Birthday Sleepover

My son has just come home in floods of tears. His best friend is having a sleepover 10th birthday party with a group of other friends. He would love to have gone, but it is just not possible. He is still very wet every night. We have tried all sorts of medicines, charts and alarms. Nothing has come close to working. I was going to wait until the summer holidays before trying the alarm again, because last time we tried it, it disturbed his sleep so much that he was exhausted during the day. Bedwetting is such a wretched thing for children to have to put up with. I think I'll suggest to him that he goes to the party during the day, comes home at night and then goes again first thing in the morning. However, if anyone has any ideas, I love to hear them!

[TwoDividedByZero]

Presumably he wears Dry Nites or similar, so hopefully that should help with it a bit, though they now leak with my 13 year old. The ERIC shop has sleeping bag liners - I haven’t tried these myself as my son hasn’t been on a sleepover, but that could be an idea?

Can you speak to the parents of the birthday boy to explain the situation and get their co-operation in giving him some privacy to take the Dry Nites on and off, roll up the sleeping bag and so on? I bet there will be other boys there with similar problems too!

My son boards at his special school two nights a week and the staff there have been brilliant with making sure the other boys in his room are unaware that he sleeps on a mattress pad and wears a Dry Nite and often has wet PJs in the morning. Hopefully they will be understanding parents?

If not, just let him stay as late as possible and claim a family commitment in the morning (i.e.putting the washing machine on!) means he can’t stay all night!

[Hidden in reply to TwoDividedByZero]

Thank you for your reply. It is so difficult knowing what to do for the best. He went on a school residential recently, which went off fine because he had an amazing teacher, who helped him enormously. I am not totally convinced that his friend's mother would be quite so understanding - you know the type!!

[TwoDividedByZero in reply to Hidden]

Ah, shame - but sometimes people are actually hidden gems behind the ‘alpha-mum’ exterior! If you can’t gauge what her reaction will be if you broach the subject, then see what happens when you say he isn’t able to stay, but don’t give a reason - she may ask why and if there is anything she can do, at which point you can ‘fess up’ about the issue - then be guided by her reaction - if she looks shocked, then I guess it’s a no go, but she could equally say that it’s not a problem and her own son has an issue, or that there is another boy who stays regularly who has it, and so on and so forth! The more of us who are just honest about this to other mums without shame makes it better for everyone! It’s not as if the other boys need to know.

[Hidden in reply to TwoDividedByZero]

Ah, thanks for the advice. I will discuss it with my son to see what he wants to do. I suspect that he will ultimately want to come home in the evening.

[SallyandPaul]

Bless you both, only to say that Eric do special pyjama bottoms that absorb everything. They are expensive but might be worth it. Good luck xx

[Hidden in reply to SallyandPaul]

Thank you for your suggestion. I will at those now.