Another idea I have for teaching youngsters how to be self-sufficient in this area is the following. I don't know how feasible this idea is and I admit it's somewhat unusual but like the saying goes in many situations it's good to think outside the box. In many community colleges they use dummies to demonstrate certain medical techniques to nursing students. The parents could talk to the head of the nursing department at their local community college and see if they could borrow a dummy and then use the dummy to teach the child the correct way of fastening the diapers. If the head of the nursing department asks you why you want to borrow the dummy you can explain that you have a child who wears diapers for a bed-wetting problem and you want to use the dummy to teach them how to correctly fasten the diapers. If you are not able to borrow the dummy you can ask them if they have any suggestions about what to do in this situation. I suspect that purchasing something like this from a medical supply store would be expensive so the nurse at the community college might have ideas about alternative approaches to the situation. In addition you might want to call your local medical/hospital supply store and see if they have any ideas. about how to deal with this matter. As I mentioned earlier this is a very delicate situation that has the potential to do irreparable psychological harm to a child.
I wonder if some parents diaper their older child because on some level they might miss the closeness of the parent/infant relationship and this is a way to recreate this. Some parents either consciously or sub- consciously want to keep their child at a certain level of development because the parents don't want to let go emotionally. It must be stressed that this is just speculation,and I'm not saying this is necessarily the case with all parents who put on their older child's diapers but the fact that this could be a factor with some people should be considered and if this the case it should be addressed with a mental health professional in order to prevent causing emotional harm to the child.
I hope people understand that this post is not meant as a criticism of anyone's parenting skills. It's meant to help people realize that children are very sensitive regarding these sorts of issues. Children need their privacy and independence in these areas and by not respecting this it makes them feel undignified. I hope this helps people look at this issue in a new light. As always I feel dialogue on these matters is very important and I welcome any constructive thoughts on this matter..
As usual, Colin is right on. But I think also that a parent continuing to diaper an older kid can be a bit punitive, a way of expressing displeasure regarding the continued wetting. A not very helpful power game.
My Mom called it 'creative shaming'. Every night until I was almost thirteen I had to submit to the humiliating ritual of being powdered, pinned into bulky cloth diapers and then being put in plastic pants, usually by her, but sometimes by someone else. Also the timing was at her convenience, so it wasn't always just before bed.
If it was meant to help me stop wetting, I think it had the opposite effect, because I'm still in diapers at night, but with a bit more privacy.