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Our Beds in the Children's Home
Image by theirhistory
If you wet the bed, in some of the houses one of the punishments was to leave your bed stripped with the rubber mackintosh sheet for all to see. You re-made in the early evening - when the good things were on tv.
In the Home, other children in your house did not tease you for any problems you might have, as it had affected almost every boy in your group.
Some of the Sisters would prefer you to stay in bed during the night and try to make it through the night without us getting out of bed and visiting the toilet . In the 1960s our groups had become both boys and girls, some of the old fashioned Sisters did not trust boys out of bed at night in case they went into the girls bedrooms, in their mind us suffering a wet bed was an easy way to prevent our wanderings, and would not punish us if we did wet it.
Some Sisters would allow friends from other flats to visit, it might be possible that others would get to know, but as the Sister that looked after me did not allow children from other houses to visit us, no other boy outside our group knew my bed was sometimes in a stripped condition.
The most embarrassing time was when an aunt and uncle came to visit, they had brought my two cousins with them. I was encouraged by Sister to give them all a tour of the flat and show them my bedroom, picking the day that my bed was in its stripped condition with the rubber sheet in full view.
Whilst their girl who was my age was more interested in the view from the window across the grass and the play area, her younger brother who was six, looked on with glee and announced that I still had a rubber sheet on my bed.
Years later after I had left the Home, he still teased me over seeing it when he visited me.
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The Sister retired when I was nine, a Houseparent took over, it was two hits with the slipper if I had wet the bed. If I had been out of bed and visited the toilet, any mischeif that was done by the older boys that night was then blamed on me, my punishment was then four hits with the slipper.
On the night I knew they had been out of bed and up to mischeif, it was easier to have a wet bed and take just the two hits.
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A long study was made on the matter of Enuresis (bedwetting) in our Homes, and most of our accidents were recorded.
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The children that are bedwetting often, number roughly 14 of every 100 boys, and 7 of every 100 girls in the National Children’s Home Branches.
Bedwetting during March over five consecutive years.
The increase in year four was thought to be down to more thorough recording of events that year.
Boys NCH Children's Home Branches (Age 4 - 14)
Year 1. 1355 Boys. Number affected 152 = 13.7% Wet beds in month 1170.
Year 2. 1095 Boys. Number affected 153 = 13.8% Wet beds in month 992.
Year 3. 1222 Boys. Number affected 162 = 13.3% Wet beds in month 1024.
Year 4. 1235 Boys. Number affected 184 = 14.9% Wet beds in month 942.
Year 5. 1168 Boys. Number affected 157 = 13.4% Wet beds in month 921.
Boys NCH Approved Schools (Age 9 - 14)
Year 1. 507 Boys = Number affected 107 = 21.1% Wet beds in month 842.
Year 2. 432 Boys = Number affected 66 = 15.1% Wet beds in month 488.
Year 3. 392 Boys = Number affected 59 = 15.1% Wet beds in month 408.
Year 4. 357 Boys = Number affected 64 = 17.9% Wet beds in month 439.
Year 5. 336 Boys = Number affected 50 = 14.9% Wet beds in month 402.
In the Branches it was taken
"Regular" as more than two or three times a week (Average 4).
"Frequent" as more than three times a month (Average 6),
"Occasionally" as less than this (Average 2).
Scrutiny of these figures shows that almost half of all bedwetting can be regarded as occasional, leaving the other half as the more serious problems.
Regularity of events NCH Children's Home Branches
Year 1. Regular 36.1 %, Frequent 19.5%, Occasional 44.4%
Year 2. Regular 24.6 %, Frequent 27.5%, Occasional 47.8%
Year 3. Regular 24.3 %, Frequent 29.1%, Occasional 46.6%
Year 4. Regular 23.7 %, Frequent 30.0%, Occasional 46.8%
Year 5. Regular 21.7 %, Frequent 35.0%, Occasional 43.3%
NCH Boys Approved Schools
Year 1. Regular 35.5 %, Frequent 29.0%, Occasional 35.5%
Year 2. Regular 26.9 %, Frequent 26.9%, Occasional 46.2%
Year 3. Regular 26.0 %, Frequent 20.0%, Occasional 54.0%
Year 4. Regular 28.4 %, Frequent 28.4%, Occasional 43.2%
Year 5. Regular 27.1 %, Frequent 28.8%, Occasional 45.1%
And their final thoughts.
In the Children's Homes, the age group supplying the highest percentage compared with the numbers in the Homes are at four 20%, at five there is a decrease to 18% at six 15%, at seven 14%. In the junior group at eight 18%, at nine 12.5%, and a rise at ten to 13.5%. The age make up in the Children's Homes is 30% in the age group of 8 - 10 years, thus a Sister may have more junior boys wetting the bed than that of a younger age group. It appears that there are more children of junior school age affected than any other age group. We do not know why so many boys of eight to ten years are now bedwetting, as many of them did not so when younger.
It was noticed from the full year records that certain months the totals could be higher.
The reasons were possibly, September - Change of school or new teacher, December / January- Cold nights and a dislike of leaving the bed. In these months the average was 10% to 20% more bedwetting than in the March figures show.
The study was based on one full month over five years. It should be noted that from full years records the percentages could be increased as to the numbers of individuals who experienced bedwetting during one full year, but many of these were isolated incidents or occurred very infrequently.
In the case of boys, including those under junior school age that wet the bed once or twice in a single year was 92%, whilst in the case of boys of junior school including those that would experience very occasional bed-wetting was around 74%.
In the NCH Approved Schools with an age range of 9–14 years the percentage was 76%. With girls of all ages affected at lower rates. Thus it would give rather incorrect representation to show that 74% of Junior School boys in the NCH Homes and 76% of NCH Approved School boys were bed wetting, as these very occasional events should be discounted.
Since the start of the survey, practically nothing has been added to the lists of method of prevention, one branch advocated salty suppers, without giving a reason for this course or showing any evidence of its success. It seems that the only conclusion that can safely be drawn from the mass of material accumulated is that no conclusion on effective treatment can be reached.
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