cim1@pyuxv.UUCP (G. Bogatko) (08/21/85)
My daughter has outgrown diapers, and is now into "big-girl panties". She was sleeping with these for a good while (about 2 months), and sometimes sleeps naked as well. Now, in the past few days, she has started wetting the bed. She asks for help going to the toilet, which we provide whenever she asks. She still wets the bed none-the-less. I realize that all kids go through this. Billy went through it. What we did then was tell him as kindly as possible that that was a bad thing to do. This didn't work. After a few nights of changing sheets, daddy turned into a raging beast with threats of going back to diapers, and just a lot of commotion. This worked. Is there some middle of the road method to get it across to kids that bed-wetting is not a fun thing to do? Something somewhere in-between kindly talk (it's not NICE to wet your bed) and godzilla (&$*#(*$ bed I'll &&$*#&). Thanks in advance.
rdm2@nvuxr.UUCP (R McBurnett) (08/22/85)
>From: cim1@pyuxv.UUCP (G. Bogatko) >My daughter has outgrown diapers, and is now into "big-girl panties"... >... She asks for help going to the toilet, which we provide whenever >she asks. She still wets the bed none-the-less. >... After a few nights of changing sheets, daddy turned into >a raging beast with threats of going back to diapers, and just a lot of >commotion. This worked. >Is there some middle of the road method to get it across to kids that >bed-wetting is not a fun thing to do? Being a Daddy who tried the "raging beast" routine (with absolutly no success) I found that what worked best for me was: a)pointing out that waking up in the middle of the night was lousy for everyone b)noting that Stephen's favorite pajamas got wet everytime he peed in them and c)encouraging him to "try" to pee before going to bed. (this lessened the frequency of wet beds but did not eliminate them. He almost always could pee.) We found that reinforcing the "wake up ...go to the bathroom and pee" idea just before bed also helped. It is no good to try to reason with a sleepy child, especially when you are angry about changing a bed. One other thing we tried (my mom's idea) was to tell a story (a-la "No More Diapers" by J. Brooks) that described *everyones* feelings before, during, and after. This had a limited effect but may have worked. Stephen is now 4 and I only have to change his sheets ~1 or 2 times a week. -Roe
smith@ccvaxa.UUCP (08/24/85)
We put our daughters potty chair in her room next to her bed as her own private bathroom. We did this because we finally figured out she was afraid to come out of her room because of the puppy (part horse) we had resently got at the animal shelter. It seems our "little" puppy got excited when it saw her at night and would jump on her. For when you are half asleep and little, a "little" puppy that's the same size you are can scare the you know what out of you! This solved our problem. Nancy J. Smith
djw@lanl.ARPA (08/27/85)
Keywords: We purchased the Sear's bed wetting gadget for one of our four children. It worked so well we used it with the last child also and sent it to my brother to use with his daughter who had wet her bed for > five years. It took less than two weeks to stop her. The gadget is an aluminized cloth with holes through it and two leads to a battery=>light=>buzzer in series. When the child pees, it completes the circuit and the light lights and the buzzer sounds which wakes daddy and I go and take Sara or Matt to the potty. No recriminations, just time to pee. The spots get rapidly smaller as the child wakes sooner and the deed is soon done. The thing cost about $45.00 and was so fast that it was worth 5-10 times that. **NOTE** If it doesn't work quickly, fix what's wrong. This is the only method I have ever heard of that will positively tell you if there is a physical problem without x-rays of the child's genitalia. If the child is emotionally responding to other trauma, the additional positive attention will help fix that as well. Love your child, Don't panic. Dave Wade
essachs@ihuxl.UUCP (Ed Sachs) (08/27/85)
>My daughter has outgrown diapers, and is now into "big-girl panties"...
Fret not, she will probably outgrow bed wetting. Our pediatrician
told us that sometimes girls do not have full bladder control in
their sleep until the age of five or six. Our daughter, Julia,
stopped wetting her bed before she started Kindergarten (just
barely).
--
Ed Sachs
AT&T Bell Laboratories
Naperville, IL
ihnp4!ihuxl!essachsavolio@decuac.UUCP (Frederick M. Avolio) (08/30/85)
After it seemed that my son *finally* could control himself -- went for a week or so without wetting the bed -- he'd start having accidents again. Nightly. Since 1) he now really balked at the ideas of going back to diapers and 2) we really hated changing his sheets nightly, I hit on a reward idea. I made a chart -- just a big grid -- and bought some small shiny stick-on stars and some of those puffy stickers (HeMan I think) and explained that he got 1 star for every dry night, one sticker for a row of stars, and a special toy for completing a star. It worked wonderfully. Oh, he';s had accidents since then, but any kid will. We have 4 charts or so on the refrigerator side... By the way. we decided against any black stars or "Mr. Yuck" or anything for "wet" nights. Fred
bobn@bmcg.UUCP (Bob Nebert) (08/31/85)
> took less than two weeks to stop her. The gadget is an aluminized cloth > with holes through it and two leads to a battery=>light=>buzzer in series. > > When the child pees, it completes the circuit and the light lights and Sounds OK but is the sheet , or whatever it is, washable. If not, after about three incidents in the summertime heat....PPPPPPPPUUUUUUU.:wq