At the Age of 10 How Many of Your Friends Also Had Some Bedwetting Issues?

[iampadded]

I was struck by this comment in the string “were you still wearing diapers at 10”

I was still wearing Pampers (or Luvs) at 10, I dont think GoodNites came out til I was 11 or maybe 12 but I wore them whenever they came available. I was tall and slim at that age so fitting in baby diapers was a non issue for me and I really didn't mind them at all. Never really got teased about it by friends as many of them also still wet the bed so therefore I wasn't really ashamed of my diapers nor did I go out of my way to hide them.

Other than some kids, I knew from summer camp – I was in the bedwetter’s cabin- so that’s no surprise that others wet their beds- I was aware of only one other kid my age that was regularly bedwetting like I was.

 

[Wetshisbed]

There was a lad in our street who wet his bed most nights. My cousin also wet every night. They both became dry in their teens. I continued in to my 20s. My friends knew I was a bedwetter as my younger sister made sure everyone knew. I didn't care who knew and still don't. I wet the bed so what.

 

[iampadded]

How did you come to know about the “lad in our street”?

 

[Wetshisbed]

How did you come to know about the “lad in our street”?

The mother's mafia all knew who the bedwetters were. In any case nearly every day there were sheets on the line.

 

[iampadded]

My point is I have no doubt there are plenty of 10 year olds still frequently wetting the bed-particularly boys – but it’s usually a well guarded, family secret.

 

[iampadded]

The mother's mafia all knew who the bedwetters were. In any case nearly every day there were sheets on the line.

Thankfully, Our House had a basement and my mother also had a wash line down there by the washer and dryer. Although we also had a clothesline in the yard for outdoor drying, she was discreet enough to not advertise my plumbing problems to the neighborhood

 

[Wetshisbed]

My point is I have no doubt there are plenty of 10 year olds still frequently wetting the bed-particularly boys – but it’s usually a well guarded, family secret.

Maybe for some but in our street all the mother's knew all about everyone else's kids.

 

[Wetshisbed]

Thankfully, Our House had a basement and my mother also had a wash line down there by the washer and dryer. Although we also had a clothesline in the yard for outdoor drying, she was discreet enough to not advertise my plumbing problems to the neighborhood

My Mother was just the opposite. Even when I got older it was no secret. I remember my mother discussing it with her friend in our back kitchen on Saturday night after we had all come back from the pub. "No doubt there will be another wet bed by morning" her friend said if that was my only problem ten she shouldn't worry. I wasn't supposed to have heard this.

 

[iampadded]

Maybe for some but in our street all the mother's knew all about everyone else's kids.

I think all neighborhood mothers with similar age, kids know if for no other reason than to deal with sleepovers, etc.

 

[Wetshisbed]

I think all neighborhood mothers with similar age, kids know if for no other reason than to deal with sleepovers, etc.

Sleep overs weren't really a thing in those days.

 

[michaelmc]

I had bed wetting up to 14 years old and had special sheets connected to a loud alarm that when i wet woke me ( and everyone else ) up to teach my braine to wake me up to pee turns out its to do with a chemical the body is supposed to produce to shut down the production of urine that was the problem my brain wasn't producing it .
All those night sleep disturbed for F##k all . My youngest son had the same problem , specialist said to cut out Tomatoes , Orange , tea , coffee fizzy drinks and some other stuff that irritate the bladder .

 

[longallsboy]

The mother's mafia all knew who the bedwetters were. In any case nearly every day there were sheets on the line.

Michael Landon, the famous actor who played Little Joe on "Bonanza" and Charles Ingalls, the dad on "Little House On The Prairie", also wet his bed a lot as a child, even to age 10. This was also partly because his mom was psychotic and was likely bipolar, and tried to commit suicide on more than several occasions. And of course the whole neighborhood knew about Landon's problem because the sheets were on the line too.....

As an aside, off the point, but somewhat interesting : I have a friend (who is now in his early 70s and now sadly has Lou Gehrig's disease, or ALS) who used to be one of the lab techs at my community college, several years ago, for a time. He would say "What's up, boss?" And I thought he said : "What's up, Hoss" (as in Hoss Cartwright, the patriarch on Bonanza), instead of boss. So I got to the point where I started saying "What's up, Hoss", to which he would respond "What's up, Little Joe?". LOL Somehow, I did find that rather funny.

Actually, "hoss" can also mean a big or heavy and strong person.....so like in the song "You Don't Mess Around With Jim" by Jim Croce (who also sang "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown"), as follows :

"Yeah, he big and dumb as a man can come
But he stronger than a country hoss"

- longallsboy

 

[dpcare]

Michael Landon, the famous actor who played Little Joe on "Bonanza" and Charles Ingalls, the dad on "Little House On The Prairie", also wet his bed a lot as a child, even to age 10. This was also partly because his mom was psychotic and was likely bipolar, and tried to commit suicide on more than several occasions. And of course the whole neighborhood knew about Landon's problem because the sheets were on the line too.....

As an aside, off the point, but somewhat interesting : I have a friend (who is now in his early 70s and now sadly has Lou Gehrig's disease, or ALS) who used to be one of the lab techs at my community college, several years ago, for a time. He would say "What's up, boss?" And I thought he said : "What's up, Hoss" (as in Hoss Cartwright, the patriarch on Bonanza), instead of boss. So I got to the point where I started saying "What's up, Hoss", to which he would respond "What's up, Little Joe?". LOL Somehow, I did find that rather funny.

Actually, "hoss" can also mean a big or heavy and strong person.....so like in the song "You Don't Mess Around With Jim" by Jim Croce (who also sang "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown"), as follows :

"Yeah, he big and dumb as a man can come
But he stronger than a country hoss"

- longallsboy

 

[JOCKMAN]

I think there was just one other boy on the next street over from me. By age 10 I was not wetting every night and if I did my plastic underpants over my trainers / regular underwear took care of it (small amount). I assumed he had an issue, as like me, he had a plastic mattress cover on his bed. I only saw it twice and we never stayed in his room much but usually were outside or in the playroom with a game.

 

[CoastieKate]

The mother's mafia all knew who the bedwetters were. In any case nearly every day there were sheets on the line.

I definitely was a victim of the mothers mafia. Eventually word got out around school, so that was slot of fun. Needless to say, I wasnt invited to or had any sleepovers. Other mothers would ask publicly about my wetting or ask about diapers I was using to my mother, and my mom was all too happy to chat mother to mother about it. I know now, my mother was trying to normalize it and not make it a thing to hide or be a big deal, but it was definitely a tough spot to grow up through.

 

[12srepaid]

I though I was the only bedwetter, because the modern internet wasn't even around at that time. (1983-1984)

 

[CptKirk]

My oldest son SOAKED himself every single night through the age of 10-11. I know he had sporadic issues afterwards, but this was never discussed anymore as he was attending a boarding school that provided him with a top tier education, his first 4 years of college cost him NOTHING (same with my youngest who is now in a dental program @ Temple that has an 85% placement rate into dental college) and he just earned his Master's degree. With my VA Benefits he paid next to nothing to earn than. My youngest son will accumulate substantial student loans, though he will be getting just shy of $1500/mo from my VA GI Bill benefits, so he'll survive and if he does in fact become an Orthodontist (as has been his goal since he was 11 or 12!) he won't have to worry about being able to pay his loans back. He excelled all throughout college with a very difficult Chemistry major, making the Dean's list 6/8 semesters and barely missing it the 2x he didn't make it, graduated with a 3.785 GPA. They started with almost 200 people with a Chem major and graduated less than 40! The program he is in @ Temple has a policy that the instant your GPA drops below 3.6, you're out, period! They started with 67 students and after just over 3 months have already lost 19 students. He hasn't even had to really try judging by his 3.9 GPA though he studies his ass off and has a great roommate from southern Va (pure redneck (in a good way) and GREAT guy!) who is *ALMOST* as driven as my youngest. I mean, here's a MONSTER of a man (1/4" shy of 6'4" @ 276 of ROCK! Has my build and *MAYBE* has 10-15lbs he could lose) who works out 2 hours/day starting @ 6 AM. His goal is to beat my bench press record, which took me until I was 33 years old to achieve. I benched 5050 for 3 reps at the end of a 2.5 hour workout. I never maxed as I had zero intentions to ever NOT lift like a nutcase but life dictated otherwise for me. He's already able to bench press just shy of 450 and he just turned 22 a month ago! He's likely going to blow my record out of the water, and I am hoping he does! He IS IMMENSE with a neck/shoulders/chest/lathes/arms and especially legs that would make anyone dumb enough to fight him deserving of what he would do to them. He wrestled from Kindergarten onwards so he knows how to use it and just as I was taught how to punch as a kid, so were my sons with a body bag, speedbag and my antique old fashioned "dead bag which is a canvas duffle bag filled with 125 lbs. of sand. A couple minutes per event on that twice a week (once you developed rock like knuckles) maintains that so anyone you hit is going to feel it 10x harder than if your knuckles were "soft" LOL.

I couldn't be any more proud of these two than I am and I LOVE they're both driven as hard as they are to succeed.

My oldest went through mental hell with his bedwetting but I always treated it as if it was totally normal to keep up his off the charts HIGH confidence as he was the best football player in his age group and even above his age group and won 1st team defensive honors in the district his school played in 3 years and made 2nd team defense his FRESHMAN year! He played nose tackle on a 3 man line with 2 DT's lined up shading the outside of the OTs with him left to handle the Center, both Guards and the FB at times and it never even slowed him down. He took multiple handoffs from the QB to the RB and they weren't going to catch him once he got the ball. I've coached 2 players that you simply could not block, even with 2-3 players. He was my 1st. The second, who is my all time favorite player weighed 125 at 15! He was ALWAYS tiny compared to every other lineman in the league yet unblockable and by far the best there was in that league and many others as we'd play out of league games on off weeks for the competition. NO ONE could block either. He was a 54lb 7 year old on pee wee ball and we had to take him out of the game by the 2nd quarter as he'd steal the ball from the QB or RBs and score at least 2-3x/game at that age. Both of these kids were so fast off of the ball there was no stopping either.

The best part is that for how good he was in football, he was MORE DOMINANT in wrestling! This is a kid who began playing mini football at the age of 4 due to his size (67lbs though he did turn 5 6 weeks after the season began) and he won MVP for his team of 5-7 year old players as well as won MVP every year he wrestled in elementary school. He ran in every 5k in the area (he used to wear me out!) as well as would do a couple hundred push-ups/sit-ups/day and a few dozen pull-ups. Keeping his confidence sky high was the ultimate solution for him, although every single kid is different.

I believe he'll possibly end up like I did, bedwetting at 34 and now U-IC although my issues are all caused by medical problems ranging from autoimmune disease issues and tremendous lower spinal and Coccyx destruction/calcification/nerve damage.

I feel for kids who wet that late into childhood but as a parent, all you can do is minimize the bed wetting and emphasize their strengths! You do that and bed wetting won't be a lifelong confidence issue. A few of his friends and our family members all knew of this but he was ultra popular with his friends so that was never an issue on sleepovers and such. CONFIDENCE works for little kids and us older guys/gals! If you're confident, the fact you wear diapers is insignificant! I'm living proof of that as ALL of my close friends know and not one thinks any different of me.

CptKirk

 

[Tommy10]

Indeed a well guarded secret. I was not aware of any others at 10.

 

[Deleted member 73146]

At the age of 10, I don't think I had any friends.

 

[JOCKMAN]

My oldest son SOAKED himself every single night through the age of 10-11.

I feel for kids who wet that late into childhood but as a parent, all you can do is minimize the bed wetting and emphasize their strengths! You do that and bed wetting won't be a lifelong confidence issue. A few of his friends and our family members all knew of this but he was ultra popular with his friends so that was never an issue on sleepovers and such. CONFIDENCE works for little kids and us older guys/gals! If you're confident, the fact you wear diapers is insignificant! I'm living proof of that as ALL of my close friends know and not one thinks any different of me.

CptKirk

By age 10 I did not pay much attention to my protective undergarments or how often I wore. I do recall asking my mother at this age if the plastic mattress cover could come off my bed but she said we needed to wait a while longer to see how things turned out. Sometime when I was 11 or 12 it was gone. Some of my friends knew I had the cover but no one ever made any statement about it. I had friends and was confident in my school work and the friends I hung out with so yes confidence is a key factor for being what you are good at and not the one or two items you are not good at. My parents NEVER made a big deal about my nighttime challenges and this helped a lot.