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.

My daughter is only just dry at night and turned 9 today. She was wearing night pants every night and had very few dry nights until November last year, then it just seemed to happen naturally, she had dry pants for a couple of weeks and at the start of the Christmas holidays went without and has been dry ever since. We had her checked out and spoke to community nurse etc and all was fine. They suggested an alarm, but we were reluctant as was told it pretty much wakes the whole household and with both me and my husband working we didn't want the disruption. There was nothing physically wrong with her so we decided to leave it to happen naturally. She had sleepovers and her friends weren't bothered. she'd just end up leaving the pants in her bag or sleeping bag. Strangely quite often when she had a sleepover she was dry. Just wanted to give our experience of not intervening. If there are no physical issues it will happen eventually. Hope it works out for you. I know how frustrating it feels and also is difficult for the kids too.

That's fantastic! It seems to be working so quickly for your son, he must be delighted.

@Cumberlover76

It is correct that in most cases bed wetting will resolve itself, however sometimes a bit of mild intervention may speed things up.

I was all for leaving it, as my parents had. My parents just provided huge “child size” nappies that had to be bought specially from the chemists until I stopped bed wetting.

I did the same with both DD’s and provided DryNites for them, however I would also try some gentle interventions at regular intervals, with their cooperation, such as going without DryNites and trying the alarm (which didn’t work for us). Then I found out about how cordials can be a cause, and ditching them was our miracle cure.

I imagine that without trying this and changing nothing, both DDs would probably still be in DryNites.

I also wonder whether if I had found out earlier the bed wetting might have ended earlier and I might have saved quite a bit in buying DryNites!

The DryNites makers simply advocate waiting and providing protection, but of course it’s in their interests for your child to keep wetting the bed as it means more sales for then.

I would advise a gentle but proactive approach, providing protection if the child wants it but experimenting with interventions, with the child’s cooperation, avoiding anything that causes stress or humiliation.

Myself and 3 of my friends used the dry easy one from Amazon and it worked for all of us!! Our kids were all 5/6 years old and still wearing pull ups and waking up soaked every day. Everyone is dry now! Im always quick to recommend it :)

Following on from my previous post. My son has not had any blackcurrant or orange squash for 8 days now and he has not wet the bed once!!

Dry easy worked for a 5 year old. I was very sceptical to be honest but it was a miracle worker. The first few days alarm went off 5 times a night then after that child woke up after a few hours around midnight for a wee and alarm went off once around 5-6am. By the end of the second week was getting up for wee alone and holding second wee till the morning. It’s been nearly 2 years now and not a single accident since using the alarm!

As a child I was given an alarm by the dr but I was such a heavy sleeper that I used to just press the off button and carry on weeing.
I wet the bed until I was 14 embarrassingly. I now look back and realise what an anxiety ridden child I was and I think it was down to that.

@user1468105798

Yes!!!! I’m glad I’m not the only one who found this to be the miracle-cure!

@blackbettybramblejam

Wow. Now that’s a deep sleeper if your body will unconsciously switch off the alarm so you can carry on weeing! I was a similar age to you when it stopped, if that’s any comfort. Did you get the giant nappies too or were you one of those who was made to feel bad about it like so many of our generation were?

Six dry nights in a row. Wish I had got this alarm sooner. The only downside is now he wakes up early to wee and doesn’t go back to sleep.

@ChipsCheeseAndBeans

Wow, that’s incredible!!! Well done

Great news!

It really can be a miracle, well done to you and your son for sticking with it.

My DS (10) is/was a bedwetter. We tried the alarm when he about 7/8 and it didn't work. Bedwetting is down to a chemical in the brain and so DC's cannot be trained to not wet the bed.

In the end we double layered his bed (mattress, waterproof sheet, normal sheet, waterproof sheet, normal sheet then DS then duvet). this way if he wet the bed we could just strip the top layer of sheets and not have to remake the bed at 3am. DS got very good at taking his sheets down in the morning and putting them by the washing machine.

Important thing is to NEVER make them feel guilty for wetting the bed, they feel this anyway and (not saying you do) but if you make a fuss, it just heightens their anxiety. We stopped all liquids after 7pm and made him go for a wee at bedtime.

Miraculously, when school stopped for Covid DS stopped regular wetting overnight and now just has an accident once or twice a month. He sometimes wears a pull up (for security more than anything)

Well done! A little intervention or change with the cooperation of the child can work wonders.

“Just leave it” is what the DryNites manufacturers want you to do as they sell more pants that way. Intervention might not work for all, but it’s got to be worth a try.

Yes it defo works, mine were both 8 years old when we did it and worked in around 2/3 weeks

@WoolieLiberal I had sanitary towels and felt hugely ashamed. I’m so relieved that my DD doesn’t wet the bed!

We got one called WetStop from Amazon, worked really well. HOWEVER it turns out he has ADHD and having meds for that really helped, as has age and time. He's almost 10 and almost always dry at night now but its been a long slog. If he wets 2 nights in a row then he has to wear the alarm again but the 'threat' of the alarm is usually enough to get him dry again. Start of term is always worse, not sure if its anxiety or extra tiredness but I'm expecting some instances this week 🙄

I suggested to DS that we try not having the alarm tonight, as he has been dry for over a week now to see how he gets on. I thought he would jump at the chance, as I don’t see how it can be that comfortable being attached to the pants but he is reluctant to let go of it. Think he is really pleased with himself for being dry and is scared that if the alarm goes he might go back to being wet.

@ChipsCheeseAndBeans we were told to wait till we’d had a clear fortnight of dry nights before trying without, to allow the habit to become really ingrained

@ChipsCheeseAndBeans

He’s achieved a lot. I’d let him keep the alarm for a little if it acts as a mental security for him.

Perhaps take the batteries out after a week and then after another week of dry nights show him there were no batteries in it and he doesn’t need it any more.

We had a few wet nights after thinking we'd cracked it, so I'd definitely keep it for a bit longer, especially if your DS is happy enough.

Just a quick update. He is still dry,. Wish we had got this a long time ago. He has gone a week now with no alarm at all and still completely dry. Only downside, that I am happy to live with is that he gets up at 5.30 am to go to the toilet and doesn’t go back to sleep.