Wearing = Wetting?

[Baby Mommy]

During my childhood (1970's) doctors used to counsel parents of bedwetters not to diaper the child at night. Any child out of diapers during the day, they said, should also be in regular underwear at night. Just protect the bed with a rubber sheet. (Interesting to note how doubtful it was that the doctor would be willing to come over and help with the laundry.) The thinking was that diapers at night would prolong bedwetting by creating a psychological comfort zone and taking away the incentive to be dry.

Well, I seem to be adding fuel to that fire.

I had always been reluctant to wear disposable diapers, figuring since I don't usually wet every night, it would be a waste of money to throw away a dry diaper just because it's not "fresh" any more, and you can't wash it like you can your underwear. Since I am now living in an apartment without laundry facilities, and doing my washing in the bath tub, a recent UTI prompted me to go ahead and wear disposables at night. Recovering from the UTI, I'm no longer wetting every night, but I'm still at maybe two wet nights to one dry, as compared to my lifelong pattern of one wet night every two or three weeks.

Looking back, even with hospital stays, sleeping in hotel rooms or at someone else's house, and other times I have worn a diaper "just in case," I can see that the more often I wear one, the more likely I am to wet. I *am* sleeping more soundly, now that I know I am protected and won't have to go through the tremendous physcial effort of washing my sheets. And instead of waking up cold and wet in the middle of the night, I am sleeping longer, sometimes all the way through to morning. I guess that this is what the doctors were thinking, about the psychological comfort zone.

Also, as per my other thread about diabetes, I have scrapped the conventional "wisdumb" of limiting my liquids. If I'm thirsty, I drink something, even if I'm just about to go to bed. I am sure this is also contributing to the increase in wetting.

But, is it really such a bad thing? Isn't it better to have a higher quality of sleep, even if it makes it more likely I'll wet, than to sacrifice good sleep in order to stay dry? The tradition that I grew up on says I should protect the bed, not myself, and limit my liquids after supper. Well, personal experience is telling me that if I haven't outgrown bedwetting by now, I never will, so why make myself uncomfortable?

And yes, doctors are still giving some of that advice. The one I go to now did OK the diapers, but I'm still occasionally hearing that crap about not having liquids after supper.

I'd be interested to hear others' opinions. Does wearing a diaper, versus just protecting your mattress, increase the likelihood of being wet? Or is there a connection at all?

[Pipsqueak]

I'm not a bedwetter, but I would think that getting a good night's sleep and staying properly hydrated is better than not wetting and not drinking fluids after dinner. Lack of proper sleep can affect your health in many ways, not to mention your ability to do your job well during the day. You know that you'll probably wet at least a few times a month, so why not be protected at all times and be comfortable and well-rested?

As for whether wearing diapers at night has contributed to wetting more, I'd say probably yes, because now your subconscious doesn't always have to be on high alert for signs that you might wet. You know you're protected when you're wearing a diaper so the "worrywart" part of the brain in charge of waking you up at the first sign of possible wetness, can relax and let you sleep through it.

[diapercj]

That was one of my biggest fears when I first got into wearing diapers again. I thought that I wouldnt be able to not wet the bed because I had been a bedwetter until seven and didnt stop until I told my mom I wanted to try sleeping in regular underwear. Needless to say, I stay dry even while wearing a diaper at night. But the fear was there until I put it to rest.

[Simba]

Society has a lot to answer for in our case! The stigma of a 'dry bed', 'out of nappies quickly', 'don't drink after supper to get a good night's sleep' and all that nonsense is literally just that... NONSENSE!!!!

Over recent years I have really valued a good night's sleep without getting up at least twice. After a disastrous relationship and living alone for the past 4+ years I now have the freedom to wear nappies every night and use them, and what bliss. My mattress is protected with a PVC sheet, I wear thick terry nappies and plastic pants - and I love every minute of it.

My sleep is brilliant, only semi-waking to use the nappies. The freedom to drink when I'm thirsty, no matter what the time is, the freedom of letting my urinary system keep 'flushed' by weeing when the system 'says so' rather than holding it in until I get to a bathroom has got to be healthy. So I'm using nappies in the daytime too.

Do I care what doctors and society says? I just don't flaunt it!

Good topic, Baby Mommy

Simba

[rusty pins]

I'm not incontinent but once in a while I wear a diaper to bed. I always wake up when I have to pee and I usually wake up about 3 or 4 times a night. I do have sleep apnea but since I breath through my mouth (lung problems too) I will get a drink of water when I get up to pee because my mouth is dry. I'd rather get a drink and have to get up to pee than have a dry mouth and throat. Also, as one who used to drive 65 miles to and 65 miles from work each day in a busy interstate, I will say good sleep is the most important! I'd rather wake up in wet diapers every morning and have a good nights sleep than to drive tired! There are too many accidents and deaths caused by car and semi truck drivers who fall asleep or are too drowsy to be alert. I have about fallen asleep a couple times myself in the past. Wet diapers will not cause you to be ingured or killed like driving when sleepy!

[drynot]

I know that I cannot sleep comfortably without wearing a diaper. I wet so frequently that I worry about even taking short naps. It might be completely psychological but the security that wearing diapers provides far outweighs any other concerns that I have about bedwetting.

[ThomasInWVa]

After I had my auto accident and I was only partially incontinent, I too wondered if wearing a diaper would cause me to me ‘more’ incontinent. I did not find that to be the case.

I did sleep better knowing that I didn’t have to worry about wetting the bed. Usually I would not wet the bed. Plus there were times when I would intentionally use my diaper at night because getting out of bed would be painful and it would be very hard to get back to sleep. Even that didn’t cause the problem to get worse.

Except of the fact that thick nighttime diapers can cause back issues, I don’t believe that wearing a diaper at night can cause you to wet the bed. It doesn’t matter if it is cloth or disposable.

Of course some people are different and I could imagine how wearing a diaper could cause someone to become more incontinence or even loose full control. But I would imagine that if you were such a person, you would already know.

If you might pee or leak at night I suggest you wear some sort of protection. Plastic sheets are not enough. You can easily soak your bedding and wake up freezing. The important thing is to get a good nights rest. If you tend to wet your diaper at night but sleep well, it may be worth it.

~ThomasinWVa

[babykeiff]

This might answer the question in relation to wearing and wetting, is there a link.

Night Time Usage

Sleep wetting is caused by a number of factors all in relation to the excessive production of urine. What I mean is wetting while sleeping is caused by

1 - Reduced production of ADH

The body produces ADH to reabsorb lost water in the kidneys. As a person grows, more is produced during periods of rest. Therefore, the bladder can contain the urine that is produced over a longer period of time. Otherwise, the body will naturally expel urine as the presure increase.

2 - Weak spinchter muscle. If the bladder spinchter muscle does not fully close without contious thought (it is closed autonomically) when the body relaxes, the muscle will relax and urine will weep.

There are many more causes of nocturnal enurises (sleep wetting), but these are the major two. The rest only result from a medical or physical condition.

Therefore, diapers at night alone do not contribute to sleep wetting. Actually, diapers at night remove stress from the person ensuring an unintruppted sleep. This allows the growth and developement of the relavant controls.

Will a prior-trained individual revert to the same loss of control he/she had as a baby - if wearing diapers, and comfortable wetting them then the answer is yes. The body learns, or more correct remembers, that it does not have to produce ADH at night. The two effects are wet diapers and constant movement in bed while you sleep. This is exactly how a baby sleeps, constantly re-enacting what happened during its hours of wake. ADH's secondary function is to focus the mind, and since you have reduced this, your mind will focus otherways.

Day Time Usage

This is a seperate subject since this is under your control, once you have been taught. However, if you have never been taught, you simply do not know how to control your sphincter muscles, and wil void at your bodies wishes.

If you have been continent in the day, and have lost night-time control, at periods of deep thought, you will also start to loose daytime control. Continous wearing of daytime diapers will teach your body that it is ok not to hold your eliminations, and your sphincter muscles will eventually become weak and stay open. At that stage, you will either have to go through a set of Kegel exercises to re-strengthen the weakend muscles, or wear diapers from then on. The longer you are in diapers, the more the muscles will athropy. You body will eventually stop feeding blood to these muscles (to conserve energy) as they stay open. At that stage, there is no way you can ever be trained. The muscles are to all purposes, dead.

Summary

Wearing diapers alone at night will make you night-time incontinent, but if you wear diapers in the day also, you will become totally incontinent.

Diapers alone during the day will not cause incontinence as you are wetting/messing them under contious control.

Wearing diapers due to a slight incontinence problem does not excagerate the problem. It allows the body to heal the problem without stress. Also, becoming incontinence is a frame of thought. If you have a slight problem, and are wearing diapers to help, and wish not to, your body will heal if it can. However, if are comfortable in diapers, and you wish to wear, you body will also succumb to your wishes and turn that wish into a need.

Side Note

Personally, I have been incontinent from birth. see my introduction At certain times, I wish I could stop. Being totally incontinent from once being continent, as I have read from other forums, tend to turn the pleasure of wearing and using diapers into a need. I find the pleasure in the baby treatment, rather from diapers. I do hope that the people who are continent that are going down the path towards incontinence have exammined all the negatives. The include being banned from certian swimming pools etc, carefully choosing your clothing so to avoid the diaper bulge, constantly worrying about the state of your diaper, dealing with diaper-rash, and the hard one-trying to explain to a 3 year old why it is better to be grown up and use the potty when you can't, dealing with a leaking diaper and soiled furniture - usually not your own, explaining to business associates what the smell is, trying to change a diaper in a public bathroom (removing your shoes - to get your pants and plastic pants off, and standing on a cold and wet floor not knowing, and not wanting to know what the liquid that your standing in is), and been treated as a second class citizen, living with a disability, the stares you get from other shoppers as the smell from your diaper wafts about.

Edit: Rereading this it can be slightly confusing so I simplify it -

Diapers will NOT cause/exagerate incontinence unless that is what you want. It is more a question 'will you willpower cause incontinence or not?' and the answer ito both is yes. Your body will behave the way you want it to. Heal you if it can & you want it, or exagerate the problem if you want it.

[dldad]

Was nice to see from one who is incontinent, the drawbacks to be so. It is one thing to think about the negative aspects of being so, and living it. I am looking forward to getting my own apartment, going through a divorce and selling our house. Will be sorry to not have a garden for the fresh vegetables, but won't mind having extra time on my hands for a change. Have had my own house since 1979. And though I have been married for 18 years, have gotten awfully tired of taking care of the house, yard, garden, shopping, most of the laundry and a great deal of the house cleaning. And have been a DL for a few years. She has not partaken, but not said anything about my using them. Will be looking forward to real freedom to wear and use as I preaty much like.

[Dill_Pickle]

During my childhood (1970's) doctors used to counsel parents of bedwetters not to diaper the child at night. Any child out of diapers during the day, they said, should also be in regular underwear at night. Just protect the bed with a rubber sheet. (Interesting to note how doubtful it was that the doctor would be willing to come over and help with the laundry.) The thinking was that diapers at night would prolong bedwetting by creating a psychological comfort zone and taking away the incentive to be dry.

There's definitely a comfort zone to contend with on wetting at night....as a DL, I have wet diapers without waking up (something I don't want to do at home) on a road trip when really tired.

But do diapers cause wetting or does wetting cause diapers? May as well ask whether eggs cause chickens or chickens cause eggs....

As I said elsewhere, the good night's sleep outweighs the need not to wet...and may, in the end, even be critical in allowing you to achieve dryness.

[babykeiff]

There's definitely a comfort zone to contend with on wetting at night....as a DL, I have wet diapers without waking up (something I don't want to do at home) on a road trip when really tired.

But do diapers cause wetting or does wetting cause diapers? May as well ask whether eggs cause chickens or chickens cause eggs....

As I said elsewhere, the good night's sleep outweighs the need not to wet...and may, in the end, even be critical in allowing you to achieve dryness.

It is shocking how incorrect some medical professionals were in the 70s.

Today, we know that a recently daytime toilet trained child will wet and soil during times of rest due to a number of things - lack of ADH production, immature sphincter muscles. Allowing a childs sleep to be intrupted due to a wet /messy bed tends to add stress to an already stressful situation. Diapers, although babyish, allow the child to mature normally and also reduce the stress involved. This can also be used with an older child. KC produce Goodnights to avail of this market. In this case, diapers aid the cure of wetting by reinforcing the comfort zone.

[dribbler]

I don't think wearing diapers mean that I am more likely to be wet - in the daytime i try to get to a toilet if I can - but have such a short time between "needing to go" and starting to pee that I often don't make it.. After years of being "caught short" and ending up with wet pants I had to do something and as medication isn't helping much it had to be diapers.

What diapers are for me is a way of life that is socially acceptable, prevents people from seeing me wet and takes a great big load off my mind.

At night I can sleep without having the radio or an alarm clock set to wake me in the hopes that I get to the toilet in time to save the bed from a soaking - again it was a painful decision to "give in" and use protection, but one that has allowed me to get a good nights sleep - frankly I don't mind if my pee is in me or in my nappy - just so long as it isn't in the bed!

And yes there is a comfort zone and a feeling of regression to early life when I was pampered and looked after - even when wet - but that like the positive sensation of feeling the diaper close to your skin is a minor factor compared to the sense of well being associated with not being worried sick in case someone notices a big wet patch or draws the right conclusion from seeing 4 or more pairs of underwear drying on the line every day.