This post is VERY long. Tl;dr, highly recommend GoodNites to help ANY bedwetting child
We spend a lot of money on these every month so I figured they are worth a review. Bedwetting is actually a really complicated, frustrating, and expensive issue to deal with, even with a product like GoodNites. It is also surprisingly common but no one ever seems to talk about it so there's a dearth of information and support available out there, especially for adolescents and teens (like my son). So I feel like this is a great opportunity to help a lot of people out who are helping a child manage a very mortifying medical issue. If your child is struggling with bedwetting, let me assure you: YOU ARE NOT ALONE and your child has NOTHING to be embarrassed about.
According to his Dr. this is just a normal developmental delay. 4% of boys his age wet (14) wet the bed. So he probably has classmates who also struggle.
He has NEVER had daytime accidents but night is a totally different story. The thing to remember is it is NOT the child's fault. He also has genetics to blame: I wet the bed until I was about a year older than he currently is. So I figure he's got another solid year left of dealing with this problem.
He's still wet 2-3 nights/wk. We have tried alarms, pills, etc. in the past and they did nothing so we've given up on medical intervention and we're just letting time take its course like the Dr suggested. BTW, according to the doc witholding fluid before bed makes no difference.
In the meantime, he dozes off at night in a GoodNte. They are the only product which has reliably kept him dry throughout all these years. My son wears them under his PJs every night in lieu of his normal boxers. He has been wearing them at night for a LONG time, ever since he was out of daytime diapers, and never gone without them at night. The GNs come in two new designs: a stripey multicolor brief kind and a camo/heli military kind. My son says he doesn't really care about the designs since he's the only one who sees them anyway, but he did admit that he thinks they look like diapers, just that he doesn't care as long as they work.
And the GNs do work pretty perfectly. There is never a leak issue, and my son is a VERY heavy wetter. I asked my son to list some pros and cons about the GNs and this is what he told me:
Pros:
-Very absorbent--Never a leak.
-Hygenic-Bedwetting can lead to skin conditions, but my son has never had a problem with the GNs. He uses a little powder in them at night which I definitely recommend. My son sleeps like a rock so he may be wearing a very full pull-up for many hours. The pull-ups keep things totally clean and sanitary.
-Soft and comfortable--Soft padding all the way across the pants. Very stretchy sides that move with the child's body. The GNs are designed to wick away moisture from the skin so the wearer doesn't even feel wet if an accident occurs. His skin is dry to the touch when he takes the GN off in the morning. He sleeps the whole night through without being disturbed and doesn't even feel wet until he wakes up.
Cons:
-Bulky-Even though they're comfortable my son says they feel very bulky and make his PJs bulge out especially when wet.
-Loud--the pants definitely make a noticible rustling noise under PJs when the child moves. To be honest, it sounds like a diaper and I definitely notice it when my son has one on, and my son agrees that the GNs so have a diapery sound to them.
-Not Discrete-one of the main selling points of GNs is they're supposed to be discrete but my son says they're anything but because of how loud and bulky they are. Also, the pull-ups ride up above the waistline of my sons PJs so the GN sticks out over the top.
Here are some tips directly from my son about his condition:
-Definitely use a product like GNs
-Don't be afraid to do sleepovers, camp, etc. He wears the GNs no problem. His tip is to wear compression shorts over the night pants and for PJs a large size of the swishy sweatpants to totally hide the GN.
-If you happen to wake up in the middle of the night and notice you are wet, definitely change into a fresh GN. Also don't wear the same GN the next night if you wake up dry, just use a fresh one.
You can find GNs in the disposible diaper section of your local grocery store or pharmacy, and as a parent the product definitely does come across as being basically a large diaper. I know my son definitely isn't fooled and essentially thinks of them as diapers as well. But, the thing is he isn't embarrassed at all about needing "diapers", or "Pull-ups", or whatever you want to call them, it doesn't matter. All he cares about is whether they leep him dry and the GNs do just that. It's like the bedwetting never even happened. And that's what makes this product so great: it really works like it says it does. My son and I highly recommend them.