Reply from Tom, Child's Age none - 3/13/02 - IP#: 159.39.16.14

Bob, you raised several interesting points. About the poll results, the numbers of those that choose diapers is not really that much higher than those that choose alarms, and very few would risk a wet bed. Most kids don't like to be awakened during the night (I know that my own don't) and, given a choice, would prefer to use a diaper than an alarm. I think that is understandable and doesn't indicate a diaper fetish at all, but simply means that most kids think that sleep is more important than staying dry. I also need to use the bathroom during the night, but unfortunately, I am a heavy sleeper and usually don't wake up. I was a regular bedwetter when I was young and my mother tried an alarm device, but it would wake her up in the next room and not me. Alarms work for some people and not for others. Bedwetting is considered by some doctors to be more a sleep disorder than a bladder control problem. Very heavy sleepers that sleep through the signal that their bladder is full often sleep through the alarm as well. I stopped bedwetting at age 12 when my system finally developed enough capacity to make it through the night. You said that it is hard to wake up from a deep sleep but we learned to do it; but I can tell you that there are some of us who never learn to do it - we just reach the point where we don't need to wet during the night. I was fine until I got to the age where most men need to get up and go at night (I'm nearly 60), and now I am a bedwetter again. I now use diapers at night from necessity. Contrary to what Adam said, I don't use the diaper if I happen to wake up, I get up and use the toilet even if the diaper is already wet. Every little bit that doesn't go in the diaper reduces the risk of a leak, and to me it's important to keep the bed (and my wife) dry. I have mixed feelings about wake-up training for children. On one hand it works for some kids, but on the other hand it seems to be treating the symptom rather than the underlying problem. People - kids and adults - that wet the bed do it because they can't get through the night without wetting. The normal situation is for your system to be able to make it through a period of 8 - 10 hours of sleep without having to go, and very few older children and adults need to get up during the night on a regular basis. It takes time to reach that point and until then it might be best to just use diapers until nature takes care of the problem. I don't think that creates a dependence on or fetish about diapers.