I often get quite a few messages from parents and also Scout Leader asking questions or looking for advice. This next question is something I get asked quite often. So I thought I might aswell publish the question and the advice I gave this concerned leader.
Hey Mark,
I’m after some. Advise on a situation that I had recently. I have a turquoise Ninja (beaver) who attended our previous camp a couple of months back. The Turquoise Ninja had a toileting accident and so asked to go home before camp fire and didn’t want to stay over for the night. We have a camp coming up over the school holidays but as you can guess, our little turquoise Ninja is now saying he doesnt want to go even though he will be the only one not going.
Do you have any ideas on how to try and change his mind?
My reply back:-
Try and re-assure him not to worry too much about it, there are plenty of children (and even adults who have incontinence problems — they do make various products for all ages).
Here’s a few pointers, that I can tell you.
1) Put he’s tent next to a toilet, It might be that he was scared about asking to go to the toilet
2) Ask one of his parents to come along.
3) “assigned” one leader that he can confide in if he has an accident, and they could help him go to get changed by pretending to ask him to do a special job?
4) Something that I was told by a fellow Beaver Leader some time ago is to carry a mug of coffee when doing tent check with Beavers /Cubs and if there was a wet bed, you “accidentally” spill the coffee in the tent and then you will have to remove the sleeping bag out.
5) Consider underwear called Drynites and they are very absorbent — I’ve never known them to leak, when my daughter was learning how to come out of nappies, we would make her wear these at night time. Granites could even be worn during the day if it makes him feel ” comfortable and re-assured (obviously with agreement from the parents), they’re also designed to look just like regular underwear (the smaller ones have spiderman prints on them and the larger ones have general skateboarding/stripes — the striped ones seem to appear the best as they do just look like regular underwear.
6) There is also a charity called ERIC that might also offer some help — they deal with childhood incontinence and have a lot of handy information so children can still enjoy activities even though they might have accidents. https://www.eric.org.uk/
7) Bring a spare sleeping bag or two to camp, also consider some spare pyjamas Encase they get sodden.
8)Also avoid a late night drink. It’s a long time to go all night and some people sleep so heavily they just don’t wake up. Even the leaders have to get up in the middle of the night to go, and they argue with themselves if they really need the toilet because it’s so warm and cozy in their sleeping bag.
9) Remind the rest of the people in the tent that the scout law is a scout is a friend to all scouts, and they should support their friend, so they can all enjoy their time.
I hope it all goes well and you can encourage your little turquoise Ninja to enjoy the camp and not worry too much.
Kind regards
Mark
3 Comments
My son is under treatment for Enuresis. After the standard support methods – medication, bed alarm, increased medication – we have discovered that part of his problem is simple… his kidneys are 25% larger than other children his age. His bladder simply isn’t big enough to cope and therefore gives him ridiculously late warnings so he is desperate. Since the scan and knowing what is happening with his body, things have improved greatly.
This problem can be relatively common amongst older children as well. As a scout leader, I’ve always considered privacy and normalisation. So for the first, on one camp I had a young person who was prone to soiling when occupied (he had other additional needs too). It became obvious due to the smell in the tent that this had occurred, so I asked a male leader quietly suggest he might need a shower after a water activity – the scout got all his clean stuff together and the leader took a black bag down to hand to the scout to put ALL his dirty clothes in. Black bag tied up and labelled with scout’s name and stored out of sight! We checked his sleeping bag discretely whilst the patrol tents were brailed up, then got all the scouts to air their bags outside over a line. He wasn’t singled out, and the scouts got into the habit of being told that on a nice, sunny day on site their tents and bedding would be aired. This included leaders sleeping bags too!
Often it is a case of not making a fuss, and making sure that techniques and hygiene are the same for everybody.
My son has also been dealing with enuresis. After all the tests, alarms, pull ups etc (they didn’t work as he produced too much!) and trying medication we have had to wait until his hormones kicked in at puberty. It’s been a long slog for him -he’s 13 in November but dry 99% of the time ❤️ sometimes nature just has to take it’s course