off the meds at home.
He was also better able to handle camp and had a great summer,

amother

Aquamarine

Tue, Jun 14 2016, 8:10 am

I work at a sleep away camp. First is your child ready for camp aside from the bedwetting? How is his behavior, will you keep him in medication, etc...

We have a number of kids who are bed Watters each summer. The camp mother deals with all of that. Some kids wear those bid kid pull ups and she works out a method for them to dispose of them discreetly, others tell one trusted counselor about the bed and when the kids are out of the bunk, she goes in and washes the sheets and returns them also when no one is around.

So there are ways to deal, but you need to speak with the camp.