When you out grew your bedwetting to the point that you were no longer wearing diapers to bed, how much longer did your rubber sheet remain on your bed “just in case”?
Out of curiosity, do rubber sheets make crinkle noises? If they do that would totally bother me…
Rubber rustles, plastic crinkles. I have always loved my rustling hospital type rubber sheet on my mattress.
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Mine stayed on my bed until I left home in my early 20s. I was a bedwetter well into my teens and it just seemed sensible for those just in case moments. I have one on my bed now, but have never been able to find one of the same quality as the one from my youth.
I stopped wearing diapers to bed, well before I should have. So I had more than the occasional “accident” where my mattress was saved by the rubber sheet. I still remember that faint smile on my mother’s face when at age 16 I suggested I didn’t need the rubber sheet anymore. She just looked at me with an incredulous look-“just in case”. 15 years later that rubber sheet remains on my bed at my parent’s house.
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I think mine stayed on for years because children get sick and they they have diarrhea and throw up. We always had mattress protectors on our kids’ beds and still do, even though they are guest beds now. You can get those fabric mattress protectors which don’t smell and don’t crinkle.
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I still do.
I wore diapers well into my late teens about 16 , continued to wear diapers just in case till about 17 , had those goodnites bed mats on my bed till about 18 .
The rubber is not as noisy as plastic and I love the rustleing sound as you shake it out to put on the bed. Wearing rubber pants, even under shorts, is not very noisy compared to plastic when you are out and about in public.
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That is a good question and I have no answer. I have no idea how long after I stopped wetting the bed that the extra protection came off.
I had a semi clear white vinyl one on the bed when young about 3 years old . It lasted just so long and started to yellow and rip in spots .I was about 8 or 9 then mom just put some padded cloth cover on. I guess she was confident I was well past bed weting age. It was true ,I never wet that bed and had it until I was almost 20 years old. I actually didnt have a vinyl one on the new bed I got when I then lived on my own there after. I just never got around to getting a plastic cover. I was also into diapers and plastic pants then and figure I was to occupied with the diapers to think too much of the mattress.
As a regular bed-wetter and diaper-wearer, I always have protection on my mattress. Right now, it is a “water-proof” cloth mattress pad with the plastic layer sandwiched in between two cloth layers. It doesn’t rustle or crinkle much and is not terribly hot in warm weather. I would not ever be without protection for my bed.
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It wasn’t long, perhaps three months. Believe mom though removal of the beloved rubber sheet would formally close the bedwetting chapter of my upbringing. It was a sad day. I missed the sheet searching the house end to end to no avail. At the time it never crossed my mind, but in retrospect when my bedwetting tapered off I should have filled the void with occasional purposeful to retain the rubber sheet.
I stopped having to wear DryNites at about 8 years of age, but the white plastic sheet stayed on until I finished primary school (I would have been 11) - my parents made a big deal about me starting high school without needing my plastic sheet.
And how often after you finished with the DryNites, did that white plastic sheet get used for its intended purpose?
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It got a workout every 1-2 months for a few years, but then only once in the last year that I had to have it on my bed. Then I got a new mattress!! Despite the plastic sheet’s best efforts, my first mattress had been punished; it had dark yellow stains too numerous to count. My dad used to say the springs were rusty from being wet all the time.
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Your Dad was probably right 
I had a grey rubber sheet that covered the entire mattress. My mattress never got stained in all those years so the sheet did its job. But that grey sheet had a pronounced off yellow “sweet spot” from it years of use that left no question as to what its job was.
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My bed always had a fitted plastic sheet all the time I lived at home.
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I probably had one as a kid but it eventually was retired. When I was 11, I had a really bad stomach bug and my mother put trashbags underneath the sheets to protect them. Now it’s a good idea to have one regardless, because it keeps your mattress in good shape(even if you don’t wear diapers!)
Did you ever wet the bed at boarding school?