How Was Your Bed Wetting Handled

[Kari]

I'm assuming most of us grew up as bed wetters.

In the last 15-20 years, kids and young adults have had the benefit of Goodnites & Pull Ups.

I'm a child of the 70's.

I was diapered in Pampers till I think I was "forced" potty trained around 2 or so.

But for some reason, Mom would just leave me at the mercy of a plastic sheet & humiliation after that.

If you are my age and got diapered, I say, consider yourself lucky.

Because waking up to a pee soaked bed sheets does something to your head as well as your self esteem.

I also wet my pants twice in 3rd grade due to a weak bladder and a teacher that I feared.

It's funny how those in charge will act as if nothing is wrong back then.

My son is well aware he is not the only one and it's not his fault!

In fact I sort of get on him when he says sorry.

What was your situation?

I'm glad to say, that If I feel physically (or mentally) weak, I have ability to make those choices I couldn't as a child.

So for me, being a DL isn't always sexual,

it's security my Mother couldn't provide due to ignorance.

I may have been a DL anyway,

but I really wish my real Mommy diapered me (even as a humiliation tactic).

Wet & pee soaked sheets are the worst!

Especially if they aren't changed the same day.

I'm thankful for the internet and this community.

I know there are reasons for the way I am.

And at the tender age of 42, I not longer feel shame and in fact will always embrace the compassion and understanding of fellow AB/DL's.

It's tough to be weird. LOL

[carla]

In our family, if you wet the bed, you wore a diaper until you were dry for 3 months. If it was an isolated accident, you wore a diaper the next couple of nights and if you were dry the in morning you did not have to keep wearing them. I had to wear them until I was 8 almost 9. It was no big thing for any of us to wear a diaper. It was just for protection, not punishment. I didn't like it when I had to be put back in diapers at 12 when I started wetting the bed again, but I am still wearing them now.

[Depends1578]

I wet the bed up until probably 10-12. I forget how long. I was given a plastic sheet, taken to the doctors for options such as goodnites, a "beeper" that would beep if I was wetting the bed, etc. Mom ended up going the goodnites route and that was back when they were plain white. I remember loving the feeling so much and sneaking one on during the day in my bed on weekends in the 1990's. I think this is how I became a DL. I felt so comfortable and safe. Speak of the devil, the GF picked me up some XL goodnites today. haha. Still fitting into them and wearin' !!

[dl_ashlee]

I don't know why you would assume that most of us are bed wetters, I was not and in fact have always had a really strong bladder.

[Vic]

My Mom started out by being okay about diapering me for the first few years. My Dad and my brothers made a big deal of it though, and I guess she caved in to them after I was about eight. She never even got me a plastic sheet, so every night I wet made the problem worse.

After awhile I was getting into a bed that was already wet. My brothers were always on me about the smell, and eveybody acted like I was doing it on purpose. I finally outgrew the wetting at 12, it took me much longer to get over the way the family handled it.

Oh well, it was a very bad time with a lot of abuse and crap, but it seems we all survived, well three kids out of five. You can change a diaper, but you can't change the past.

Peace,

Vic

[puffybedwetter]

I stopped wetting the bed at 12, at the mercy of my sheets, no protection!

but after an accident, I re lost my control at the age of 20 and now its been 23 years that I've been waking up with a wet diaper, even though I used to enjoy wearing them, now I kinda regret, but ohh well, it is what it is. Some times though it gets really frustrating especially when youre trying to look for a parter that will accept, and that she wont freak.

[peelover]

I have never wet the bed, I can hold it for hours.

[diapergirl80]

Bedwetting sucked when I was growing up. Diapers were not an option, but I have no idea why not. It's not like denying them made me stop wetting the bed any sooner.

I had a plastic sheet, and after a certain age (maybe 8-9) it was my responsibility to strip the sheets in the morning and drop all wet things in the washing machine. We did not talk about the accidents.

If I ever have kids and they inherit the bedwetting I will handle it differently. My parents never shamed me for it, but we could have all been a lot more comfortable and had less stressful mornings if diapers were used.

[sarah_ab]

I'm assuming most of us grew up as bed wetters.

You know what they say when you assume things...

i never wet the bed as a child. I chose to potty train myself around 18 months, because i watched my older brother use the potty and wanted to be like him.

First time i wet the bed i was 17, and it was because i was drunk and stoned and was to lazy to get up to go to the bathrooms. No trauma, no fear, no weak bladder, just lots and lots of alcohol...

[dmavn]

I wet the bed until I was 19, was dry for a few years and now it's been off and on since. Very weak bladder combined with bein a very deep sleeper.I was in pampers every night until I was 9, and then there was a doctor appointment with a know nothing doctor. 3 years of the wet alarm followed, never woke me up, but woke the rest of the family up every night. Eventually I was back in diapers every night for their own sanity and peace of mind.

[Horndog]

I can remember wetting the bed about once in my life. When I wet the bed the first time, I was about 8 or 9. That night, I had a cold and I consumed a lot of fluids before I went to sleep. I wasn't a chronic bedwetter.

[Guest diaperguy68]

i don't remember ever wetting the bed. once or twice maybe

[Bettypooh]

....After awhile I was getting into a bed that was already wet. My brothers were always on me about the smell, and everybody acted like I was doing it on purpose. I finally outgrew the wetting at 12, it took me much longer to get over the way the family handled it.

Oh well, it was a very bad time with a lot of abuse and crap, but it seems we all survived, well three kids out of five. You can change a diaper, but you can't change the past.

Peace,

Vic

My life was similar to this part but with pants wetting thrown into the mix- with no diapers to help My bedwetting was almost every night till I was 13-14 then slowly tapered off till it ended in my early twenties. That's not including nights when I went to bed drunk- almost always a soaker then My siblings gave me he!!, every morning was a lecture about my wetting, and I hated my life. Everyone knew about my wetting and I had very few friends. Doctors and shrinks were no help, nor was my Dad's refusal to let me have any form of protection- not even a mattress protector In my early teens after Dad died there was no money for a new mattress for me, so I finished my growing up on a rotted mattress with springs poking out, using whatever I could to cover them

That's all behind me now- the past torment, the drinking, the constant ridicule, all of it gone I had 25 'dry' years and now my body is failing me once again- the difference is that now I can and will have the diapers I need so I can lead as 'normal' a life as I want to

Bettypooh

[tndyperboy]

I wet the bed until I was 10 and my younger brother was the same. We were diapered until we out grew them; I think around age 6. That was in the era of cloth diapers with plastic pants. While I was diapered I don't remember much said, just that it was a phase and all. But when the diapers stopped it was waking up on soaked sheets. My father wasn't so understanding about it all; there was the bedwetting alarms (useless), punishment for wetting, rewards if dry. Except for how bedwetting was handled I had a great childhood, years later I asked my mother what was the big deal. Turns out my father also was a bedwetter and his father was really bad about it, spanked every time. Not that is an excuse but I know how much therapy my father went through in his 40's about his childhood so I have never asked about it again (his father died when he was 14 and apparently no one was sorry he was gone, very sad). I rarely talk about my bedwetting, my partner knows about it (not the disciplinary stuff) but that is about it.

My sister's children didn't have many bedwetting episodes but she just bought goodnights when it did and made sure there wasn't anything else wrong.

Anyway, I always connected my love of diapers to being diapered late and then the bedwetting. But that is just my own little theory.

[DailyDi]

I did a good job of hiding accidents. But when I got caught it was shame and beatings.

[turtlepins]

I wasn't potty trained until age 6 and hated going to bed without diapers. That only lasted 6 years, because at 12 I had my accident and I've been in diapers ever since. Reading what many of you said about how wetting the bed was dealt with makes me sad. I know as a parent if any of my kids were bedwetters their mom or I would have protected them from smelly wet messes to clean up all the time. It wouldn't have been all compassion! We couldn't afford new mattresses! I've heard the alarms aren't that effective and sometimes have unwanted side effects. But hey! I'm pro diaper! My wife/mommy sometimes says this when she's changing me in the morning: "Remember how I used to rant about my life being filled with pee? Is this your way of getting even?"

[leery]

I had this problem up until I turned 13. We never discussed about it though I was pretty scared of making things even more awkward by asking for some protection. Waking up wet at 3 AM in a house full of sleeping people is one of the scariest experiences I've had to constantly go through.

[bedwetter73]

I wet my bed till I was 19 then took a year or so off to start up again at my first apartment. I was given a rubber sheet that I used for traveling so I didn't wet everyone's bed but at home I slept on a water bed. It kept me warm so I didn't wake up cold and wet. I wasn't given diapers until I was 8 or so. Mom got me toddler diapers to tuck into my underpants. They soaked up most of the wetting but my bed still got wet. I was lazy and wouldn't change the sheets all week so I got used to the stale pee pee smell. I wet the bed and needed diapers but my mom only got me those toddler ones. My grandmother gave me Depends to wear when I was sleeping over her house. She even got me some snap-on plastic pants that held a soaker pad, from Salk. We had to go to a medical supply store to get them and they had to measure my waist for a good fit. What an embarrassment, being measured for those pants. But when I got back to my grandmothers house and put them on I was hooked. What a rush, that's why I loved visiting her, I got to wear diapers!

Check out my story that's posted here. It explains what it was like for me growing up as a bedwetter.

[rusty pins]

I was a bedwetter until I was 6 and wore cloth diapers and plastic pants every night to bed. Mom would tell me to bring her a diaper and she would diaper me in the living room before bed. She already had the pins and plastic pants, I just had to go get the diaper for her. I'm greatful that I wasn't teased, punnished or humiliated for having to wear diapers to bed. I personally feel that people who are punished or treated like a baby for having to wear diapers are more prone to end up as AB's or wanting punishment and humiliation as adults with this fetish. I became a DL because of wearing to bed every night but the only time I remember being punished was when I wet my pants in kindergarden when I was 5. Mom threatened to send me to school in a diaper because of it. That never happened and her anger ended later that day. I kind of wished sometimes that she had an accident and wet her pants so I could tell her she would have to wear a diaper the next day! After all, I was only 5 and she was much older so if she wet her pants then she should have known better! To my knowledge, I never saw her wet her pants! Anyway, it may have just been that in the 50's and early 60's it was much more common to put a bedwetting kid in diapers at night as the most common way of dealing with the situation. Perhaps diapers back then for kids may even have been more common in different parts of the U.S. than in others. Who knows?

[mike indiapers]

Both daytime accidents and bedwetting were the reasons why my mom insisted on keeping me in diapers. I wore diapers during the day and night until I was 6 years old and continued wearing them at night for another couple of years until my bedwetting stopped. I remember wearing both cloth and plastic pants as well as disposable diapers for trips and when in daycare/nursery school. My mom used to double diaper me for bed and sometimes even during the day and I remember how thick double cloth diapers were with plastic pants. I would wake up soaked but my sheets would be dry and the plastic pants were very good at keeping both the wettness and smell contained within. I was a child of the early 70s and it seemed common for parents to still be using diapers on their kids that wet the bed. By the time I reached 6 yrs old, I felt like I was the only kid my age still wearing diapers and potty trained so late in childhood. I am sure it is the reason I am an AB/DL today.

[Angela Bauer]

Because all the adult women of my immediate family were profoundly urinary incontinent, our home was diaper-friendly. My own memory only starts when I was nearly four. According to everyone, I was day dry at 30 months and night dry at 33 months. Like my older relatives, my bladder was tiny and over-active. Since Mom was in diapers 24/7, when she sweetly asked me to wear a diaper for a trip or special event, I never objected. It seemed natural. Same goes for the Dundee waterproof sheet on my bed, although I do not remember bedwetting at home as a young child. Sure, on a long car ride I would wet my diaper between rest stops. That was the purpose of such "Just In Case" diapers. At motels Mom would put one of my Dundee sheets on the bed, as she did for herself. In motel beds my older sister Penny frequently did wet her diaper. She also often wet while sleeping at home, so almost always was diapered for bed. At home I was only diapered for bed if I asked, which I seldom did.

Mom was anti-disposable and I was born in 1964, meaning I was 10 years too late for PlayTex stretchy latex baby pants, which went out of production in 1954. History tells us there were paper disposable diapers starting in 1945, but Mom did not buy a box of Pampers until 1972. That was before disposables had sticky tapes. Mom's mother, my Granny Vi, Had been kept in classic Curity 21x40 inch flat gauze diapers. Granny continued buying those even after the logo changed to Gerber until they stopped production. These days we all buy our adult gauze diapers from Adult Cloth Diaper dot com. Back in the day, Granny would sew two 21x40 diapers together to make a 40" square as her basic diaper. Granny used a zig-zag sewing machine until she bought a used industrial "Mini-Lock" multi-needle over-lock machine which is far better for gauze. Mom would use the older Curity diapers to make her own adult diapers, which were 40x60" yet still single layer. These days Granny and I, who are petite, use the ACD 36" square 2-ply gauze diapers, while Mom, Penny and our youngest sister Missy (who are larger) use the ACD 44" square. Inside those we all use ordinary Gerber Birdseye infant prefolds as stuffers. Of course all our gauze diapers are pinned. Penny was taught how to pin diapers on our younger sisters starting when she was 9 and I was 4. Usually on trips Mom or Aunt Betsy would diaper me. Then when Penny reached puberty and reverted to official nightly bedwetting, she was taught to pin on her own diapers. She was 12 at that time. When I was 9 Granny tried to teach me how to diaper Missy, then 4. By then I was already fascinated by typing and reading about the law, so I my never considered a reliable baby sitter. Missy yelled when I accidentally stuck her with a diaper pin. Still, when I reverted to bedwetting at puberty in 1976, Mom and Penny taught me to pin on my own diapers. It only took a few times stabbing myself for me to stay focused and alert while diapering-up for bed.

Betsy stopped living in our spare bedroom when my next younger sister Ruth was born. Until then while Betsy was going to secretarial school she was our afternoon babysitter. Eventually Betsy married and they bought the house across the street. Like Mom, Betsy believed in "Just In Case" diapers for her daughter Carole who is 2 years younger than Missy. Probably Carole had the largest and least-active bladder in the family. Carole was completely toilet-trained when they moved across the street. No so for Betsy's older son Matthew. He had enough day accidents (including pooping) that he had to attend a special-needs pre-school and kindergarten. At age 9 Matt still needed diapers for bed. Usually Penny was their babysitter when Betsy and her husband worked late or went out. In 1981, a couple of weeks before I was scheduled to move to my university dorm, Penny was on vacation. Betsy begged me to babysit that Friday, since Matt seriously objected to being diapered by any gal younger than 17. Betsy remembered that I had accidentally pricked Missy, but said if that happened to Matt it was a logical consequence of his being so obstinate. Her youngest son Nathan was then almost 5. Sure he wet every night but was not yet considered to have "delayed toilet learning" unlike Matt.

Unlike Mom, once Betsy had kids, she embraced Pampers for her kids although she wore gauze diapers herself. Of course in 1981 Sizes 5, 6 and 7 were not available, so Matt needed pinned gauze diapers. Fortunately I had started getting used to wearing Attends disposables to bed myself, so I only ruined 2 Pampers getting Nathan diapered. In fact I did not stab Matt while changing him. I detected slight disappointment when I reported this to Betsy. She was not in the least upset about the wasted Pampers.

Matt, Missy and myself are the only 3 of our incontinent generation in our family to use Adult Baby as a coping strategy. Matt never did gain night urinary control. Today he is happily married, profoundly urinary incontinent and a successful prosecutor in Nevada. Missy's daughter Karen turns 20 on 1 April. She reverted to bedwetting at 12, but still has good day control. Karen is a pre-med student living in a dorm with a good coin laundry so Karen can and does wear ACD gauze diapers to bed.

Growing up Granny bought her adult vinyl pants by mail from the Gerber factory in Three Oaks, Michigan, which became VIP. Mom bought baby and toddler Gerber vinyl pants at local stores while ordering the larger sizes by mail

[Honu]

I too am a bed wetter. It was handled in most of worst ways mentioned by others. For a long period I learned to deal with it by waking up as many times as necessary in the middle of the night. Now, with the privacy of my own house and an accepting wife, I finally get to go to bed in a diaper that can get me through the night. So, this short story has a good ending

[babymaggie]

I was actually potty trained early and my mom always bragged that my brother and I were dry at night before we were 2 yrs old. However when i was in grade school I had a close call with child abduction. When in the 4th grade while walking to school we were followed by this creepy man. Long story short I was pulled out of my class several times to look at mug shots. The man was caught and he was actually a convicted child sex offender. To this day I can still remember what he looks like and the color of his car. This was the second time I had been followed by someone walking to or from school and it made me very afraid of people. As a result I began to have nightmares and began wetting the bed. The bed wetting I hid from my parents because I was so scared of getting into trouble. While I don't think they ever found out about the bed wetting, I don't see how they could not have. I was wetting the bed at least 3 or 4 times a week. I just learned to get my dirty sheets and pajamas washed before they got home from work. I also put a plastic garbage bag on the bed to protect the mattress.

[timmyc]

from potty training until present day I am guessing I wet the bed maybe 5 times tops, so I wasn't what you would call a bedwetter. I wanted to, to see if I could get Pampers out of the deal, but I was always such a good boy. I tried the warm water trick unsuccessfully and subliminal suggestions on my brother a few times again unsuccessfully. It was sort of implied in my house that if you wet the bed you might have to wear Pampers the next night but it never really happened.

[Vic]

My life was similar to this part but with pants wetting thrown into the mix- with no diapers to help My bedwetting was almost every night till I was 13-14 then slowly tapered off till it ended in my early twenties. That's not including nights when I went to bed drunk- almost always a soaker then My siblings gave me he!!, every morning was a lecture about my wetting, and I hated my life. Everyone knew about my wetting and I had very few friends. Doctors and shrinks were no help, nor was my Dad's refusal to let me have any form of protection- not even a mattress protector In my early teens after Dad died there was no money for a new mattress for me, so I finished my growing up on a rotted mattress with springs poking out, using whatever I could to cover them

That's all behind me now- the past torment, the drinking, the constant ridicule, all of it gone I had 25 'dry' years and now my body is failing me once again- the difference is that now I can and will have the diapers I need so I can lead as 'normal' a life as I want to

Bettypooh

Yeah, childhood sucked. It's the reason I took up smoking and drinking when I was ten. Anyway, I used towels a lot to sleep on, I couldn't diaper myself with them, but it was okay to sleep on them.

In the morning I would put them and my sheets in the wash, but at night when I put the sheets back on the bed they just got wet because the mattress was always in some stage of drying out or not.

So I'd have to go grab a towel or two, after the mattress springs would come through the fabric I'd get a new mattress, but no protection for it! Bizarre rituals of the disfunctional family.

Now I'm diabetic and 50, and have been wetting the bed again for the last four years, to me it's no longer a big deal, I wear diapers and have protection on the bed. It's simplicity itself! When I sleep with a girlfriend they know about it and would rather I have diapers and protection than get wet. It's just part of me.

Peace,

Vic