Bed Wetting Alarm Suggestions

I bought my son an alarm that clips onto the underwear and the alarm clips to the shirt and they are attached by a wire. It was $89. What a waste of money! He had to practically pee directly on the clip to get it to go off and even then it didn't always go off. I threw it away after 3 days of frustration. My son is now 10 1/2 and still wets if I do not get him up around midnight to go. Sometimes they just have to grow out of it.

We did this some years ago with our son. I have to say it was a useless expense and a horrendous experience which accomplished nothing. If you don't know how this works, a sensor is put into the crotch area - our system was done by me hand-sewing a small pounch into his underwear, and then the sensor was inserted. That part was easy. We just dedicated a couple of pairs of underpants to nighttime sleep. The underwear fit more tightly than the pajama bottoms alone. I don't know if the systems have changed at all since then, but again, this wasn't the problem - it seems to me that the theory remains the same.

However, from there, we were all awakened several times per night by a loud buzzing - every night, we thought first it was the smoke alarm. Then I would rush into my son's bedroom, pull the sensor out of his wet underwear to silence the alarm, and then get him to the bathroom. Remember that the alarm doesn't go off until he's already wet. Then we changed clothes and sheets, etc.

The theory is that the alarm will so annoy the child that he will wake up in subsequent nights. I don't see how this works in a child who is not developmentally ready, whose bladder does not send the "full" signal to the brain so that the brain wakes up. How does the alarm system manage to stimulate the brain this way, since it is after the fact? To this day, we don't even know if the alarm scared him so much that he peed even more, you know?

After a month of torture, the pediatrician agreed it was a pointless experiment, and referred us to a pediatric urologist. This specialist taught us a lot about nighttime bedwetting (called nocturnal enuresis), said he wasn't surprised that the alarm didn't work, and after discussion, recommended a medication that absolutely stopped the problem. Our son simply took a pill before bed, and that was it. I'm not a big proponent of medication when other things will do, believe me. I'm in the nutrition business and have seen firsthand how great supplementing can help. If I had known then what I know now, I would have tried this supplement. However, if it didn't help, I would still absolutely go back to the medication. There were no side effects and the MD told us that there are even kids (particularly boys) who stay on it through and past puberty with no ill effects.

Our son decided to try going off the medication at around age 8 I think. The bedwetting came back after a few weeks. So he went back on the meds and stayed on them till about age 10 or 11, when he decided to try stopping and did fine.

During the years he was on this single pill per night, he was able to go to and host sleepovers, and go away to 4 weeks of overnight camp, and had such marvelous experiences. I wouldn't trade those happy years for anything. If he went to a friend's house, I just sent one pill in an unmarked pill bottle - the pharmacist gave me something with his name on it but not the name of the medication. I made sure the hosting parents gave him his pill before bed - if they were close friends, I told them what it was, but otherwise, I didn't. When he went to camp, the nurses were giving out all kinds of meds to all kinds of kids for all kinds of reasons - the other kids couldn't have cared less and no one knew what the deal was. My son was happy, he slept through the night in dry sheets for years, and everyone was much happier.

If I were you, I would get a second opinion from a pedi urologist before investing in this equipment. Find out how it really works. If they tell you it is "training" the child to wake up out of avoidance, find out how it is really helping their brain development or why sleep interruption is beneficial/preferable. I realize your child is waking up now due to being wet, but really ask how this is going to help develop a neurological connection that isn't working now. Then ask about the medication (sorry I don't remember the name) and ask for the pros and cons of each type of therapy.

Good luck, whatever you decide!

My cousins tried an alarm system with their 6 y/o son. They were concerned that he shouldn't be having wet nights at his age and gave it a try. It's the alarm that they sell in the Leaps and Bounds catalog.
They had nothing but problems.
Their son became so worried and neurotic about having an accident that he couldn't sleep at night. He was tired all day and was so traumatized by the alarm that he began having accidents during the day!!
This is a child who had always been calm and even tempered. Never a sign of anxiousness before this.
After discussing these new emotional issues with his pediatrician they were told that many children have this same reaction to a bed wetting alarm. They put pull-ups back on him and he now sleeps without problem again.
The pediatrician said that his bladder probably hasn't grown as fast as his body and at this point it's unfair to expect him to wake up when he needs to go.
Good luck if you decide to give it a try- but be aware that others have had major problems after starting with an alarm.
-S.

I wish I had advice - our 7 yr old son is still struggling with this - so if you get good info from other moms I'd be really interested to hear the results! Good luck!

I read through the respondes so far and i have to agree that it is a waste of money. We used this with a client that I worked with who was still wetting the bed nightly at age 11 and he would sleep through the alarm every night and wait up soaked. We instead tried the limiting of liquids after 7pm and a wake up around 10pm to try and help. He slowly grew out of it at age 12!! I feel your pain good luck

We tried it with our son when he was 7. He is such a hard sleeper, that it woke me up through the walls and he was still SOUND asleep. We finally gave up after about 2.5 weeks. He is now 10 and still having to wear pullups but we are starting to have dry nights. Whew. Our dr said some kids just have to grow out of it. It's about time - he's almost grown out of the largest pullup size! :) Hang in there and be encouraging to him. Help get him involved in monitoring his own water intake during the day and cut-off to small sips only after 6 or 7pm. Good luck.

My nephew used a bed wetting alarm and he never woke up when it went off. I think it just depends on how deep a sleeper your child is.
Good luck!
raelynn

Hello. I have four children and one of them was a bed wetter and I did not know what to do. Everything I tried failed. Until my husband and I went away on a vacation and left my children with their grandmother for a week. The bed wetting stopped immediately and there wasn't any more accidents.
I have no advice, only my experience to share.
Good luck.

instead of going out & buying a 'system', why dont you just set your own personal alarm - or even a cell phone alarm, to go off in the middle of the night (w/a cell you can do it a couple times) .... when the alarm goes off, get up, and go wake up ur child & make them go to the bathroom! it helps to get them used to waking up out of a dead sleep to go potty. It worked wonders for us! and in less than 6 months he was getting up on his own to go to the bathroom w/o our help or any type of alarm.

good luck!

Does your son have any health problems or take any daily meds? My oldest just recently stopped wetting the bed and we found out now wish I had known years ago but it was the pulmicort he was taking for asthma that was causing it but I know other meds especially allergy meds that make kids real tired can do it because they sleep so deep they don't wake up to go. I have a few books on it and they all say that alarms don't really work until age 8 that children younger then that are too young.

Hi Jenn,
I SO feel your pain... My son, who will be 8 in June still wet the bed (we truly tried everything but the alarm) until last month, when I bought the Sleepdry alarm. It has done wonders. It is very small, two leads snap onto the inside and outside of his undies and the alarm box snaps to his collar or sleeve. My son has been dry for almost a month with just a few alarm wake ups (in which only his underpants get a little wet before he wakes and comes down to pee). Of three nights in the last month that we haven't used the alarm (just forgot it) he was wet once. I'm feeling VERY positive about this... my son had been wetting at least a few nights a week even with limited fluids, waking him to pee in the middle of the night... he was always tire. So, I really like what the alarm is doing for him. He likes the sleepdry as it's not too bulky. I have used the Nitetrainer, it is a pad with a sensor and has the same type of alarm box for his collar. I didn't feel this would work for my son because I didn't think it would like the feeling of a pad in his underpants.
There could be a variety of reasons for the bedwetting, sleep apnea, immature bladder, medications he may be on... my son did have sleep apnea and ended up having his tonsils and adenoids removed but it didn't change anything in regards to the bed wetting, he did sleep better. I made the decision to not try medication for my son for now and wanted to try the alarm first, if it doesn't work by his next birthday I will have another discussion with his pedi, but I feel positive about it. You will do what's right for your child, you know what's best!
I wish you the best of luck and as much patience as you can muster... I know how frustrating it can be... Good luck!