To try a bed wetting alarm

[ChipsCheeseAndBeans]

My 7 year old is still not dry at night. Wears a pull up to bed which is very heavy in the morning. If he goes to bed in pants he wets the bed but doesn’t even wake up when wet.

Spoke to the doctor who is going to refer him for a scan to see if there is a problem with him not emptying his bladder fully. He is reluctant to try him on medication until he is 9.

He can’t go for sleepovers with his friends or on overnight school trips. Although that us not a problem at the moment because of covid.

Just wondering if anyone had success with alarms and if so which ones, as there are so many out there.

I was also woken sharply in the middle of the night by groggy parents who'd rather not be up (I understand they were trying their best) for weeks. It scared the shite out of me being shook awake in the dark and walked into the bathroom to be watched sitting on the toilet. All horrible.

I'm going to against the grain here. Please Google Dr Steve Hodges and bedwetting. He is a consultant urologist with years of experience of dealing with bedwetting children and teenagers. I think he has a website bedwettingandaccidents.com. There is a lot of information there about bedwetting, enuresis and encopresis. I used his protocol for my son's wetting issues and found it extremely useful.

And all of these would have been tried on me from age 4 up until around age 9 with no success. It was all too much for me.
My parents eventually left it alone(gave up?) . Just used plastic sheet and washed the regular sheets when it happened. I was ok by 12.

We had success with a Rodger bedwetting alarm, probably at a bit older though. You can buy new or secondhand ones on eBay.

If you can get an appointment at an enuresis clinic they were brilliant and it worked within two weeks, it included drinking more liquid in the day (ideally water /milk), avoiding drink just before bed etc, I also got a half bed sheet thing which goes over the top of the bottom sheet so in case there was an accident you can just whip off the half sheet thing without too much fuss,

My daughter was the same, we ended up getting our referral to the consultant when she was about 8 ... she was wet every night, and struggled in the day, plus recurrent urinary infection.
She had desmopressin at night, and Oxybutinin in the daytime ... it was hormonal, and also, the tube between her bladder and kidneys was too short (which rectified itself as she got older).
She was on medication until she was about 12 .. now at 14, no problems at all.
I was also a bedwetter until my teens, my parents tried all the restricting drinks etc ...all I ended up feeling was ashamed

I can't help on the alarm, but I used to be a Scout leader. On Beaver sleepover (6-8 year olds) the lads all had a bizarre pyjama fight whilst wearing pull-ups/pj bottom equivalents. Most of the parents had had a quiet word in advance, but obviously we couldn't tell them that others were in the same situation.

A few of the Cubs attended camp with the days disposable pj bottom pant things too.

Teach him to bag it and bin it himself. He won't be the only one on nights away that needs them

DS was not dry at night until he was 9. He were the bed every single night. But he is high sensitive and very anxious so I didn't want to try the alarm as we thought it would be too distressing.

We just waited it our and he has now been dry every night for nearly 2 years although he is still a really heavy sleeper.

It was a really hard slog but we just focused on layering sheets and making it as easy as possible to deal with in the night.

Good luck

DS wasn't dry till he was 8. I remember wondering the same. We tried an alarm and it didn't work (didn't stay clipped on, didn't wake him up!). He often wouldn't even wake up when he was wet just in the morning.

In the end I waited till summer (sheets easy to dry on the line), bought two waterproof under sheets from IKEA and would make the bed under sheet / sheet / under sheet / sheet. This meant if he woke up I could just pull off the top layer. Over the summer he learnt to wake up and now nearly two years later never wets the bed. Once he'd got it it was fine just took a while.

Don't feel disheartened OP.

No advice to help solve the bed wetting, however I just wanted to reassure you about school trips. As a teacher, on almost every residential trip I have been on (year 6 so 10-11 year olds) we have had a bed wetter or someone who has had an accident. It has been no big deal and just another part of my job when I'm away, so don't let that worry you unnecessarily

My DD was a bedwetter. At 7 she got a referral to the NHS enuresis clinic and that helped a lot. They were not a fan of giving meds until trying other routes. It is important to realise it is not their fault; it is often hormonal. It helps to train the bladder to increase capacity: have them drink regularly from morning until end of the day and also regularly go to the loo. But not lots of liquid in the evening or right before bed. Bedwetting alarm may help some (although my DD not so much). And a chart to mark dry and wet nights so you get an idea of improvement as I lost track. We used Brolly sheets which are super easy to just take off the bed in case of accidents and quickly replace. At one point she could do it herself. Even though washing sheets is more hassle, I found it worked better than using nappies, as she would feel wetness rather then not feel anything. We did use Drynites for sleepovers (you may find they are dry at sleepovers anyway). And one day it will magically stop. Mine was 9.

I'd second what @WoolieLiberal has said regarding blackcurrant and sugar-free squash. The only time my DD wet the bed as a toddler (she was reliably dry by age 2 yrs 3 months) was on a few occasions when she'd had a Fruit Shoot at a birthday party. Without fail Fruit Shoot = wet bed (we didn't ever buy them at home, nor any other squash).
My SIL confided in me that DNiece was still regularly bed wetting at 8 or 9. She was a huge squash drinker - almost constantly guzzling on a bottle of something. I mentioned about the Fruit Shoot link with DD and she stopped DNiece drinking squash. Lo and behold, she was dry almost immediately.

My Ds just suddenly went dry at night aged 6.5 - so not much different really. Showed no real sign of being about to - in fact he was just about to have a blood test to check all was ok.

I know friend who have had the sudden kicking in of dry at night at 7 - I believe it’s to do with them making a certain hormone.

I’d have hated an alarm.

Second the dry easy. Used for my 6 year old in first lockdown. Worked amazingly. Completely dry after a week or so. Was obviously just habit with him rather than anything else. We tried the malem with bed mat before that but didn't find it sensitive enough and were about to give up and speak to GP when I thought I'd give the dry easy a final shot.

I wouldn't panic yet. He's still relatively young. My DS was still wearing pull ups at this age and by 8 was completely dry. Also a very deep sleeper. What worked for us was getting him to drink loads during the day until 6pm and making sure he went to the toilet properly every time. I had read that the bladder muscle isn't strong enough to hold all night and needed trained like any other muscle. Made sense as he was always dashing to the loo and not going for long. This and a combination of patience and him wanting to get rid of pull ups sorted it.

We used a wet stop. It worked brilliantly for my 5.5 year old. It was an absolute miracle and he was fully dry within a month easily.

For us we were in lockdown, referals would take ages. We did googling. We tried upping liquid in the day. We tried restricting night drinking after 5pm but this felt cruel to be honest. We didn't pick up from after school care until 5:15 so basically or was home for tea but no drink. We made sure he only had water but I never liked saying he couldn't have a drink. Anyway we knew that the nice guidelines would be try these things and then either an alarm or medication. We wouldn't have wanted to try medication first. Quick Google, alarms available for £30. Best money we spent!

Wish we had done it sooner. Previous to this he'd never once had a dry night and pull ups always incredibly heavy in the morning. He never woke when he wet himself at night. Now on the one or two occasions he has done so, he wakes up. So that's something!

It's worth a try. It's not going to harm.

My DS was still wearing night time pull ups at 7 as well as the odd accident (usually when laughing) in the day. Doctor was trying to push for referral to clinic but I hated the idea of medicating (7 still definitely in "normal" range) so we agreed to try the bed-wetting alarm. It was awful, he would definitely wake up (very wet) but it was so distressing, and he would be so upset plus the whole house would wake up we just couldn't stick at it. The alarm is just so loud and scary. We just went back to pull ups and he became dry after a while on his own. Yes he couldn't really go on sleepovers but he wasn't really into doing those anyway at that age.

He still has the odd accident every few months but it is usually during the day when he's left going to the loo to the last minute and then is made to laugh. I think he just naturally has a small, relatively weak, bladder and still lacks the maturity to go to the loo enough in advance!

The Malem alarm was a godsend for us with DS. He was 7 and a very heavy sleeper, waking with a hugely full pull up every morning. Luckily, a friend whose son was 9, had already been through the experience. They had been going to a clinic for 2 years using various techniques like monitoring fluid intake during the day and increasing it earlier etc but nothing worked until they gave her the alarm 2 years into the process. Her son was dry within 6 weeks. She recommended not waiting and going straight for the alarm. DS was dry within 3 weeks and we have never looked back. You might as well try it to see and if it doesn't work you haven't lost anything by trying. For the first week it was a bit like having a newborn waking again but we saw gradual improvements immediately and DS responded so well to seeing how much better he was getting on his chart monitoring progress. I was quite open about it afterwards to find that so many of his friends were in the same situation.

We used one from ERIC worked in 3 days. Life changing for DS who could then go on his Beavers sleepover and not have to take a pull up.

The alarm worked within a few nights and completely stopped my 7 year old daughter bedwetting. I was amazed how effective it was. Have a look at the Eric website too, apparently bedwetting can be helped by lots of other things and there are good tips on there. We got our alarm via the nhs as the gp referred us to the paediatric continence team. A word of advice though, they are really loud so have a practice run at turning it off as being woken up by a disorientated child sporting a beeping and flashing pager thing is a bit intense!

I was a prolific bed wetting child in the 80’s (every night without fail), thankfully my parents were amazing and tried everything to try and help me: night visits to the loo, limiting drinks after certain times, plastic sheets, giant nappies (these came with me for end of primary stopover and found by friends 😔) unfortunately nothing worked. Finally mum pushed and I was taken to hospital for investigation, bladder scan and they tried a bed alarm which solved the problem after 5 nights and I never wet again!! Could finally have sleepovers and the top bunk!! Defo give it a try, no negatives just a massive positive for your child if it works. My only wish is that it had been done sooner 😀 good luck x

I wet the bed till I was early teens.

Nothing my mother tried made any difference.

Thankfully she understood that I couldn't help it and never made me feel bad.

Please don't make this a big issue. Your child already feels bad enough.

He will grow out of it eventually.

Our DS is 7 and has only very recently stopped wetting at night (although we still get the odd random wet bed every now and then). We tried everything, but decided against a bed alarm. My husband was made to use one as a child and has vivid memories of it being quite scary being jolted awake by it in the night. Plus it didn't stop his bed wetting. He stopped on his own at 12. An alarm may well have worked with DS but we decided to let it happen naturally. Especially as he never seemed distressed about being wet, was very matter of fact about it and we never let it prevent him from going to sleepovers/Beavers camp etc.

I'm sure your child will get there in time. Good luck 😊 I know how stressful it can be. I know it's hard but, providing there is no medical reason of course, try and go with the flow (....sorry)

We used the Wet Stop for DD2 when she was 8. She'd never been dry at night and also had urgency/constantly needing the toilet through the day problems. Plus she'd had some accidents at school which was embarrasing for her at 7/8. She'd had a couple of infections and was referred for a renal scan which all turned out to be fine. We'd tried everything before the alarm - bladder training, more drinks through the day and no drinks after a certain time, etc

The alarm didn't work the first time because she would just unhook it when it went off and go back to sleep or not wake up at all - she was wetting the bed 2/3 times a night sometimes. We had a break after about 3 weeks of no progress because we were pretty exhausted. We tried again and the second time it finally clicked.

I hope things work out for you soon, it is a stressful thing to work through.

You can get cheap alarms (around £10-12) on ebay and they work fine - at least our's did.