The present disclosure generally pertains to systems and methods for disabling routing table purges in wireless networks. In one exemplary embodiment, a node is for use in a wireless sensor network and comprises memory that is configured to store a routing table specifying at least one data route through the wireless sensor network. The node also comprises logic that is configured to track time and to automatically purge at least one entry of the routing table based on the tracked time thereby forcing a rediscovery of a data route for the purged entry. The logic is further configured to selectively disable automatic routing table purges based on user input.