Bed wetting alarm?

[ItsTheDramaMickILoveIt]

Are these any good? I can see there’s some on Amazon, just wondering if we should try one. DS is almost 7 and has never been dry at night. His GP isn’t concerned, seems to think it’s just time that he needs. DS is otherwise a healthy and happy boy but seems to be a deep sleeper, and is becoming a bit embarrassed at having to wear a pull-up. We’ve tried the usual - going without pull-ups, he doesn’t drink squash etc or have massive amounts of liquid before bed, and he has a double wee (a wee when we come upstairs and then another before he goes to sleep) but other than a few random nights he’s still wet in the mornings.

Has anyone got any alarm success stories?

Yes! I got the Malem alarm for 6 year old DD.

Same as your DS really- a very deep sleeper and was getting conscious that others in her class were dry at night.
Now it took a while- a good 14-16 weeks I think, but we saw steadyish progress through that time and DD was generally happy to stick with it. I got washable brolly sheets for the bed for easy changing at night, used a big towel instead of her duvet for the early days and she just wore her pants rather than PJ trousers (it was summer).

She's totally dry now having wet every night before using the alarm, so a big thumbs up from me!

Yes. Got one for our then 7 year old deep sleeper. It took about 10 days and he has been dry ever since. It also worked on our 6 year old for different reasons. She was wetting about an hour before getting up and we suspected laziness. Once she knew the alarm was there, she has never wet the bed again.

Oh and I second the PP about the Malem alarm. It was great because it is so loud. We had tried a cheaper one 6 months earlier and DS would sleep through the alarm.

Yep, we had the wetstop alarm and having never been dry for 8 years, he was dry in less than two weeks. Nearly a year later, and not one accident! Good luck!

Yes! We've been using the Wet Stop alarm on our son who's almost 7 for about 6 weeks now and it's definitely working. He's not 100% dry yet, but we're getting more dry than wet nights. He's also a very deep sleeper, but this wakes him up 😃

Yes! We used it for our kid who had never had a dry night. They were dry within 2 weeks! Been dry ever since. Slept in the same room with them for 10 days to help, worth the time investment!

Yes got the Eric one, the mat. Made my 7 year old dry in a week after constant sopping pull ups. It seemed to connect brain to wee! I layered up and put the potty by the bed, the alarm woke me not her and I dashed in there and woke her and made her go on the potty. 'Twas miraculous. 3-4 days disturbed sleep, then maybe once a week for another fortnight .

NHS says to see GP to see Paeds from 5 yes old so def not too early to tackle this

Have a chat with the nurses at www.eric.org.uk.

They are brilliant.

I definitely think it is worth a try. Some kids respond brilliantly to them and it sorts the problem (my DS did after 9 years of being wet at night - I was absolutely amazed) but for other kids it is not effective. If you are able to sleep close to your DS or with bedroom doors open for the first few nights that would really help. Often deep sleepers struggle to wake with the alarm initially (but you will wake) and you may have to quickly go into his bedroom and help him out of bed and straight to the bathroom (telling him to hold on!!) until he associates the sound of the alarm with getting up. It’s exhausting but worth it! We were also advised (by specialist team of nurses) to make sure that my DS had his last drink of the day with his evening meal (around 6pm for him). Absolutely nothing to drink after that. Also make sure your DS is drinking enough regularly during the day and not doing most of his drinking late afternoon (my DS was terrible at this as there weren’t many drinking opportunities at school and he got into the habit). Good luck!

Yes, a bed wetting alarm worked really well for my then 6 year old. As far as i can remember it said if you got 14 dry nights in a row you could cease using the alarm. Took months for us to get to that magic number but only about 3 weeks for the bed wetting to more or less stop. After that it was just the odd dribble that was enough to set the alarm off and change the pants but we very rarely needed to change the bedding after those initial 3 weeks. He thought it was a great idea so no upset or negative feelings towards it at all.

All you can do is try- I came on expecting a resounding NO and am surprised to be in the minority. If it causes distress don’t persist. A friend’s 9 yo child became v stressed by it, ended up on the meds for bed wetting, then started fainting. They stopped it all & a year later bingo it stopped overnight

We used a Malem alarm under the guidance of the enuresis nurse. Our DD was 8 and saturated most nights despite all the other recommendations. The alarm worked in days. She was delighted to use the gadget so no negative connotations. It’s quite a cute little alarm. I have no idea if it was as a result of the alarm or she was just ready but it was an enormous relief as it was becoming a real pain with sleepovers and camps.

Almost exactly the same experience as @bluebutterfly36.

We were also told to get an alarm watch to make sure ds went to the toilet every two hours during the day.
We spoke to school who helped make sure he was drunk enough during the day.
No fizzy drinks or black currant drinks.
It took a month I think, we definitely woke up before him at first but it did work.

Watching this thread as may need the advice!

We spoke to school who helped make sure he was drunk enough during the day.

Oh dear I really should proof read 🤣

Sometimes it’s a salicylate ( food such as grapes tomatoes, Tomato sauce, oranges, fruit juice, etc) intolerance or dairy intolerance that causes the bed wetting so it stops when you remove those foods.

@Sparky888

NHS says to see GP to see Paeds from 5 yes old so def not too early to tackle this

Yes - I read that, and went to the doctor around the time he turned 5, and then again at 6. The GP explained about the alarms, and mentioned some medication which can be taken, but didn’t seem to want to push anything and said most children do work through it with time. DS had had a couple of nasty UTIs (as a toddler, but another one last year) so the medication didn’t sit right with me.

Thank you all so much! I’ve ordered the Wet Stop. I think it’s definitely time to try something to give him a little push in the right direction. We have a 3yo as well, who trained in a flash, day and night at just turned 2. The thing I’ve always wondered about with night time wetness is there seems to be differing yet trustworthy theories of how it works - some seem to suggest it’s a hormone that needs to be produced which wakes them up, which can take time, and some seem to think the wetting can be trained away. DS does seem to genuinely not realise he’s wetting BUT I’m wondering if there’s some kind of light sleep he has where he consciously/subconsciously knows he’s in a pull-up and so will just wee in that - hopefully using the alarm will help him interpret the full-bladder feeling so he’ll start waking up properly, and get to the loo when he needs to go!

There is definitely a hormone that has to kick in before a child can stay dry at night. This can happen much later for some children. But, as you say, there are also various other things that may trigger night wetting, so it’s hard to tell for sure. My DS took night time meds for a while - the ones that dissolve under the tongue contain a synthetic version of the hormone that your body produces naturally (it concentrates the wee I think, so the bladder doesn’t get so full). The meds essentially boost that hormone until the body learns to make more of it on its own. But I know some children experience side effects, so def worth trying other methods first.

Good luck!
I also purchased extra waterproof sheets (the soft terry towelling type) and layered his bed up with them so that I could just whip off the top layer when he did wet. x

Another thing I still do to this day is give my son loads to drink around dinner time. I just keep re-filling his cup with water. All of that had passed through him by bedtime so I know he's neither dehydrated nor should he be too thirsty. I let him have a few gulps before bed but have to watch him or he'd down a pint of water

I thought I’d set everything up ok last night and DS was delighted he was ‘dry’ but sadly we realised I’d put the batteries in the wrong way round so it wasn’t even on!

What a wally. Tonight we start afresh!

@barkypup

Another thing I still do to this day is give my son loads to drink around dinner time. I just keep re-filling his cup with water. All of that had passed through him by bedtime so I know he's neither dehydrated nor should he be too thirsty. I let him have a few gulps before bed but have to watch him or he'd down a pint of water

It's such a struggle for me to get mine to drink in the day. I fill up a cup and have to constantly prompt him to take even a sip, to bring the cup with him if going to watch TV etc, I feel like I have to be thinking about it ALL THE TIME and it's been like that for years. DH tries but often forgets. DC just basically doesn't like plain water, he'll drink squash or juice (diluted) quickly but as I try and alternate with plain water it doesn't get very far. Also he spills drinks all the time so I'm loath to have squash/juice on the carpet while playing/watching tv etc!

He just hardly ever 'feels' thirsty.

@ItsTheDramaMickILoveIt

I thought I’d set everything up ok last night and DS was delighted he was ‘dry’ but sadly we realised I’d put the batteries in the wrong way round so it wasn’t even on!

What a wally. Tonight we start afresh!

Oh no!! Consider that your practise run for the proper get-go tonight!

Well - the alarm sounded just the once, just after 1:30am, and a very sleepy and grumpy DS was quickly helped to the loo, changed, and the alarm reattached. He had clearly been sound asleep. It’s so LOUD so definitely does the job! DH and I were flailing about in the dark trying to switch it off but we had wipes/fresh pants/pull-up in a handy place and that really helped.

He then got up at 7am and went straight for a wee, which is just what we wanted (rather than a lazy wee in the pull-up - we weren’t 100% sure if he was doing this or not) but he is aware he is wearing the alarm now.