Harry beats bedwetting before a school camp

My son Harry is eight years old now and despite being dry in the day since he was two, he had wet the bed most night until six months ago.

We’ve always tried to be very laid back about his wetting and took some advice from ERIC early on. The older Harry got the more concerned he was about having to wear night time pull ups. He’d get so upset and say “Only babies wear those things.”

At the beginning of Year 3, Harry brought a letter home from school about a camp to an outward bound adventure centre. It would have been very obvious if he hadn’t gone, so it focused us clearly on a date.

We knew we needed to tackle his bedwetting and get help.

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How We Helped

With the trip still some months away, I took Harry to see our GP to talk through some options. We followed everything the doctor suggested – made sure he was drinking well in the day and tried an alarm. Unfortunately Harry was still wet.

We spoke again with the ERIC helpline and we went back to our GP to see what else we could try. It was at this point that Harry was given Desmopressin tablets. He was dry within four or five days but to our dismay his wetting started again after two weeks.

That was the very worst point for us as a family and we found it pretty devastating. Having been given so much help and support in the past, I turned again to the ERIC helpline.

The person I spoke to was so helpful, calm and knowledgeable. She reassured me that this can happen with treatments and to just wait and give the Desmopressin a chance to work. To our delight, sure enough a week later (and having made sure he took his tablet every night) he was dry and has been dry ever since.

Despite this major breakthrough, Harry had a real wobble a couple of weeks before the school camp. He was so worried he might go back to having accident and for the first time said he was tempted to tell his friends.

I called the school and asked the teacher running the camp if I could supply a bedwetting mat that they could slip under his top sheet. The answer was no – he’d have to wear pull ups. I’ve never seen Harry so upset. In the end he wore a small pad in his pants and we had a dummy run to practice changing the pad at home beforehand.

 

Results

Through a combination of his Desmopressin tablet and having the pad in his pants ‘just in case’, Harry was completely dry on the school camp and has carried on being dry ever since. Harry is like a different boy now. He’s more positive, less anxious but the best thing is how proud he is at being dry – I don’t even mind if he wakes me up in the middle of the night to tell me he’s been to the loo!

The Helpline has been so useful to share our concerns with and get that reassurance of being on the right track. I think the work ERIC does is vital alongside educating ourselves and seeking help. It’s only now that we’re on the other side that his grandparents have opened up to say how concerned they were for us all. Bedwetting can have a huge impact on the whole family but I want to let other people going through it know that help is out there.

Elizabeth and Harry’s names have been changed for this story.

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