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Summer Camp or Bust
Your Bedwetting Child Can Do It! By Lyn Mettler
An estimated five to seven million children in the United States wet their beds, according to the National Kidney Foundation. And many of them successfully make the trip to overnight camp every year.
The behavior is so common that most camps think nothing of it and are prepared to handle it as discreetly as possible. "Each year during each session we always have kids that wet the bed," says Greg Huff, summer camp program director for the Flatrock River YMCA Summer Camp in St. Paul, Ind. "Homesickness and bedwetting are things that all camps deal with."
Bedwetting is a frequent behavior in children after they are toilet trained, but oftentimes children continue to wet the bed after the age of 6 or 7. This happens for a variety of reasons, and the National Kidney Foundation recommends that you talk with your pediatrician if it continues. Some children don't wake up when their bladder is full, some produce more urine while sleeping than others and some children's bladders simply do not hold as much urine. Occasionally, stress such as a new baby in the family or a new school also can cause bedwetting.
If you want to send your child to overnight camp, Dr. Gregory Dean, director of pediatric urology at Temple Children's Medical Center, recommends you begin preparing several months in advance. "I would recommend that parents address the issue of bedwetting in the months before camp season," he says.
He suggests trying to eliminate the problem before kids head off to camp. First, he says to try limiting the amount of liquid your child drinks at night and encouraging them to use the bathroom before bedtime.
If your child continues to wet the bed there are other options that may help, such as a moisture alarm. The alarm sounds as soon as it detects the first bit of moisture, helping your child learn to feel when his bladder is full and when he is about to wet the bed. The National Kidney Foundation says moisture alarms have the highest long-term success rate.
Huff suggests that you talk with your child about camp before he heads off. "What concerns do they have going into this?" he says. You can allay any fears such as spiders or the dark, which may exacerbate the problem because they're afraid to walk to the bathroom.