how do you deal with incontinence?

I occasionally like to get up later than usual, especially on week-ends or holidays and am wondering if I should change before going back to sleep for a little while. In other words, can a diaper be worn a few extra hours without any risk of developing diaper rash?

[JoeK]

There is no one answer, sorry! We are all different as to what our skin will tolerate. Some will have skin so sensitive that they must practice "dry diaper wear" which means changing a diaper as soon as it gets wet. Most of us can get away with some degree of "wet diaper" wear which means changing a diaper on a schedule, often every 4, 6 or 8 hrs. Depends on the absorbancy of the diaper of course and the person's skin tolerance. Some can get away with 12 hours, but that's a bit unusual.

If you are talking about an overnight diaper in this case, it would already be 6 to 8 hours old and wet to that degree. I'd recommend not pushing the wet diaper and change before going back for that extra forty winks. It'll be worth it in comfort; your skin will be happier and you won't leak onto the sheets.

And a resounding NO to your question about extending diaper wear without "any risk"....sorry, no such thing as no risk of rash. There is aways a risk of rash and the steps we take with changing and hygiene are ways to minimize the risk and hopefully avoid it. But the risk remains!

I'm not sure if this is the right place for this post, but here goes. I was reading the incontinence Primer and, being bowel incontinent for a long time, I read the recommendations for handling it there. I was a little surprised when I read that, if there is a need to sit after bowel release, the load should be pushed forward. This might be ok for a guy but we girls have a special problem with that. I find that if I keep my legs tightly closes and sit down sort of front to back, the load gets pushed to the back and I can avoid some nasty infections at worst and a harder clean up when changing at best. I have had very little problem with any of my load getting out of my diaper in the back. It happened, but only after an especially large load. I try not to sit down with a load in my diaper but I find this way works pretty well. I try to keep my legs pretty close together when I walk, too. This helps to keep the load from moving into the crotch of my diaper and helps to push it toward the seat of my diaper. No major problems for a long time.

I think Linda has a very valid point - clearly no advice should be given that might encourage ladies to compromise their health by risking infection from fecal material via the vaginal route. I am sometimes bowel incontinent and reckon it is very hard to stop the "load" going backwards anyway! Nothing makes life very easy and in my case most leakage seems to come from under the scrotum area if/when the load moves forwards.

With regard to the original post I have the same desire for a lie in on occasions and have sometimes slipped off my nappy and slipped on another one from "under the pillow" without getting out of bed - I don't like just leaving the used one by the bedside - but hey a good rest is worth some sacrifices!

Alternatively I use a soaker of some kind and slip that out when first awake so as to have a dryish nappy to use for the time I am sleeping later than usual.

None of these expedients work when I have had a bowel movement in my sleep and then there is simply no alternative to waking up, cleaning up and deciding that a good breakfast is better than sleeping in after all!

[JoeK]

Linda,
First, thank you for visiting our site; please don't be a stranger!

Second, thank you for the excellent input for out Primer. With contributions like yours, we hope to keep improving the Primer for everyone!

Give us a week or so and expect to see your input appearing there.

Joe K

[schoppy]

Hello Linda

Thankyou for the great input for the primer.

I have received the update for the primer from Joe and the primer has now been updated.

It is people like you that help us keep this homepage updated to make sure that we have the best info for all people.

If you, or anyone else, has any other ideas for this homepage, please let us know. We have a section set up on this forum for people to post any ideas to help us improve this site.

Thankyou again for your great suggestion.

[JoeK]

Wow, Boss, you made me look good! I said "give us a week or so" and you did it in, like, a day or so!

For all our readers, we do try, but we're not always this fast; the boss is a star gazer and there are times it's tough to get his attention away from the observatory. It was probably a cloudy night when we put in the update request and he jumped right on it!