Bed Wetting - Depends?

[Shari]

Wee difficult child sleeps so hard that he wets the bed. He was dry until we started medications a couple of years ago, then rarely a night goes by that he's dry. He wears Goodnights, but they don't hold everything. Restricting fluids hasn't helped.
Does anyone have any experience with depends or something of the like that is more absorbent than the Goodnights? I change and wash and dry sheets every day, and its getting old. (I don't mind the sheets so much, but the blankets stink - they take forever to dry in the dryer.)

 

[Jena]

Shari

depends are amazing!!! i talked little difficult child who will be 9 in a few days into it adn life has changed........she still doesnt' really sleep that well takes hours of torture to get her down anxiety crying the whole gamit but hey at least she's dry adn i'm not one with the laundromat anymore

i even got the cheaper brand at i think walgreen their just as good small size. holds it all makes life a little simpler

so yes big fan try them

good luck

 

[Marguerite]

Also try taking difficult child to the toilet just before YOUR bedtime. Even if you have to sleepwalk the kid there and talk them through it as they sleep - it can help empty out at least SOME of what would go into the nappy.

I can sympathise with the 'sound sleeper" problem - both our boys are like this. difficult child 1 even sleeps with his eyes partly open, it has been known to freak people out. He was at camp once, someone else was talking to difficult child 1 as he seemed to be awake (eyes partly open) and was freaked out when difficult child 1 didn't respond. Took a bit for him to work out that difficult child 1 had been sound asleep the whole time!

Marg

 

[slsh]

I have yet to find an adult "diaper" that is decent in terms of absorbency. Boo is tube fed at night so we are dealing with a significant volume but... it's been a struggle. We use the Walgreens store brand (extra absorbent/overnight) with a Pamper insider as a liner. Does ok - not foolproof though. For the bedding issue, you know those Chux hospitals have? Quilted paper on one side, plastic on the other? I found them made out of fabric with flaps that tuck in on under the mattress. A member recently posted a similar thread, last week I think, and I did a better job describing them. I think if you do a google on bed liner flaps or mattress pad flaps you'll be able to find them. They're $15-20 and more than worth their cost. We used to literally wear out sheets from daily washing. Now I just wash the pad (I have 2 to alternate) and it's made things much more convenient. We've had these probably 5 years and they've held up extremely well.

 

[Shari]

thanks for the info!

 

[Klamg60]

Someone in this thread mentioned using a pamper as a liner in the Depends. When you mean pamper do you mean a Baby Diaper and if you do is there a particular size and way to use it as a liner. I am always looking for tips regarding how to keep adult diapers from leaking and this sounded intruging.

 

[slsh]

Klamg60 - yes, I mean baby diaper. I use the largest Pamper (size 6?). I place it inside the adult diaper and then make sure it securely covers the areas prone to leakage. The adult diaper essentially just holds the Pamper in place. We have yet to find an adult diaper that has any meaningful absorbency - they're mostly just tissue/fluff with the plastic outside - utterly useless. The adult diaper liners aren't much better. I've always found Pampers to be exceptional in terms of absorbency. We still deal with frequent nightly urine leaks and use the Chux-like rewashable pads, but the Pamper/adult diaper combo works very well during the day - I can't remember the last accident we've had. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions.

 

[buddy]

Do you all have this covered by insurance or do you have to private pay for that? When my son was over 4 and still having accidents our doctor wrote a script for diapers/pull ups and we had them delivered through a home medical company. It was a wonderful thing to find out. I dont know if you need a specific diagnosis and I do remember for us it had to be only if older than 4. He stopped needing them by age 8.

 

[Ktllc]

V is still wetting is bed almost every night. He probably will for a while due to his sensory issues.
I use cloth pull ups "happy heineys". Ordered them on the internet. I stuff them with some prefold diapers. I have 2 which allows to wash one while he uses the other. It has very rarely leaked (maybe 2 or 4 times and we have been using them for about 1 year).
They come as big as XL but are for kids. They are bulky but do the job and at $15/piece, I have saved A LOT of money already. Good pull ups runs at least around $0.47/piece. After 2 months it is paid for (if you buy 2 that is).
Having it covered by insurance would be a VERY good question to ask! They would probably only prescribe disposable though.

 

[slsh]

I believe Medicaid covers incontinence supplies (Boo is not on it yet), but we've never had insurance cover incontinence supplies.

 

[gcvmom]

Ditto to what Marg suggested. We had to do this for easy child, too. Although she was dry at night from age 5-7, she started up again and it lasted until she was 10 1/2. She just could not wake up to go on her own.

 

[Klamg60]

Slsh I was looking at Pampers in the store, and there seems to be 3 types in the Size 6, There is Baby Dry, Crusiers and Extra Protection. Which one of these do you use and are there any modifications you have to make to the Pamper to use it as a liner. I assume you do not use it the way you would on a baby.

 

[slsh]

We use Baby Dry, and no, we don't make any modifications. I think part of the key of their absorbency is to keep them intact - I would think if you cut it, it might just wick fluid out through the cuts. My son is probably 130-135 pounds. No way to actually fasten the diaper they way they're intended; he's just too big. I roll him on his left side, position adult diaper next to him and then put Pamper inside adult diaper. The back of the Pamper reaches about 3/4 of the way up his buttocks, or a smidge more, when I roll him back onto the diaper combo. The front of the Pamper covers his front completely. The sides don't even reach his hip bones, but that's not been a problem. I make sure Pamper is positioned snugly, then fasten adult diaper, which holds Pamper in place. Picture kind of an oversized sanitary pad.

The only problem we've ever had is if the Pamper is not smoothed out on the buttocks. My son is quadriplegic, so is unable to reposition himself. If there are any folds in the Pamper on the backside, it will aggravate his skin (from sitting on the fold).

Positioning it might be different on a female or a larger person - it's a matter of trial and error. Also, when I change him for the night, I tend to position the Pamper higher up his backside - front is still covered, but you've got gravity working against you when the person is lying down (he only sleeps on his back) so I aim for more coverage based on that. I wouldn't hesitate to use 2 Pampers if needed - expensive, but beats accidents. We've been using this strategy ever since he outgrew Pampers alone, so from about 60 pounds up to his current wt.

 

[susiestar]

I suggested this one the other thread, thought of it last night late. What about getting some of the super absorbent microfiber towels and using them inside the diaper? They truly absorb a huge amount of liquid and might be helpful. Of course they would have to be washed, and that is a hassle, but not as bad as washing sheets and blankets.

 

[Klamg60]

Slsh hope you had a Happy Holidays, I was reading your post and you mentioned the only problem you have out of the the Pamper is if there is a fold in it, what exactly do you mean by fold. What made you decide to use pampers this way as a liner.

 

[slsh]

The leg areas of Pampers have elastic in them so they fit snugly around babies' cute little chubby thighs, plus they have that extra bit of fabric around the leg openings to prevent leaks out the legs. I'm dealing with- man thighs now, LOL, so just have to make sure that the Pamper is as smooth as possible, with nothing that chafes or bunches up around the back thigh/buttock area. At one point, his school nurse wasn't smoothing it out and the leak-preventing bit of diaper was getting folded up over itself on the buttock, and we ended up with a shearing injury (basically kinda like a rug burn) from the combination of the folded up part of the diaper and them trying to slide him into his chair. I'm totally paranoid when it comes to skin health - as long as there are no folds or bunches in the diapers, we haven't had problems.

Basically, we decided to use them as liners because adult diapers are about as absorbent as a tissue, and the adult "liners" just didn't cover enough area. Pampers got us through a decade of babies, with virtually no skin issues and good absorbancy, so I decided to stick with- what works, with modifications.

 

[Malika]

Don't want to state the obvious, Shari, but have you thought of waking Wee up once or twice during the night? I'm sure you've had your own experimentation with this but I say it because J has also had a lot of problems with bedwetting. Some of it must be psychological because he was dry during the night when he was sleeping on a mattress in my room - then he moved to his bed in his bedroom and he started wetting again. So, because in our particular case going back to putting diapers on him would be a retrograde step and one that he in any case refuses, I wake him up once or sometimes twice a night to use the potty. He is of course very sleepy but does it and this means that he doesn't wet the bed. The timing has to be right though. For about the last week, he has started waking up himself and going to the loo so I wonder if waking him up is creating some kind of reflex habit?
Anyway, this may not be applicable to you but fwiw, I share it.

 

[AnnieO]

So, Shari... Anything changed with this since you first posted it almost 4 years ago?

 

[slsh]

LOL - sorry guys. This is a moldy oldie post. Klamg60 and I should take it to PM.

 

[Klamg60]

I left you a PM