Picked up night wetting alarm - what to expect?

[Mij]

DD (7yrs 5months) was out of nappies of her own accord early, and was dry at night for about 6 months at the same time, but took ages to be reliable in the day and hasn't been dry at night since.

We followed ERIC advice, but have been lifting her for a few months just because the GP thought we should see if it conditioned her to wee less, and while it certainly hasn't stopped her needing to wee at night, she is down to just the one wee, whereas when she was in pull ups I'm sure it was two or three times a night (and it seemed to be that frequency when we first left the pullups off).

SO I've had the full chat from the clinic and I know it can take months, and doesn't always work (she's a deep sleeper but has the quieter alarm because she shares a room with her 4yo sister) but what have other MNers' experiences been? All anecdotes welcome!

:)

I bought an alarm for DS (just 6) as he was wetting the bed almost nightly. Within the first week it only happened 3 times and now about 12 weeks in its about once a week. I think the longest wee free night has been about 10 days. I was amazed how quickly it worked but a but disappointed it hasn't fully solved things. We have the type which is like a mat that goes under them and alarms if it gets wet. It worked wellbin the toddler bed, but we got him a full size bed a few weeks ago and he has not always been on the mat when he's weed.

Solved my problem as a child but it wasn't until the second round.

I had my 5.5 year old do this. The alarm went off once for a few nights and then he had a couple of totally dry days. Then due to tiredness I think he had another couple of alarms but then after that totally dry! It's been months now. I kept him in the Rodger (alarmed) underwear for about a month. He had never had a dry night previous to us doing it. It really was a miracle and him and I couldn't be happier. I recommend the Rodger system. It's regular looking underwear that a sends a signal to the alarm that is plugged in. If the alarm goes off (which is insanely loud) the child has to get out of bed go over to it and reset it themselves. Then they go to the toilet to finish their wee.

are they expensive?
ds is wet 6/7 at 6.11

Have you tried upping the daytime liquid. I was always told they need to increase bladder size by drinking more, so it has more capacity at night

Whereisegg ds3 was wet at least 4/7 at 6.11 was completely dry (no accidents at all) at 7.2. What did we do? Nothing. He was just ready. I would give it a bit longer.

thank you jinty!
it doesn't bother me or dp in the slightest but ds is getting harder to reassure

Mine cost around £100 from Amazon. There are cheaper ones but the one I bought had 5 stars and great reviews.

Thanks guys, yes we'e been through all the daytime wetting strategies too, including upping daytime liquid, as she had periods of wetting up until 6. It's a proper struggle though, especially in Juniors when, despite being told she is allowed to go the toilet any time she needs she's still worried to ask as others get sanctioned for needing to go during lesson times :-/ She's also clearly not dehydrated so we're basically asking her to override her own physical cues. She does have small capacity but manages it well in he day, but as she's now a very heavy sleeper, she just doesn't wake up, not even in a wet bed.

The alarm we have is loaned by the NHS. Sounds like we're lucky...

Oh, and guess what: she was only bloody dry last night. I'm sure it was fluke and because she didn't drink much yesterday though. Either that or the lifting has actually fixed her an we didn't know!

sorry for tge hijack mij
keep us (me!) posted, best of luck!

think we'll try upping daytime drinking...

very curious how you get on.

Worked like a dream for DS approx 8yrs old at the time. Got it via the NHS--doctor warned me it would wake everyone else up too, and it did! It's got to be loud to work. Was worth it, though, as he was dry for good after about 3 or 4 nights.

Well this is embarrassing. 4 nights dry. It may not last of course but if it does we'll never know if she's have done it anyway, whether she was actually dry before but the lifting masked it (though she had wet a few nights before we lifted her a couple of weeks ago) or whether just the presence of the alarm had triggered something in her subconscious. Ah well. No help to the rest of you. Sorry!

great news though

Whereisegg Well yes, and still dry. 8 nights in a row. The instructions say to keep using it until there have 14 consecutive nights dry, so we're sticking with it. It's interesting to see that she seems fine regardless of how much she's drunk in the day. If she makes it to 14 nights, it'll be interesting to see if removing the alarm changes anything. And if not, I may try relaxing the 2 hour before bedtime drink embargo.

So did not expect this result!

so do you think it's from drinking more in the day?

Whereisegg I honestly don't know. We've been working on getting more water in her during the day for literally years, because of the day wetting, so I suspect that either something was about to change anyway, or a combination of that plus taking her out of pull ups, plus the 1/5-2hr embargo on drinks before bed (which obviously has to go with more drinks before then, otherwise they'll be really thirsty) may have just switched something in her brain. Or maybe production of whatever that hormone is that controls urine production overnight just reached the required level. I wish I did know then I could work on it for DD2!

Update: 1 week with no alarm and dry so far. Going to give it another week before giving it back though.