It's a wonderful milestone when your child stops wearing nappies at night but this time is not without its anxieties as well. My daughter pretty succesfully stopped wearing any nappies at night about six months ago, but does have the occasional accident, even though we 'lift' her to do a wee every night before we go to bed. If there is an accident, it's really no big deal though as we just change her night clothes and her bedding and she just goes back to sleep - no problem! And of course we have a protective sheet anyway under her normal one.
However, we went away for a few nights in the summer and stayed in a hotel. I started to worry about what would happen if my daughter had an accident in the middle of the night while sleeping in a hotel bed. I somehow imagined that things would not be quite as easy as they are at home. This was why I bought a packet of Pampers Bed Mats.
These mats are designed to be placed on your chld's bed under their normal sheets so as to protect the mattress from any leaks. They are a vey reasonable size (80cm x 90cm) so they offer quite a large area of protection which is very good especially if you have the type of child who moves all around their bed in their sleep. In fact the mat is wide enough that it can be wrapped around and tucked under the mattress. At each end they have what is called a bed wing and these ensure that the mat does not move around with your wriggling child.
The best thing about these bed mats is that they are completely waterproof but also soft and disposable. They have a waterproof backing sheet which is covered with a super absorbant layer which absorbs just like a nappy. On the Pampers website they claim that these are capable of absorbing and locking in the average amount of urine produced by a ten year old - therefore these can be used not only with small children but with older ones as well.
One of the greatest benefits is that after an accident the map can just be removed from the bed, thrown away and replaced by another one. They come in packs of seven which I guess is very handy if you needed to take them away for a week's holiday. Having said that though, if your child has a dry night the bed mat can just stay in place on the bed for the next night and so on. They all come very neatly folded and the pack hardly takes up any space at all so would fit quite neatly in to most small suitcases.
Definitely, when we were away, the knowledge that we had this on my daughter's bed certainly gave me peace of mind at night. Most of the time we didn't actually need them, but the one small accident we had proved that they work very well - catastrophe was averted and we were not responsible for ruining one hotel mattress! At the moment you can buy a pack of seven from Boots for £4.78. This is quite a reasonable price for peace and mind but I think probably a bit too expensive to use instead of the plastic undersheet on the bed. But certainly, every time we go away from now on, Pampers Bed Mats will definitely be on my list of essential packing!
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We have just started getting dry nights with our son and are looking to ditch the night nappy. Seems you can spend a fortune on protective bedding items but these sound good for nights at grans house and emergancys. will def get a pack and try thenm out
arnoldhenryrufus 20.11.2007 13:54
these sound a really good Idea - lyn x
Paul99ine 20.11.2007 11:27
A useful review...but...there's another use for these.....I recently had someone in my home from the Gas Board to repair a valve on a radiator and he use one to protect my carpet from any possible water leak.....it worked. Pauline.
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