Has anyone tried a bedwetting alarm and has it worked?

[Peanuts33]

I am thinking of buying one for my 7 year old DS who has never had a dry night.

My stepson was prescribed a bedwetting alarm because he too had not had a dry night and is 7 years old. At first it appeared to not be working because the alarm going off would wake everyone in the house but not him! But after a few weeks of using the alarm we noticed an improvement in him not sleeping so heavily and within a few months he was completley dry and has been for a few months now. I was very surprised it worked as we had tried everything, it took time though so if you get one then keep going with it. Good luck :-)

My friend bought one when her daughter was only 3 as she had been previously dry at night but because they were going on holiday and she was worried her dd might wet the bed (change of routine etc.) she put her in a pull up and dd started wetting at night again. This carried on for ages when she got home so my friend bought one and it worked within a few nights.

My son was given one when he was still regularly wet at night aged 8. At the time, he was sharing his room with DS1 (11) in the bunk above, and a friends 1 year old in a travel cot. (Long story...)

The only person it ever woke was me. And by then, it was too late... We didn't persevere for any length of time, so maybe my experience was not typical.

(He grew out of it eventually, and Desmopressin worked for overnight visits to pals. We didn't want to use it every night incase the effect wore off.)

Peanuts has he had his Vasopressin levels checked?

DH had one when he was young - he used to wee deliberately to make the alarm go off.

dd had one from the enuresis clinic when she was 7. It caused lots of hassle - it woke everyone else in the house but not dd :( sometimes it would go off even if she hadn't wet the bed! we stuck with it though and it did work, eventually (took several months). Unfortunately she relapsed after approx 9 months of not using the alarm. We went on to use desmopressin to manage the problem.

Have you asked your GP for a referral to a specialist?

He has been prescribed Desmopressin but I am reluctant to use it as it is not a cure, it is purely for social events like sleepovers etc. Also, GP went to great lengths to explain that it can be quite dangerous if not managed properly so dont really want to give him the medication if it is not going to help long term.

I have read more success stories than failure stories with the alarms so might give it a go. Nothing to lose apart from it costs a bit of money.

He has just given in a urine sample to doc and hospital so I presume that they will be checking his vasopressin level but as I understand it from GP that even if this is low there is nothing we can do about it. It will just come with time.

GP wont refer him to euneris clinic so we are going to have to buy the alarm ourselves. Our GP is really bad at referring for anything. Wouldnt even send him for a nut allergy test when he had a bad reaction to nuts. Just said, if you think he is allergic to nuts, keep him away from nuts.

GP said if it was not managed properly it could cause fits and was not meant to be used for more than a week at a time therefore should only really use it for social reasons like sleepovers. I mentioned that I had heard that it could kick start his body but GP said that it was untrue and that nothing would work apart from time. Have a feeling that my GP doesnt know what he is talking about to be honest!

We took our son to the GP at 7 years old as he had never been consistently dry at night from potty training age. He has an overnight school trip in July so we took him last year to try to give us time to sort the problem.

He was prescribed desmopressin and it worked really well. He stopped taking the medication months ago and is now dry for about 3 weeks, and then he'll wet the bed.

He too is a very heavy sleeper. We are thinking of putting him back on desmopressin for the trip. It doesn't bother us usually as we are used to it.

I think your GP is a loon scaring you half to death with side effects of medication. You only have to google these days to find all the info you need on medicines.

We didn't consider the alarm as ds1 would sleep through a bomb going off in his room

your GP is giving very out of date advice

dd was taking it full time, not just for sleepovers / camp etc. The specialist said to take for 3 months then have a week off to see if the problem was still there.

Yes there are side effects, but if taken properly (no drinks after taking meds) they are very, very rare.

Is there another GP you can see at the practice?

Peanuts I am currently using an alarm with my 7 year old. He too has never had a dry night.

It's early days - less than a week. But it does seem to be working in that his first wake-up with the alarm is getting later and later: first 1130pm, then 1230am then 1am and last night it was 4am. So I am praying we are on the road to a full nights sleep soon.

I can tell you all the details if you're interested. But the first thing to know is that the instructions say the alarm will not work unless the child is motivated. After using the alarm I can see why that is the case. It's a really hard process for both parent and child but especially the child. It's no fun being woken from a deep sleep several times a night, sodden. I was able to say to DS, and mean it (sort of :)) "DS this is up to you. I will support you if you want to do it but it's not easy and so only you can decide when you are ready to do it " because I had borrowed the alarm from a friend. I would have felt a lot less sanguine about it all if I had forked out 100 odd quid for an alarm. So, if you do want to go ahead, you might want to think about borrowing an alarm to start.

Let me know if you want the mechanics of how we did it.

And please, please cross fingers for me for tonight - I am so hoping this will be his first ever dry night, but perhaps it's too soon for that.

Bed alarms can really work and do have a high success rate if used properly. Ideally speak to somebody at ERIC, the national children's charity for bedwetting - they can help you understand what will suit your child best. The Helpline is 0845 370 8008 and they also have a good website: www.eric.org.uk.