I'm a pediatric nurse, so I see children fairly often who still wet the bed or use pull-ups at night. My concern is that my 7 yr old (as of wed) finally expressed a problem with it. I was talking to her about needing to make sure she put them in the trash and not to leave them in her room and she started crying saying, "I'm not even supposed to be wearing them anymore!" I tried to explain that wasn't her fault....
Anyhow, I'm asking if anyone has used the alarm system or has dealt with ddavp, a medication for bedwetting. The MD recommended trying the "alarm system", because its natural and if it doesn't work, then she can try the medicine. Has anyone else tried either of these or have other recommendations?
my brother was a bed wetter. My mother would set an alarm and wake him up once a night to go. He was just such a heavy sleeper the he had to be trained to wake up in the middle of the night to avoid accidents.
We used the Pacific International program for our son. It worked great. The alarm is a little scary at first, but then they get used to it. It took about 3 mos or so I think. Good luck!
Has she been checked out to see if she has any physical problems? I was a bed wetter, and I had kidney reflex. It helped me to know that there was something physically wrong, but I would grow out of it. It still sucked, but at least when my parents finally had me tested I quit feeling like it was my fault (and they gave us information on how to make it better). I don't know about any of the other systems, as this was 20 years ago, but I do know it's hard.
K.
Hi B.,
I actually used both methods with my daughter. She finally outgrew it when she was 12. The alarm didn't work too well because she was such a deep sleeper. The ddavp worked well and since she was getting older and having sleepovers, it was a nice solution. I would recommend trying the alarm first if your daughter is not a deep sleeper. If she is, don't waste your money because they are expensive. Good luck. M.
We should be asking YOU these questions. LOL We tried the pills, and I don't remember what the side effects were, but my son had to stop taking them, and besides, they never worked. I have heard alarms work well, even in the old days, my grandpa nighttime trained himself with a regular alarm clock at about that age.
Hi, I have four bedwetters ages 11, 10, 8 and 7. We tried the alarm with the oldest, worked for a while, but went back to wetting later. We recently tried the DDAVP method and wow!! It was great! We went to Childrens Mercy Kidney Clinic and they prescribed it for us. It worked!! Good luck! A.
I have a similar situation in that my 7 and 9 yr old daughters had dysfunctional bladder syndrome. My 7 yr old was wetting the bed for a while and the Dr suggested the alarm first prior to meds. We actually never ended up trying it because she is actually doing pretty well at night, it's more daytime wetting that she has some issues with at times, but I've heard good things about the alarm, our Pediatric Urologist did say that it takes a lot of effort on the parents, because for a while you will be getting up with them as well and need to make sure they get up if it goes off, etc.
Good luck I hope this works for you. I've heard that some of the meds can cause side effects. We were on Ditropan for a while and that worked as well as Glucomax for consipation, they said it can cause them to have accidents if they are consitpated. I'm sure being a nurse you know all of this, but just thought I'd share just incase. One thing I do is make sure and have her go to the bathroom before bed and then sit and wait a few minutes and try to go again to make sure she empties, it has helped. Once in a while I will actually take her again when I go to bed later and that helped as well.
If you end up trying the alarm, I'd love to hear how it works. I know this can be tough on both the parent and the child, hang in there :)
This has been about 10 yrs ago, but when my son was 11 he was still wetting the bed. He had a lot of stress issues plus ADD. We tried the "alarm" but he slept so soundly, it didn't help him. We tried some medication but it seemed to hype him up more. We finally tried the chiropractor and this helped greatly after about 6 treatments. Good luck with what you choose.
Hi B.,
I have a 9 year old boy who wets the bed enough to soak through Good Nights every night. It is tiring and he hates it. I read the replies to your question eagerly. Then I looked up the DDAVP in Wikipedia. I was alarmed. I'd recommend that you check it out before opting for medication. We are just going to wait it out and do lots of laundry until he outgrows it.
There was also a long, long post in the early summer on the same subject. I think you could look it up in the mamasource archives.
Good luck!
L. C.
B.-
Have you considered working with a pediatric chiropractor? There is a lot of good research to support it's efficacy with bed wetting. Here is a link to some studies:
http://www.icpa4kids.org/research/chiropractic/bedwetting...
You can also find a doctor in your area on that website.
I am a pediatric chiropractor in Kansas City, and I've seen adjustments help kids like your daughter with this type of problem. Just another idea!
Good luck!
Yours in health,
Dr. Alyssa
My son was 9 and was using Goodnights until a friend spotted them in his closet. He was embarrassed and wanted to do something about it. We went to
the medical supply and invested in an alarm. We followed the instructions completely, especially making sure that YOU wake them completely. You must be very consistent. The instructions even say if they don't remember waking the next morning they were not completely awake.
Its like having a baby again, waking in the middle of the night. After a week or two he began waking on his own. The investment pays for itself in what you'd pay for goodnights, not to mention their self esteem. After about 4-5 weeks we were done!! We worked as a team. It was the best option for us and we're so glad we did it.
thoughts...
Think how difficutl this is for you...for your daughter it's worse.
Is your daughter allergic to a food that is casusing this?
Also NST might be helpful and doing EFT can be useful...
A.
www.NSTStLouis.com
My youngest wet the bed the longest consistantly. We used the alarm system and it worked great. One thing I think most people don't realize though is that with the alarm it is still up to the parent at first to make sure the child gets up. At first he was wetting every hour on the hour, but after a few long nights for all of us, he started having more successful nights. He only wore the alarm for a few weeks and was pretty well night trained by then. That's not say he doesn't still have the occassional accidents (8 yrs old) but most nights are dry. The accidents now tend to happen after long and tiresome days and especially on hot days when we are hydrating a lot (like a day at the amusement park). Good luck and God bless.
I had problems w/ wetting the bed WAY longer than I should have. I used "wet alarms" 2 different times, and BOTH times they were a VERY BAD experience for me. They stressed me out. As a younger child, I used an oral med, but didn't have the best results from it. Later I used Imipramine, and it worked well until I outgrew the problem.
My parents just made sure I had plastic sheets on my bed, and then when I had problems, I was supposed to change my sheets & put them in the washing machine.
Hi B. - I haven't personally had this issue, but by girlfriend did with her son. They used the alarm system and that worked pretty well but they did end up having to use a medication (not sure of the name). But her son's problem was that he is a really deep sleeper and the alam didn't wake him up and the med's they gave him help keep him from sleeping quite so deep (?) so that he could feel when he needed to go to the rest room. So I would try the alarm first and then go from there.
