School trip and bed wetting

[ningaj]

My 8 year old is due to go on a school trip in a couple of months - two nights away. He is desperate to go but at the same time really worried about sleeping away from home.

He is under a consultant for an overactive bladder, he takes a medication twice a day for this which has helped enormously and he is now totally dry in the day (previously used to dribble and have wet pants a lot)

Before bed he takes desmopressin, he is generally dry 6 out of 7 nights, however he can sometimes go on a bad run for no reason we can discern and wet 4-5 nights in a row. We are currently on one of these runs and he is getting more and more worried.

I am working my way through various 'continence' products to try, nothing has worked so far. Just received some overnight pants from P&S and they are HUGE!!! So bulky, probably more obvious than a normal pull up.

If anyone has any ideas of what we can try, or any experience of this situation I would be so grateful to hear it. He's such a shy lad anyway and I can't stand the thought of his confidence being knocked by this.

Thanks for reading

Ds went away with school in year 6. School knew. He wore a pull up, boxers and pj's! Teachers were very descrete and nobody knew.

My DS was a bed wetter until he was 10, so we had a couple of school trips where he needed to wear pull-ups. He had the ordinary, Huggies DryNites pull up pants, which he wore under his PJs. It was fine. And know this OP - he won't be the only one and they'll all be anxious. But they can put on a pull up in the loos before bed and with the Desmo, hopefully all will be well. Just let whoever is in charge of the trip know in advance. It will be okay. I hope he has a lovely time.

I’m a teacher so asking from this perspective… have you discussed this with the school? Do you know what the sleeping arrangements will be, is it all together or smaller rooms? Could they choose the people he shares with as the ‘mature’ children that would be less likely to say anything if he was to wet himself?

Im not sure if you’re in the UK but if so try Dry & Cool or ASDA do Ninjamas Bed Wetting Pants

I would discuss with paediatrician about giving a higher dose for that one night. I found that Desmopressin becomes less effective over time, so only use now for specific occasions (ie camping).
Or try keeping him off the Desmopressin for a week before he goes, as they seem to be more effective when not used all the time?

He can use pull-ups and it will be managed very discreetly. No other child will know.

They know about the ongoing issues although I haven't spoken to them directly about the trip - I plan to do that next week.

They're in dorms and he'll be with 3 of his friends who are all nice lads.

Thank you for the advice / reassurance.

Didn't think of a pull up under boxers, that's got to be a better option than these huge pants!

I've seen adverts for the Ninjamas so will have a look.

The Desmo is so variable for us, he's already on max dose so no chance of increasing I'm afraid

Talk to the teachers.
have no experience, but having a kid that has gone to a lot of camps, and having helped on a couple, I know the teachers will manage, will be discreet and if he’s with nice / mature kids he will be fine

Hi @ningaj just wondering how your son got on? We are in exactly the same boat! Albeit when we tried desmo in the past it didn’t seem to work 😔 (ditto the Tolterodone for the daytime dribbling, though thankfully it’s so minimal it doesn’t seem to be an issue).
That was a few years ago so I think we need to give the desmo another go.
I hope your boy had a good trip.