Despite being dry during the day from a very young age, Harry's been having trouble with getting dry through the night. Since Christmas, he's been dry all night when wearing a pull up which has given him so much confidence, yet when he decided to recently take the plunge and wear his boxers all night, he had an accident, and it really upset and embarrassed him. It took him a while to want to try again, so when he did, I wanted to be prepared and invested in some Huggies DryNites Bed Mats. They are fairly reasonable value at around £3 for 7 in a packet, but I purchased ours at a Sainsburys Baby Event, so they were much cheaper than this which was even better.
The bed mats come in a large rectangular plastic packet, which has the blue Huggies logo and writing at the top, a picture of a child in bed, and a cartoony style picture of the mats at the bottom. I think the packaging is very good and discreet, and they look like a nice child-friendly product. The mats are all folded flat, but it's easy to remove one without pulling them all out of the packet. These mats are large enough to virtually cover the top half of a child's single mattress, and are a great size at 145cm x 80cm. There is plenty of space either side to tuck them under the mattress so they won't move about in the night and disturb your little one's sleep, and they aren't that thick that your child will know its there either.
When you use the mats, they don't seem too bulky which is great, and they are easy to put on the bed. Simply fully unfold the mat, place it underneath the bed sheet directly on top of your child's mattress, ensuring the large flaps and tucked underneath, put the sheet on top and you're good to go. Make sure you put the waterproof side face down onto the mattress so that any urine is absorbed by the softer cotton like top of the mat. When the mat is under the sheet, there is no crinkly noise or anything at all, you wouldn't know its there at all, and I think it's a great idea if your child is a bit nervous about going through the night for the first few times. Harry was happy with the protector, especially the fact he couldn't feel it and it was just a much needed layer of protection, especially as you don't want the mattress being soaked and smelly after night training.
After his first night which sadly wasn't successful, the protector had really done its job. The urine had been absorbed fully by the bed mat, the bed sheet wasn't wet at all to the touch so had dried over night and the mat had kept it dry after that which was fantastic. I simply popped it off in the morning and threw it in the bin, and stuck a fresh one on the bed. I was really impressed by how well the mat had functioned, and that it hadn't left Harry soaking wet all night as well. There was a bit of an odour after but the product doesn't claim to do anything about that so that's fair enough really! However, they do the job that they promise to do which is keep urine away from the mattress, and are disposable so you don't have to worry about washing and drying overnight.
If you use these every single night for a period of time, they are going to work out quite expensive, so I wouldn't recommend these until your child is growing in confidence and has had a period of dry nights in their pull ups or nappies. As Harry doesn't drink much before bed and goes to the toilet before he sleeps, he never wees much in his sleep so I can't comment on how the mat would handle with a larger accident, but for smaller ones, they are perfect. Harry needs it there as a confidence booster to know its not the end of the world if he does have an accident, and when he's dry, I can just leave it there under the sheet until it has to be changed, so for us they are a cost-effective, and confidence boosting way of helping Harry get through the night without accident! I'd definitely recommend them, although as I say I'd keep them for the end of the night-time training!
Huggies DryNites Bed Mats are available from most supermarkets and baby retailers for around the £3, although prices do vary.
Thank you for reading.
