Creating a Reusable Bed Mat: Because Childhood Bedwetting is Normal!

As if daytime potty training isn’t hard enough on its own, nighttime bedwetting can be sheer torture — for kids and for the parents. You think that you have everything that you need: nightlight, GoodNites training pants, and even a plan, but as all of us who have planned in the past know, plans don’t always go according to how you want.

Recently, I have begun to potty train Baby R. We have been doing well during the day, but I know that at night we aren’t even close. Even Little E has trouble from time to time.

Here’s the thing though, if your child is still having nighttime wetting problems, you aren’t alone. It’s easy to see children of friends and family who seemed to potty train really easily when you are here begging your child to at least “try” to go on the potty. What you don’t see is that many of these kids (and parents) still struggle with bedwetting at night for several years after they have daytime potty trained. In fact, 1 in 6 kids ages 4 to 12 wet the bed once or more per week after even after they are potty trained!

When your child has a nighttime wetting accident, one of the last things you as a parent wants to do is to have to strip the entire bed, all the way down to the mattress. In the meantime, of course, your child has now become wide awake and you know that you are going to have to struggle for at least an hour to get them to go back to sleep. Fabulous.

That’s why I love these homemade flannel bed mats. It helps to keep the sheets and mattress dry while still being fun and something your child won’t feel embarrassed about. Plus, you can make them in some really fun colors and designs. Most importantly, however, is that not only are they reusable but they are also inexpensive and easy to make!

Making a Reusable Bed Mat

As I mentioned before, making these reusable bed mats is easy, but there are a few materials that you will need to pick up ahead of time. You will need:

• 1 yard of flannel
• 1 yard of a canvas-type of fabric
• Scissors
• Thread
• Sewing Machine

You will want to begin by cutting both of the pieces of fabric into an approximately 18″x36″ section. Make sure that the “right” side of the flannel is face down on top of the “right” side of the canvas material.

Using your sewing machine, stitch a straight line around all of the edges of the mat, but be sure to leave one small corner open. Once you have stitched almost the whole way around, bring the fabric through the open part so that the fabric is not right side out. Then stitch the opening closed as well.

I told you that it was going to be easy! Now all that is left to do is place the mat on your child’s bed. I put it on top of the fitted sheet so that if either of the boys has an accident at night, I can simply lift off the bed mat and put down another one. It’s a quick change so I don’t have to worry about fully waking the boys up either.

Trust me, this has been a lifesaver!

 

 

Sharing is caring!