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My First Sleepover
Tips to Help Bedwetters Enjoy Their Slumber Parties
By Patricia Bartholomew, GoodNites Blogger
Having a child with bedwetting issues is stressful – and sometimes really frustrating. Kids are trying to cope with the feeling that they have no control over their bodies while parents cope with additional laundry and the lack of sleep. Parents and children both struggle to fix this problem and often use different coping methods until they can work it out.
When your child is old enough, invitations for sleepovers will start rolling in and a whole new dimension of stress is added to the bedwetting issue. It used to be that kids were around the age of 9 or 10 when they started going on their first sleepovers. These days, sleepovers can start as early as around the age of 5 or 6, and some have already slept over at a friend's house before they were in kindergarten.
Summer camp, school trips, Boy or Girl Scout outings and slumber parties are some of the places that kids will be invited or expected to attend. Children suddenly have to face the additional stress caused by the possibility that someone outside the home will find out they wet the bed. Parents worry about how to protect their children from teasing, and some children have nightmares about a friend or classmate finding out they wet the bed.
Parents and kids should make the choice to attend or decline on a case-by-case basis. The child should look at the location, event and length of time that he will be away from home. Parents should also weigh the comfort or confidence level of the child. With a little preparation, though, the answer to whether or not the child can go in most cases can be "yes." Children who wet the bed can have active social lives and sleepovers and have the same fun that their friends do.