Anyone have any experience with those night alarm thingy's? DS at 6.9 is still not dry at night. All advice appreciated.

[worriermum]

DS toilet-trained quickly and easily just before three, but has never been dry at night, not even for one night. He turns seven in four months.

We've tried to be casual about it but he is very embarrassed in front of his friends, and to be honest I'm heartily sick of the whole urine-soaked nappies shtick. He does just seem too old - yikes, is that a terrible thing to say? I think perhaps it's because we can't get pullups where we live, so I have to put a nappy on him each night and well, it just feels odd to be putting a nappy on my big, articulate soccer-playing boy.

Anyway, I am very keen to help him out of night nappies for all the above reasons. Do those alarms work? Or anything else? Anyone have any reassuring stories for me? In fact, any stories at all for me - all advice greatly appreciated.
thanks in advance.

I think they recommend that the child is at least 7 to try the alarms, or sometimes 8.

We had success at 8 with DS1, but they never worked with DS2, who became dry naturally at 13.

The alarms that go in the pants work the best, as they go off quicker. We got ours from ERIC - www.eric.org.uk, which is also a mine of useful information.

The alarm does wake the whole house, and often not the child, who can be sleepy and grumpy and won't cooperate.

There's also desmopressin spray, which simulates the natural hormone that reduces urine production at night. We used this for school trips. DS2 was older though. Not sure I'd want a 6 yo to administer it himself.

Get a referral to a clinic - we are going through this with ds at the moment (he is 7) and like your son has never been dry (he sleeps like the dead). We are going to be given an alarm today and I am not sure how I feel about it, but will give it a try. The clinic seem to think that with ds the main issue is that his bladder isn't big enough (he is a small child) and thus can't hold a night's worth of wee! It is not as uncommon a problem as you might think!

Definitely get your doctor or health visitor to refer you to a eneuris clinic.
It was the best thing we did, my DS was 7 too before we finally cracked it.
Its a bit of a taboo subject at school, but I found that at least 2 other boys in the class were going through the same thing.

the clinics can help to discover whether its a hormonal thing and therefore prescribe a pill to help; or if not they can help with using an alarm etc to break the habit.

My DS refused the pull-ups or pyjama pants - and we used 2 washable mats which lay on top of his sheet. These protected the sheet and matress - and then I just got used to washing loads of bedding.
We had a cheap duvet which fitted in out machine and was washable too.

He got treated to lovely new bedding and matress when he cracked the bedwetting - and it was within a week or 2 of attending the clinic.

Hang on in their - and don't worry it is so much more common than you think.

Thank you so much for the encouragement and advice - feeling a bit desperate about it. But we are far away in a small thirld world country so going to a clinic is not an option. From your experiences, is there any way to work out if the problem is hormonal or small bladder without proper testing?

ps sorry to vanish once I'd started the thread - power outages here

Sent you a message worriermum. Hope you recieve it. Hopefully with the info you want. Karen.

Hi, everyone, I'm in the same shoes as worriermum. My ds is 7 in two months and had never been dry. occassionally when we don't give him any drink after 5 or 6pm, he'll be dry, but it feels cruel sometime, having dinner at 7pm without not more than a few sips of water.

we tried the alarm and apart from the fact that he didn't like it, he sleeps like a log and wouldn't flinch.

I don't know if it's a good thing or not, but it doesn;t really seem to bother him. He'd like to stop bedwetting, but he doesn't appear at all disturbed by it. I guess it's a good thing in that at least I know there's not long lasting psychological effect, but I wish it would bother him enough to be motivated to try.

It affects me more than him, i'd like for him to go for sleepovers, but he can't because he won't know to refuse drinks after 6pm, or remember to empty his bladder before bedtime, hence my saying i wish it bothered him a little! he has a frienfd in his class that stays over sometimes and ds has been invited to come over too, but i keep finding excuses, i'm just scared he'll wet himself and all the other boys in class will tease the living day light out of him, and such reputations go a long way, and he's only in year2.

I'm not sure what to do now. i don't want him on any medication, but can anyone offer any other advise please.

thanks.

The first thing the clinic did with my DS was get him to keep a drinking and "wee' diary for a week. We had to note down the quantity and type of liquid he was drinking, and then the quantity out (it was a bit yeugh and we used an old plastic jug)
They seemed to be able to work out from that, that is wasn't hormonal - although my DS best friends was a hormonal thing and he got prescribed a tablet to take every night.

They should be encouraged to drink as much as possible, and we weren't restricted to before 6pm for instance.

In fact my DD was very late to be dry at night too - until she was nearly 6 yrs old and this was apparently due to the large amount of milk which shw was drinking late at night. It is slower to be digested and so would make her wee in the middle of the night.
She just grew out of it - although still the occasional accident if she has been drinking loads and maybe stays up late and goes to bed exhausted.

Good luck, sorry you dont have access to a good clinic or good disposable or washable med mats.

4ever21, I don't think there is a magic answer. You have to find what works for you. If you think there might be mileage in your son not drinking after 5 or 6, would it be feasible to give him dinner earlier?

Try and get him to drink more earlier in the day - not easy when they are at school, and try not to let him know it upsets you. If he is very late, like my DS, he will get upset enough on his own in the end.

And try the alarm thing. It works for alot of people.

I would give the alarm a go. I was convinced it wouldn't work for DD1 (age 6 and wet every night)...but hey presto it worked in 2 weeks and we've only had 5 wet nights since February!!! Can't believe it. I bought an alarm and it's the best £100 I've spent this year. Definitely worth a try you might be surprised.

tennisfan is right, intolerance to dairy is often the cause of bedwetting in older DCs.