Bed wetting alarms-please help!

[Washingbeddingeveryday]

My 8 year old has never been dry at night, no problems with continence during the day, no behavioural concerns/any relevant health issues. We’ve done the cutting down drinks before bed, double pre-bed wee etc. I spoke to the GP ages ago- they suggested a bed wetting alarm was the only option. We bought one and used it with limited success, then it broke and I kept on thinking/ hoping my child would grow out of it, this clearly isn’t happening!

Can anyone recommend an alarm please, so we can try again before I return to the GP? My child sleeps in a double bed, so the pad alarm we had before wasn’t always effective if they rolled off it in the night. I was thinking a pants clip one might be better but I’m completely bamboozled by the choice and can never get through to the ERIC helpline for advice. Please help me (and my washing machine...)!

Maybe he shouldn’t be in a double bed at his age? It seems he has too much space, so he can just wee and then roll to a dry patch? In a smaller space he would get uncomfortable and this would trigger his instinct to get up and go to the loo.

No the size of bed really isn’t the issue! It happens whatever size bed they are in, my child doesn’t roll onto a dry patch to get more comfortable, they are deeply asleep and don’t wake up. The issue with the double bed is that the bed alarms are fairly small and so if they have rolled off it and then wee- it doesn’t alarm.

Anyone else have any recommendations for bed wetting alarms or any success stories to give me some hope please?!

We have had endless problems with our eldest and bedwetting. DC has always been a heavy sleeper and even when they were a baby always woke with a sodden nappy. Although things are a lot better now it had been an every night occurance for years. Dry in the day with no problems.

They are now 16 and still not completely dry at night - it's very rare now though and they have medication for when they go on overnight trips or sleep overs just in case.

We used this alarm from ERIC: www.eric.org.uk/shop/dry-me-bedwetting-alarm which was helpful, even though they often slept through it.

We were referred to the children's bladder and bowel service which helped a bit, but being told the same old information over and again wasn't really that useful; no blackcurrant squash, no juice, nothing with caffeine, plenty of water, etc, were things we were already doing with limited success. There was also an underlying issue with recurrent UTIs which was ultimately treated with a daily antibiotic for about a year.

We've also seen a paediatrician and DC had various scans to rule out any kidney or bladder problems. Thankfully there is nothing untoward going on, just the unending ability to sleep through anything!

Definitely keep pestering your GP. I hope you get things resolved soon.

We used an alarm for our 8 year old. Can’t recall the brand but it had pants with a sensor inside and an alarm plugged in the wall socket outside her room. We hardly slept a wink the first couple of nights waiting for the alarm go off. But I reckon within a week there was a definite improvement and after no more than a month we didn’t need the alarm anymore.

One great tip was to layer up the bed - waterproof / sheet / waterproof / sheet etc so you can whip off the top layers and straight back in to bed.

Good luck.

My son used a Rodger alarm. There is a sensor that clips onto a pair of undies. Works really well. Can get them both new and used on ebay.

Thank you both @SedentaryCat and @buzzing. I’ll look at that alarm, there are so many different options it’s good to have a recommended starting point. Yes, I layer up the bed, makes things a lot easier in the night!

Cross posted @Lunariagal! Thank you, I’ll google that one too.