Wetting beds

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  • #610037
    bob54
    Participant

    my son is going 2 sleep away camp and wets his bed everynight what should i do?

    #965370
    🍫Syag Lchochma
    Participant

    there is medication for that if he is 10 years old or over. Otherwise . . . are you sure it’s a good idea?

    #965371
    ☕ DaasYochid ☕
    Participant

    You shouldn’t be sending him to sleep away camp.

    #965372
    MDG
    Participant

    pull-ups, depends, absorbent bed pads (some call them chucks)

    #965373
    ajewfrommonsey
    Participant

    call the camp mother, they have great systems in place how to deal with it in a private manner so he doesn’t have to worry or be embarrassed, (hint – it involves two sets of identical linen)

    #965374
    bentor
    Participant

    did you discuss with his doctor? there is medication that may help a bit. not sure why you are sending him two sleep away camp – sounds like the decision is already made.

    as someone who experienced going to sleep away camp as a bedwetter i can offer some advice. Some years it was fine and some years were miserable. most camps have experience with this, be sure that you are in touch with the camp mother and the counselor to make sure it is dealt with every day in a sensitive way .- usually someone will change the sheets while the kids are out at davening or some other time when no one will be in the room. don’t rely on your son to communicate with his counselor he may be embaressed and there is nothing worse then laying in a cold wet bed in camp.

    if there is any way possible it would be better if he slept in a private room, like in the infirmary or in a staff room so that he doesn’t have to worry about his bunkmates finding out, but it is not likely that the camp will allow this.

    more importantly, make sure that your son knows thoroughly that this is not at all his fault and that this will go away as his body matures. He should be prepared with how to deal with it if some of the other boys find out. A large percentage of boys have “accidents” up till about age 11. Your son should not be ashamed.

    There are effective methods of training they body to wake up, specifically with alarms. These can be expensive but they do work especially with older boys. However, this is not an option for camp.

    #965375
    Torah613Torah
    Participant

    If your child still has issues with wetting the bed, s/he is not ready to go to camp, period.

    #965376
    flyer
    Participant

    it might be too late for this year but there is a bell that I used for my son – for bedwetting. It really worked for him and I’ve lent it to a few other people who have had success with it too. It rings when it gets wet and wakes up the child. It takes a few weeks but then they either get up by themselves or sleep through the night dry. It is amazing.

    #965377
    WIY
    Member

    Torah and others

    When I went to camp as a kid there was someone in my bunk who used to bed wet. It was kept quiet but some people caught on. However nobody dared make fun of him and since he was a nice guy he actually was very popular and accepted and did very well in camp made a lot of friends was good at sports and what not. There’s no reason a kid who is 10 or older with a problem should stay home.

    #965378

    I had a camper last year who wet the bed. It’s fine, just as long as you let the camp mother/nurse know and the counselor. But make sure that they know!!! Otherwise it can be problematic. I don’t know what others do, but we made sure she got the bed closest to the bathroom, and i woke her up first in the mornings so that if she needed to get to the bathroom first (so that nobody would see she was wet), she could do it as i was waking the others up. And it’s not so hard to take some wet sheets and throw em in the machine!

    also, just from the counselor’s side-bunk houses tend to smell. If your child generally tells me when there’s a problem, and I see that she’d rather I didn’t ask, I won’t, at least not every day. So if she puts her wet sheets in her laundry bag and i ask her if she needs me to do laundry for her/ does she need to change anything, and she says no, please do not scream at me when you come to camp and your child’s laundry smells moldy, and how could i not smell it and on and on… I have other campers, and like I said, the bunkhouse smells. I check, but depending on the child, I am not going to constantly hover. I can’t, and I’m not there to harass. (Obviously if she had been the kind of kid who didn’t tell me I would’ve questioned her. Some kids would rather tell, and some would prefer to be asked.) rant over. Sorry about that! 😀

    To all those who say he should not go to camp-this is not a reason.

    😀

    #965380
    MorahRach
    Member

    I have no experience with this, and please do not think I a being callous, but is it right to send a 10 year old to camp with the expectation that the counselor will want to change urine soaked sheets daily? This isn’t a Gan , or a bunk of little kids. I’m just trying to look at it from the counselor a point of view. Signing up to be a counselor to 6th graders, they probably don’t go in thinking of this as a daily duty. Good luck, I’m sorry if I offended anyone.

    #965381

    I would imagine that if you warn the camp ahead of time, they will let you know whether they are prepared to deal with it or if they would rather you just not send him at all.

    #965382
    MorahRach
    Member

    Jewfish feminist- good point!

    #965383
    mercury
    Member

    i 1 million percent disagree with everyone whos saying this child should not go to camp. are you the camp directors??? first of all you do not know his exact age. for whatever reason you are assuming hes 10. where did that come from? what if hes younger? i started to go to sleep away camp when i was 8. to me he sounds young-ish because if he was older and did wet his bed every night, he probably would have told his parents he didnt want to go. and if hes older? so what! these days so many kids have issues with something. guaranteed theres gonna be a kid in his bunk who has asthma or diabetes or is adhd or has severe food allergies and can eat very few things. camps and counselors are so accommodating to people with special needs. definitely DO NOT have him sleep in the infirmary. thats just begging for questions and extra attention where its not needed. but some of you guys sound so mean to say so blatantly that he should not go just because he has this issue. theres different reasons why he could be wetting the bed. sometimes its psychological and it could be because of a certain stressor at home. for all you know hell have so much fun in camp that he might stop. either way i would never want to take away the experience of going away to sleep away camp especially if the boy wants to.

    #965384

    I think many people are assuming he’s about 10 because most kids don’t go to sleep away camp when they are younger than 10.

    #965385
    Chaimy
    Participant

    Syag Lchochma made you think the age is 10 years

    #965386
    Achot
    Participant

    Bob54,

    A relative of mine had a similiar situation. Her son was 10 or 11 and ready for camp. She took him to a Uroglogist who prescribed DDAVP which is Desomopressin. The boy went to the camp nurse every night for his “allergy medication”. Obviously, the camp nurse knew what it was for. He had a wonderful summer except for one accident. He called his mother crying hysterically, she advised him to turn over the mattress put on dry linen and she went the next day and took care of things. ( washed the mattress,linenes, sprayed it with lysol etc). None of the kids knew. Apparently, he was not allowed to drink within an hour or two of going to sleep. He may have had too much to drink before going to sleep, because, otherwise, she said it worked wonders.

    Hatzlocha, I hope your son gets to go to camp and has a wonderful time.

    P.S. Nocturnal Enuresis (nightime bedwetting) is caused by overactivity or instability of the detruser muscle of the bladder. So, this issue is not his fault and he should not be deprived of the camp experience because of this.

    #965387

    Achot hit the nail on the head. medicine for bedwetting is available and works like a charm. Send your kid with some of that, and he should be fine.

    #965388

    Achot hit the nail on the head. medicine for bedwetting is available and works like a charm. Send your kid with some of that, and he should be fine.

    #965389
    🍫Syag Lchochma
    Participant

    I didn’t say he was 10, I said he can get medicine if he is AT LEAST 10. Or maybe your doctor gives to younger kids. Either way, I am NOT being mean in saying that maybe he shouldn’t go, I think it would be mean to send a kid to camp knowing his clothes and bed may smell and he may be harassed. Sure, you can change his sheets and wash them in the morning- in WHAT washing machine? and who has that kind of availability? It MAY not be a problem for your kid in that particular camp, but I sure wouldn’t recommend it across the board without looking into it really well.

    #965390
    bentor
    Participant

    I went to camp when I was quite young. I still remember the kavana I had at ten years old when I davened shema koleinu and said a personal tefila that I should not have an accident that night. It was probably the most sincere tefila i have davened. I had plenty of accidents kids did eventually find out and the were sometimes quite mean. I remember an incident when i was 12. We were playing baseball and my team was up. There was a bat lying right next to me. The boy who was up next walked over in front of everyone holding his nose while he picked up the bat If I had a choice there is no way I would send a kid especially if it is every night. The camp experience is great but it is not worth the trauma that I went through when kids decided to tease me. This is coming from someone who was good at sports and popular too. I am not saying that it will always be terrible but there is definitely a risk. There are plenty if kids that don’t go to overnight camp. If medication can take care if the problem that is great but it doesn’t work for everyone. If the child is old enough to want to help themselves you should definitely try the alarm method during the year.

    #965391
    freshieme
    Member

    im a ninth grade girl and im going to sleepaway camp in a few wks and i have a bedwetting problem. i also went to camp 2 yrs ago- that was my first time. before i went i thought i was pretty much cured but the first night of camp proved that i was not! thankfully, i had a rlly good counselor who helped me and no one found out. i did not inform the camp beforehand but when i had an issue they were extremely accommodating. i changed my sheets during activities and washed them in the infirmary. all i cud say is boruch hashem for sewage problems cuz thats what everyone blamed the unpleasant odor on!

    a bedwetting issue should not stop your son from going to camp– even if it is every night. if he’s young or the probs really bad make sure to alert the camp. you could get a lysol automatic air freshener “installed” in his bunkhouse before camp starts so it wont smell bad. make sure he has a good counselor. and get him medication and waterproof matress pads.

    good luck!

    #965392
    amichai
    Participant

    the counselors must be informed. if they can take care of it quietly, your son will have a great summer.

    #965393
    ☕ DaasYochid ☕
    Participant

    if they can take care of it quietly, your son will have a great summer.

    And if not, he will probably have a disastrous summer, with possible severe long term effects.

    It’s also unfair to the counselors.

    #965394
    oomis
    Participant

    I am against a child sleeping apart from his bunkmates. That sets him from the beginning as a weirdo and the camp experience will add way more stress to him. If he cannot sleep discreetly with some type of Depends pull up, or medication is not indicated, perhaps he is not ready for camp yet.

    Many kids are traumatized by camp when they have NO special issues. This one at age 10 is a biggie. Boys can be really cruel at this age. He should be restricting his liquid intake in thee vening altogether, and the counselor should wake him before he goes to sleep for the night himself, and make sure your son goes to the bathroom again. Other than than there is little that can be done. Hatzlacha.

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