Bedwetting

[Curlywurly78]

Hello, my 6.5yr old really wants to stop wearing a nappy. We’ve been trying at night but she just doesn’t wake up and wees. I know it might take till 7yr old to produce hormone. But she really wants to stop and would like to support her. Just shelled out £100 on a bed wetting alarm and wanted to know what people’s experiences have been?

thank you!

Surely this is only the case if the hormone production is the cause of the bedwetting? There can be many reasons that cause bedwetting, we were advised that desmopressin should never be used as a first line approach and to work on building up bladder strength by ensuring dd is adequately hydrated during the day and voiding regularly. (She is for what it's worth) but the paediatric team told us they're reluctant to prescribe medication unless all else fails.

Agree @BodyKeepingScore. We tried an alarm - in retrospect it wasn’t appropriate. Son slept through it and drowned the bed. I worked in a nurse led clinic after he got dry dealing with bedwetting. Advice was to drink plenty of clear fluids, not brown, like cola and tea - to help expand bladder capacity. Lifting out of bed to wee at night not advised as child often asleep and not aware. Wearing pull ups not advised. Alarms helpful if not massive urine output overnight. Important that child is not constipated as impacted faeces press on the bladder.

Ok - update:
Night 1: wet +alarm= upset, bed wet but ok after cuddle.
Night 2: dry bed no alarm sounding
Night 3: dry bed no alarm
Night 4: alarm and wet bed at 6am but LO ok not upset apart from having wet bed. Got up towards morning and used potty by her bed.
Night 5: alarm didn’t go off(?!) but LO felt bit of wee and got up to use potty - small wet patch on bed and big wee in potty.

it feels like she is making a link between the feeling and needing to respond now whereas before she would just sleep through. She isn’t a big wee producer in the night - apart from the odd night. Looks like she only has one big wee and that’s it rather than lots of little ones.
I give her the choice every night - and she’s happy to have the alarm. I think her body is somehow learning the link. Will see how next few days go!

When DS was wetting in the night we were advised by the continence nurse to increase fluids (not blackcurrant squash as its mildly diuretic) during the day in order to stretch the bladder. A bigger bladder will then hold enough wee for the night. DS is now half camel .

Can you link the alarm you chose OP?

Sure - it’s DRI Sleeper Eclipse wireless bedwetting alarm £105. I just looked on ERiC website but there are other choices. I went for the wireless as otherwise i wouldn’t sleep worrying about wires in her bed!
it doesn’t look like much when it arrives but it does the job! Knowing what it’s like and how easy to clean I think going for a second hand one would be fine as people that use it might not have it for long if it didn’t work out for them or no
longer need.

Thank you - I’ll look on vinted.

We also did a two wee before bed system - wee when putting on pyjamas, then another one just before lights out 3/4 of an hour or so later.

Update for anyone still following 😀
day 12 and we’ve so far had 3 dry nights in a row. She doesn’t appear desperate for the loo when she wakes - is that normal? Also she wanted drinks in the run up to bedtime which I always let her have if wanted. I expected an accident and reminded her it doesn’t matter if she has any wetness as her body still learning etc. so far seems ok and most importantly she is happy to use the alarm every night but will take someone’s advice on here to keep going with it.
still early days so not declaring it’s done its job yet but just so I can think about it - when would people advise not needing the alarm anymore?

That’s great@Curlywurly78 - sounds like it’s going really well for you. I’m watching your progress and preparing to try it here too (waiting for the holidays to start first I think- not anticipating your levels of success!)

How’s it going OP? We have used the alarm for one night. Just 3 alarm sounds. He didn’t wake for the first one and was really cross with me for waking him and taking him to the toilet. Second one he did wake, also third! It feels like it will be a long process.

Hi - just an update - we had 4 dry nights in a row and then some wetness she woke with the alarm and a big wee in potty, last night was another dry night.
I spoke to the Dri sleeper customer service who were so helpful. They contacted me 2 weeks after purchase but worth getting in touch with specific questions - especially if your child produces a lot of wee at night. This is meant to improve in time I think.
it works on conditioning so hopefully if you’re having several episodes a night there might be chance he/she has more opportunity to make the link between full bladder and needing to wake up.
I think I might be about 3-4 weeks now but will carry on. The advice is a run of dry nights for 14nights before stopping….
let me know how it goes - we’ll get there!!

Hi - it’s been a little hit and miss and more wet than dry nights but will carry on! We have no plans as yet to go away anywhere so yeh summer is definately a good time to start! Good luck!

Yeh my daughter was very upset with me the first night and didn’t want to get out of bed but had to calm her and eventually got her changed and back to bed. It felt awful but I know that she wants to stop wearing pull ups and she was happy to carry on the next night. It must be a shock when that alarm goes off!
good luck with it!!

Hey @Curlywurly78 are you still using the alarm for your DD? How is she getting on? We just started last night (holiday got in the way first!) and we only had one wee overnight which I was pleasantly surprised by. (The last time she went without pull ups she was going about two or three times a night 😱)

I'm interested in how you're getting on too!! My DS6 has to wear pull-ups as he just doesn't wake up. He sleeps through fireworks, thunder you name it!! 🤦🏻‍♀️

Hello! Will be really interesting to hear how things progress for you.
we’ve just recently had a run of 12 nights dry which is amazing and it included short stays away so we kept to routine and took spare sheets etc. I was thinking we’re almost at the point of removing the alarm but then she had a wet night last night! Poor thing, she was ok about it so will carry on with the alarm.
before our good run of dry nights we would have a run of dry nights and then maybe a small wet patch, alarm and then use potty and the run of dry nights got longer and longer. Overall it’s definitely working and worth doing if your little one is happy to do it. Some one said before that 3 months is usually the time you need to continue with it so it’s quite a commitment but is good when you see some changes. We are about halfway now….

That’s amazing progress, very happy for her! On those dry nights, is she waking up to wee in the loo/potty or is she just going right through without needing to get up? I realise I have no idea what’s normal.

I really want to make the most of the summer holidays as am worried about the effect on sleep of doing it when school is back. Night two tonight, fingers crossed…

Hi - yeh it’s difficult to know what’s normal isn’t it. From the nights we went without any help I found she was wetting the bed once and tends to be early morning. So with tackling the bed wetting I knew it was only one wee a night.
in general the dry nights we have now consist of the alarm not going off at all and she is sleeping through. The summer holidays does mean more busy days and perhaps later bedtimes so there have been a couple of nights she’s been so zonked and that’s when we might have a wet bed and not getting up with the alarm so I have to make sure we don’t have too many of those. I always go into her when the alarm goes off as she would definately need help/reminders of what to do. The alarm is quite disorientating for her in the night! I’ve found more recently that there have been a few times when she has woken before the alarm goes off and used the potty or toilet so we’ve had dry nights on those nights but in 1.5 months that’s only been 3 nights that happens. There are other resources that go with the dri sleeper alarm we have that talk about using rewards but I’m not sure I’m ok with that as it’s not really a behaviour we’re trying to change- it’s more about the body learning signals it needs to wake and use the toilet I think.
sorry that was a long answer in the end! Keep in touch and let me know how you get on…

So helpful and interesting - thanks- don’t get this level of detail in real life conversations 😂 Good luck and I’ll let you know how we get on

How is everyone getting on with the alarms?

just an update - we got up to 12 days dry but the 13th night was wet, alarm and no get up at all. But since then have had a run of 13 dry nights so tonight is first night without the alarm so will see how it goes.

hope everyone is doing ok- please do post your progress xx

That’s great, well done to you all! You must feel really pleased.

Sadly our attempt was short-lived. We did it for nearly a week but then had a night of three missed alarms and very little sleep and we needed to go away for the weekend and I just couldn’t face doing it at someone else’s house. DD and I were both knackered too. So we gave up. Don’t feel great about it but it wasn’t really going well. We might wait a bit longer and have another go in a few months.

ahhh - that sounds like a good call. If everyone is not getting sleep then definitely good to put it away and try again another time. And it’s good to make that decision quickly too rather than taking it into the 2nd week. I’ve made those decisions too as everyone just feels miserable. You’ll know when it’s the right time for sure. Just like everything else in child rearing - they all have their different times and even their different ways of doing things but they always get there in the end. Main thing is that everyone feels happy. Put it to one side, enjoy the rest of the summer and time away xx

Been looking for a thread on this! Has anyone else using the Dri Sleeper alarm had tons of false alarms? So far it’s gone off about 4 or 5 times each evening without any wee at all (as well as when it’s actually wet) for the last week we’ve been trying it. DS 7 is always quite warm at night and I think it’s just sweat but we’ve tried the website tips of putting it in a bit of tissue to keep it super dry but I think it’s just making DS annoyed with the alarm going off constantly for no reason, rather than linking it it to needing to wee. Anyone had the same? We’re exhausted - it’s only one actual wee a night but maybe 5 false alarms.

Hi! Ahh that sounds pretty annoying. We didn’t once have a false alarm during the night but maybe a couple of times in the morning when my daughter was taking it out it went off, I remember thinking at the time nothing was wet for it to do that!
i always wrapped some loo roll several times around the device. She had two pairs of knickers on and the device slipped in between the two so it was well wrapped and also cushioned to sleep with. Then pyjama bottoms too.
Maybe try putting another barrier there incase it might be sweat? Hope you have a successful night with it soon, otherwise maybe get in touch with the customer support, they are usually really helpful