How to Travel with a Bedwetter

Traveling with kids any age can be hard but when your child wets the bed, it adds another layer of worry. Traveling with a bedwetter can be tough but it shouldn’t stop you from staying overnight at a relatives or a hotel. With a little planning you can travel with a bedwetter, let them go to a sleepover or even send them to overnight summer camp.  Bedwetting in older children is more common than most people realize. We have a child in our family that still has issues with wetting the bed at night. For their privacy, I won’t tell you which one but it’s something that we have dealt with for awhile. That’s why I wrote this post to help you if you have to travel with a bedwetter.. Their sisters know about it but we’ve talked to them about why we offer support instead of ridicule and have taught them how to keep it private to respect their sister. However when we travel it’s so hard to keep it private and keep that child from being embarrassed. Our family travels a lot. We are usually out of town at least once a month going to see family all over Texas or bonding with alligators in Louisiana. It’s fun and we love road trips. When we’re gone our usual family rules are out the window. The kids stay up late, they have food that’s usually on the “do not ask for list” and they get to drink large quantities of caffeine free sodas or juice. However when you have a child that wets the bed all those super fun things are a recipe for a wet bed at night. Plus there is no way that you can restrict fluids after dinner when you have spent the entire day at an amusement park in the sun. Wet beds are going to happen while away from home and when they happen at a relative’s house or in a hotel bed it is very embarrassing to the child. So what can you do when traveling with a child that occasionally wets the bed and does not want to wear nighttime absorbant underwear? 1. GoodNites Bed Mats– These are newer products that were not around when we were potty training or nighttime training, which is a bummer because they would have been super helpful. However we always discreetly pack a few when we travel. These are simply large absorbant pads that stick to the bottom sheet and protects the sheets and mattress if the child has an accident.

So why do you need these? Because they are the most discreet way to deal with an accident that I have found. Instead of stripping the bed of all the sheets, lugging it through the relative’s house where you are staying or tossing into a hotel room corner you simply pull the wet pad off the bed, roll it up and toss it in the trash. It’s that simple. There’s no scrubbing the grandparent’s guest room mattress and bringing more embarrassment to the child, it’s quick and will not be noticed. They really have helped us a ton the past few months and the last time we traveled without them, we really regretted it. 2. Prepare a change of clothes in advance – Pack a large plastic baggie with an extra change of pajamas and underwear and once you get to your destination, put it somewhere that the child can easily get to it in the middle of the night without turning on lights and having to dig through their luggage. If the child has an accident then they can easily get up and change clothes, placing the wet clothes in the bag and sealing it. Then they can put the bag in the dirty clothes bag that you have to take back home to wash and after changing their bed mat, crawl back in bed without waking anyone else. This helps if your family is crammed in a hotel room or if they are sharing a bedroom with cousins to keep the kid’s privacy and empower them rather than shame them.

3. Get the child a lightweight cotton or flannel blanket that they like and let them bring it with you. A lightweight blanket is great for laying over the GoodNites Bed Mat once you put it on the bed to keep other children from seeing it and it protects the other top sheets and comforters from getting wet if there’s an accident. A lightweight cotton blanket should be easy to wash in a hotel room sink and hang to dry over the shower curtain or toss into a relative’s washing machine without much fanfare, definitely less than washing all the sheets and scrubbing the mattress. Plus some children sleep in a strange place much better if they have something that smells like home. 4. Wake them up to go to the bathroom. Stay up for a little bit after everyone else has gone to sleep and wake up your child and take them to the bathroom. I know this can be hard after a day or traveling or day at the amusement park but it’s a small step that will help prevent bedwetting at night. We wake up our child and take her every night when we are home but sometimes we have to get creative while traveling, especially when we’re all sleeping in one room. However it does help a lot and it’s worth it to help her keep her beautiful smile and feel better about herself. Yes it’s hard to protect a child’s feelings when they are struggling with an issue but it can be done, even while traveling and outside your normal routines and schedules. But there’s things you can do to help the child feel better about themselves and we all need to take those steps for our children. It’s just a few simple things that will make traveling easier and less stressful for your child when it comes to bedtime.  Plus then we can worry less about  our nighttimes and enjoy more of our daytime adventures. Like this post? Check out these tips for What to Do When Your Child is Throwing Up or check out this board full of creative ideas for kids.