bed wetting alarms

[applepudding]

Has anybody used a bed wetting alarm for infant school aged child?

I'm looking at buying one and don't know whether to go for cheaper one with wire or more expensive wireless one.

Child is deep-sleeping boy nearly 7.

thank you

I am considering this for my deep sleeping 6 yr old DS, so any recommendations welcome.

We used one last year - got a referral from Dr to a special eneuris clinic, and they lent us one.
To be honest it never really worked for us, but going to the clinic was a great help as they can work out the causes of the bed-wetting.
My DS was 8 at the time, and deep sleeper, even the bed-wetting didnt waken him!

The one we used was a little sensor which clipped onto his pants (he had to wear 2 pairs so the sensor was inbetween the 2 pairs rather than against his skin). Then a wire which had the alarm at the other end, this clipped onto his PJ top.

He hated using it, and in the end just going through all the processes seemed to do the trick - along with some good advice on the amount and type of liquid being drunk during the day and at night-time

Anybody else please?

my brother had one as a child and it iddn't work.
just woke him up as he was already weeing, so kind of pointless I suppose!

If your child has problems with bed wetting please please speak to the HV, GP or school nurse about it. Enurisis is a problem for lots and lots of children and it needs to be handled properly. Slapping on an alarm to early can, not only compound the problem, but also cause feelings a fliure and inadequacy. I get really cross thatthese alarms are on general sale rather than prescription.

At 6 or 7 years old bedwetting should be treated with drinking proper amounts and types of fluids, excercises to strengthen the bladder and practise holding between toilet visits. An alarm is not a quick fix and not always he best course of action even for an older child.

Get a referal, there is loads of support out there, 6 or 7 is very very young to be considering such drastic action.

We tried one - it woke us all up (sleeping upstairs) and DS (sleeping downstairs) slept on through it! It was a nightmare.

The Eneurisis clinic was fab though. We found DS never drank enough to stretch his bladder, so we had to get him to drink LOADS and when he needed a wee to hold on as long as possible, then count to 10 when standing in front of loo. Too many kids "go" at the first sign from their body that they need a wee and so the bladder does not stretch and get used to being full.

It worked for us. Hopefully you will find the right route for you. And alarms are loaned for free from the clinics

thanks for your help.

Not drinking enough is certainly something we need to address as when he's at school I'm sure DS hardly drinks at all. I had been thinking that an alarm was something I ought to try before referring to clinic, but may be I ought to take him to docs first then.

Def take him to the docs first, the clinic will take you through various options. One of the things with drinking more is that it stretchs the bladder so that it can hold enough to make it through the night. If you try an alarm before you know if he is even capable of lasting that long (when asleep - which is very different than when awake) then an alarm cannot help.

They do all sorts of things but, IMO, the most important thing is to make children realise that they are not the only ones and that it is not their fault.

We are using one at the moment DS 7.5 and we have been dry for 4 nights in a row and have had it for 2 weeks with no really wet beds in that 2 weeks. He has woken up every time and either just started to go for a wee but stopped himself or not gone at all.
I think this is great but we got refered I would do this before buying one yourself. it may not be because he is a deep sleeper could be something else.
Good luck

This may offer some support. As I have posted elsewhere, my 7 year old was very very wet every night and used special pull ups on prescription as normal ones you can buy couldnt contain the wee, and she still leaked!! She got referred to clinic and they checked how much she was drinking and weeing and all was fine (she drinks a lot but wees a lot too). They said wait a while, and sure enough one night she went totally dry and has been dry since. Apparently there is a hormone which is essential for dry nights and in some people it kicks in late. In her case I dont think any sort of help would have stopped her being wet - be it an alarm or lifting etc. She obviously had none of the hormone and when it came, she stopped!!! She is nearly 8 now and only just dry and according to the clinic some children are much older than her when it happens. It can be given in medicine form and that was the next step with her (its important to remember that if the right hormone (or whatever it is) isnt there then there is little the child can do about it and it is not their fault). I too blamed it on her being a deep sleeper but she now gets up when she needs to go which is rare.

To Frogwatcher. Thanks so much for your response, this is really helpful. My six year old son has not had a dry night in his life. His pull-ups are drenched every morning. Every now and again we try to leave them off, limit drinks before bedtime etc. and every time he wets continuously. I've not really worried about it too much because I understood that, particularly with boys, the hormone that makes them stop doesn't always kick in till late. Also the pull-ups only leak very occasionally and I don't think he realised that most children in Year 1 don't wear pull-ups until recently when he must have mentioned it to someone, and he was teased at school by a couple of children. I have been considering an alarm, but it sounds like I should maybe talk to the school nurse or try and get a referral to an eneuris clinic first. I don't think he is a particularly deep sleeper and he does tend to drink a fair bit during the day, so it may just be that the hormone hasn't kicked in yet, in which case the alarm probably wouldn't work anyway, as you said. Thanks again for all the advice - extremely helpful. I'm new to Mumsnet but will definitely come back again!