Mom needs our help: Do bed wetting monitors work?
A mom sent me a message wondering if a bed wetting monitor would help her child stop wetting the bed?
The child is in first grade and they believe it is a genetic physical issue that the child will eventually out grow – ie size or shape of the bladder. However, the mother is wondering what she can do to help in the interim. The child talks about going to sleepovers but cannot do that in a Pull Up. Also the bed wetting is stressful for the family as a whole.
The mom bought a Malem Ultimate Selectable Bedwetting alarm. You can see the description and photo at this link. She thought the comments on Amazon were helpful.
I believe the idea is when wetness is felt the monitor goes off to awaken the child. This one has sound and vibration. I guess the theory is it will help the child realize the sensation of peeing and or will help them hold it and make it to the bathroom.
Another mom advised her to sleep with or near the child while working with the alarm. She said at first it would be scary to the child.
Have you ever used a bed wetting alarm? Did it help? Do you have any advice for this mom? Do you have any other bed wetting advice for the family?
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51 comments Add your comment
MomsRule
February 6th, 2012
5:47 am
When we were experiencing this issue with one of our boys the pediatrician told me he wasn’t a fan of the bedwetting alarms. He indicated the child doesn’t usually wake because they are sleeping so soundly and in his experience while the alarm didn’t wake the child it did wake other members of the household. So we never tried it.
He did give us a precription that helped significantly. Unfortunately, I don’t recall the name of it… It is something that your body already produces when you go to sleep to limit urine production and the prescription just increased the amount. We also eliminated beverages an hour and a half before bedtime. It is very important and helpful to limit fluid intake before bed. (We still limit them for this child who is now 12.5 and still has accidents on occassion.)
We also purchased a bed pad that you put on top of the sheet. It doesn’t help with the bed wetting but it did help significantly with laundry and sheet changing. It was much easier to just pull it off and toss it in the washer vs having to strip the entire bed. I found it at Target.
I think it is very important not to scold the child or make a big deal out of the problem. They do eventually outgrow it and if you make them self conscious about the issue the stress of worrying can make the problem worse. They aren’t doing it on purpose.
MomsRule
February 6th, 2012
6:09 am
One more thought re the Pull Ups. I eliminated using them long before the first grade. IMO, Pull Ups don’t help the issue. Yes, they keep the bed dry and the child sleeping but it doesn’t help teach them to wake up when they need to go. While it was an inconvenience I preferred letting him get wet, ultimately waking to go to the restroom and finish emptying his bladder, pulling the wet pad off the bed and going back to sleep. We did use them on vacations, etc if he was sharing a bed with his brother though.
catlady
February 6th, 2012
6:51 am
As I understand it, those alarms go off AFTER the kid has wet the bed. The kid already KNOWS HOW to wet the bed, so telling him after the fact, “You have just wet the bed” doesn’t seem too helpful. Also, I’d consider getting rid of the diaper.
I think tackling the rest of it–the general health (did they check the blood sugar, the ph of the urine?), evening activities and drinks, etc. would be best. Or perhaps a visit to the sleep doctor? He doesn’t wet in the day, right? So it probably isn’t a BLADDER issue.
Other than that, I agree with being matter of fact. In fact, I think managing the results of the bedwetting should be left to the child. Put clean sheets, etc, by the bed and let the child wake up and take care of it. That might also help.
With three children, I only had a bedwetting issue after age 2 once–my elder daughter started wetting the bed a month before her brother was born. She was almost 4. I took her to the dr, who could not find a bladder infection, but gave her something that changed the ph of her urine. He said it coated the bladder to make it less irritated, although he didn’t really think that was the cause. He also advised turning over all the sheet changing to her. In a few more days it was over, for whatever reason. However, different from this case, she HAD been dry at night for years.
Tinkywinky
February 6th, 2012
7:21 am
Doesn’t help me, and I’m 30.
Figment
February 6th, 2012
8:15 am
Can’t the parent just wake their child up at night and have them go to the potty? Limit fluids before bed and if they are still wetting the bed at night start waking them at night to get up and go to the potty.
mom2alex&max
February 6th, 2012
8:22 am
We had this issue with our youngest. The doctor told us there was really nothing we could do other than giving him time for his bladder to catch up with his age. We used pull ups until well into age 7. So what? If there were sleepovers, we discreetly talked to the parents to let them know and and he knew to get rid of his pull up when he got up discreetly in the bathroom and put it in a ziplock bag and throw it away. What’s the big deal? You can’t teach or hurry things that happen when the kid is asleep.
Me
February 6th, 2012
8:24 am
It’s been so long now that I honestly cannot remember any “bed-wetting” incidents – I do agree, however, that any “alarm” is reactive and not at all proactive since it cannot alarm prior to an incident. That is akin to a radar detector sounding an alarm as the officer is writing the citation.
malleesmom
February 6th, 2012
8:30 am
@figment – having the parent wake a child up during the night sounds good in theory but doesn’t always work in practice once they’re 70+lbs :) Our child fought back (in a twilight sleep state) and would bump into walls, stand in the bathroom, may or may not sit on the toilet and depending on how soundly she was asleep could have hurt herself nodding off. That does not cover the sleep deprivation of the parent getting up multiple times during the night. We have recently moved and therefore changed pediatricians. Our new doctor did recommend an alarm rather than medication.
Kat
February 6th, 2012
9:09 am
One of our girls wet the bed longer than her twin sister (at 3 years of age, one was “done” with Pull-ups, pads etc). Our other girl was wetting to the age of 5.
What we did:
1) Eliminated any foods, fluids well before bedtime
2) Took her to potty before we, as parents, went to bed: 3 hours later than the kids, at least
3) Put a crib pad on top of her sheets and one under the top sheet (just in case)
4) Made her do the laundry work involved – put the pad in the hamper and washed it the next day
In combination, all of this worked itself out. If the parent is stressing about it, it will definitely be known to the child, which will only ensure their stress and continued nervousness and bed-wetting. I would keep away from Pull-ups because it’s like – “Hey, you can SEEM like a big girl, but wet when you need to.” So, I used diapers up to size 4 (they go up to size 6 for pete’s sake!) because they were cheaper than Pull-ups. Pull-ups are for lazy parents, in my opinion – similar to sippy cups (ding me if you want but Rosemond agrees to), or for children who may have developmental issues where they are training to learn that type of independence due to a delay in other ways.
In general, if WE made it through baby and childhood sans sippy cups, Pull-ups, then our kids can. Naturally, this does not apply to safety issues, such as car seats, gates, etc., but the “extras” get us to spend money as parents.
Ssorry malleesmom...
February 6th, 2012
9:13 am
…but your analysis is just incorrect – it appears your emphasis is on your sleep (I.e. – “That does not cover the sleep deprivation of the parent getting up multiple times during the night”) rather than the well being of the child. So what if you miss a few minutes sleep for a period of time if it is for the benefit out your child – did yo not miss some sleep when the kid was an infant and you had to do nighttime feedings? Same principle here…
gpkbsin
February 6th, 2012
9:17 am
I’ve with Figment and Kat. We wake up our kids and walk them to the bathroom, stand there while they pee and bring them back to their bed to tuck in. We go to bed 2-3 hours after they are in bed and it works out. The little one (2 yrs) was still wetting bed some nights and so I set an alarm for 2am every night and bring him to potty again. Limiting the fluids is a no brainer.. have to do that.
The alarm thing doesn’t work. My sister tried it on her kids and as expected, the alarm went off after the wetting. OK so you got to clean the clothes and bed right after the wetting but that isn’t the point.
Wake them up every night for a year and they get into the habit of waking up themselves.
Techmom
February 6th, 2012
9:20 am
Our son wet the bed until he was almost 12. It was frustrating but thankfully a condition that he outgrew. I had to remind myself plenty of times to be thankful that our biggest hurdle is something that he would outgrow unlike many parents who are faced with conditions or diseases their children will never outgrow. Sometimes perspective helps.
Bedwetting is more common among boys and tends to be hereditary (possibly b/c of growth patterns not necessarily the bedwetting itself). Both my brother and mom were bedwetters so I wasn’t surprised that our son was as well though certainly I still had to learn to cope with it. My understanding is that it’s likely a combination of very hard sleeping (our son could sleep through anything) and the fact that his body couldn’t contain the fluid that long. The problem was that even if we woke him up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, he would almost always still wet the bed and limiting fluid intake seemed to make no difference.
Our son’s ped. gave us the brochure for the alarm and the prescription but told us that he didn’t really think they solved the problem and there wasn’t really anything that would solve the problem other than time and growth. We tried the meds for a month and didn’t see any noticeable improvement. We just decided for everyone’s sanity in our house we would buy Goodnites, he would shower in the mornings and we’d go on with our lives. Goodnites.com is actually a pretty resourceful website and has a section just for kids too.
JATL
February 6th, 2012
9:23 am
I don’t think I would use an alarm. It seems it would startle the kid, wake everyone else up and be a nuisance. If it is a genetic issue (I come from a family with lots of genetic bladder issues), then they will just have to wait until he gets older. I second the use of the pads you can get for the child to sleep on, so you don’t have to change the whole bed. My oldest is five and only wets the bed once in a blue moon now, but during his fourth year he was doing it so often that he learned to get up, change his own bed and pjs and never wake us up! I think that helped him stop as well BUT he didn’t have a medical issue at play.
He is pretty large for his age, and when we were camping last year on several occasions, I found these “Undernight” things that are like pull ups for big kids -but they look like underwear. They sell them everywhere. Maybe this mom could get those for her son to use for sleepovers.
Pissychrissy
February 6th, 2012
9:26 am
It’s usually a phyical problem, not anything that can be done/cured with “trickery”. I (now 60 yrs) wet the bed until I was almost 8 years old. My mom was a nurse and was really great about it although I’m sure was a pain in the neck for here. When I was around 45, I found out from a urologist that my ureter was too small (and always had been) and caused me to retain big amounts of fluid for much longer periods of time than most normal people. I never could understand how other women had to go to the bathroom so often on car trips and I could go hours at a time with no problem. The Dr said he had treated many with this same issue and all had been early bed wetters. So look for physical problems and then try the withholdings and other things. It’s beyond their control for the most part. And by the way Kat, don’t make the kid do her laundry involved. She feels bad enough already. You might as well make her wear a “bedwetter” sign around her neck in public.
Denise
February 6th, 2012
9:31 am
My nephew wets everywhere (my dad’s, my brother’s, his mom’s) but NOT at his dad’s house. His dad doesn’t let him wear the big boy pull-ups (he’s 8) either. What can that be about?
camille
February 6th, 2012
9:32 am
My son is 5 and we just moved away from pull ups. We limit drinks before going to bed and I wake him before I go to bed for his to use the restroom and this has worked.
RJ
February 6th, 2012
9:42 am
My son wet the bed until he was about 6 or 7. I eliminated drinks at night. He had to change his sheets and put them in the washer. I can’t say that this helped, but he eventually grew out of it. He didn’t fully potty train until he was 3 ( I always say he waited until the day he turned 3 to go on his own). I have a girlfriend that has a condition that makes her wet the bed even today. She says it’s really embarrasing but her husband is very understanding. It’s not every night, but she said it does happen sometimes. Her dad used to beat her when she did. When she got older she was told that several of her siblings (there are 5 of them) had the same problem. Her daughter suffers from it as well. If it’s not a physical issue, I would just be patient. I was about to buy an alarm, but my pediatrician didn’t feel it would be all that helpful.
Wayne
February 6th, 2012
9:48 am
We tried all sorts of things for my oldest son; bed pad, limiting fluids, having him do the laundry, getting him to go when we went to bed, etc. We never made a big deal of it. It just was. Tried the alarm, and in less than a week, he was all set. @Catlady, it signals right away – it’s clipped to the underwear and it takes a surprising little amount of fluid to set it off. Read the reviews of the device and there was good and bad. We figured we tried most everything else and didn’t want to do the medication route. Glad we did.
One interesting thing is that with the alarm they tell you not to limit fluids before bed. I’m not exactly sure why.
Wayne
February 6th, 2012
9:50 am
Umm… be right back… all this talk about…
MomOf2Girls
February 6th, 2012
10:17 am
We’re going through this now, with my daughter who just turned 11. I have spoken with 2 urologists, one pediatric and one general, and they both told me the same thing (after ruling out a physical reason). She will grow out of it, there is nothing to do for it. Putting her in undies did not help, she slept right through the wetness for a month before I gave up. We tried the alarm, she slept through it. Even the medicine (which is not a cure, it’s for occasional use only) didn’t work for her. (It’s a hormone that the body produces naturally that tells the kidney to “dry up” overnight, which is why your urine is so concentrated in the morning).
We use the pullups for her, because what’s the point of her sleeping in a sopping wet bed every night? She goes on sleepovers, and many of her friends don’t even know about it. She discreetly takes off her pullup in the morning, puts it in a bag we send along, and it comes home with her.
Again – the urologists are saying there is nothing to do but wait for her to outgrow it. Do NOT embarrass her, make her change her bed as punishment, take her to the loo in the middle of the night (because she won’t remember anyway), don’t bother with the alarm. Just wait.
Wayne
February 6th, 2012
10:26 am
@MomOf2Girls: good point on the changing of the bed: We didn’t make that a big deal either. It was just expected that he would help. He has the upper bunk in a bunk bed, along with all his ’stuff’ that he can’t sleep without. No punishment intended.
Pissychrissy
February 6th, 2012
10:31 am
Good advice Momof2 girls. I outgrew it and they will too. I know it’s a pain for you you but is a bigger deal to them than they probably let on. The less they have to talk about it the better. I don’t know if my body adjusted to my “problem” I spoke of previously, but it all just stopped one day. The Dr did a procedure (in office) on me when the ureter problem was discovered wher he “stretched” it to normal size. There was no guarantee it would last permanently. It did for a few years and was a great relief, as I can drink a quart of fluid and yet only will void a third of that. But I can tell you I wouldn’t go through that again unless “knocked out” as it was very painful for a couple of days afterward and not real pleasant to experience. Hang in there!
Wayne
February 6th, 2012
10:33 am
@MomOf2Girls: I’m curious though, as I think about it. Have you tried getting her up at a certain time to go to the ‘loo’? Might not remember it per se, but getting into that habit where your body just reminds you that you need to do something.
As I wrote, just curious.
Figment
February 6th, 2012
10:35 am
My son is almost done potty training, he just turned 4. I plan on stopping the pull-ups at night after we run out of his current supply. Usually the pull-ups are dry in the morning so I think he will do OK. Got about 2 weeks of pull-ups left so we will find out shortly.
He’s been so stubborn about potty training but we’ve been doing practice runs to the potty and they seem to be helping him a lot.
Figment
February 6th, 2012
10:37 am
Oh and I wasn’t saying to get up at night and wake the kid up every few hours to go potty. I think before the parents go to bed is sufficent. If you limit their intake and get them up a few hours after they go to bed I would hope that would cover most of the issues.
MomOf2Girls
February 6th, 2012
11:12 am
@Wayne / Figment, yes we tried getting her up. She tends to empty her bladder not too long after she goes to bed (don’t know exactly when, but it’s before we go to bed). If she stays up really late (midnight or after, very rare!), she is either dry or almost dry. The urologist said that getting her up won’t help – she has the peeing part down pat, and she’s too deeply asleep to get up on her own, even with patterning. It’s basically a guessing game as to when we can get her before she wets, and even then, the “prize” is a single night dry, but no lasting impact.
Theresa Walsh Giarrusso
February 6th, 2012
11:20 am
I do know they have tried before they go to bed and then in the middle of the night to take the child but it didn’t make a difference. The mom figured this way at least she’s only waking if the child goes instead of every few hours just in case.
Theresa Walsh Giarrusso
February 6th, 2012
11:21 am
I really appreciate everyone being so kind and helpful and not judging this poor mom and her kid. I think she will find support here and maybe some things to try too. At least she’ll know she is not alone.
MomOf2Girls
February 6th, 2012
11:28 am
Theresa – I know how she feels! As my daughter’s gotten older, I’ve been more concerned and feeling like my kid is the only one in the world her age who does this, and the urologists keep saying not to worry, this is normal. Please tell the mom that as long as a physical issue has been ruled out, don’t worry. It will happen when it happens!
It's not a laughing matter
February 6th, 2012
11:38 am
My brother had a bed wetting problem as a kid. Of course, when he wet the bed, he would do it from across the room, and it was my bed he was aiming at.
Fred
February 6th, 2012
11:38 am
Theresa Walsh Giarrusso
February 6th, 2012
11:21 am
I really appreciate everyone being so kind and helpful and not judging this poor mom and her kid. I think she will find support here and maybe some things to try too. At least she’ll know she is not alone.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I think the days of blaming the child are WAY past, (at least for adults lol, kids will still laugh).
As far as the monitor: Try it, don’t try it, I don’t think it makes a difference. The kid will stop wetting the bed when he/she stops. Since it would seem that one of the parents also wet the bed, then they should know this. Whatever the “trigger” is that cause the cessation seems to be different in everyone. What caused the parent to stop? I have never talked to anyone who wet the bed when they were a kid who had the same “story” of why they stopped except that eventually they did stop. At some point we were all able to wake up finally when we had to go. And oh what a happy day that is lol.
Fred
February 6th, 2012
11:39 am
It’s not a laughing matter
February 6th, 2012
11:38 am
My brother had a bed wetting problem as a kid. Of course, when he wet the bed, he would do it from across the room, and it was my bed he was aiming at.
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LOL I nominate that for post of the day…………..
Theresa Walsh Giarrusso
February 6th, 2012
11:39 am
Thanks Momof2girls — I think it is very helpful!!
Figment
February 6th, 2012
11:54 am
Some kids just have to grow out of it. I think if they’ve tried limiting liquids before bed and tried getting them up at night and nothing is working then there is possibly an underlying medical condition or it’s just something the kid will grow out of.
If the doctor doesn’t find anything medically then it’s probably something only time can fix. I know my brother had problems wetting the bed, my parents set up an alarm to wake him up at night to go potty. He eventually learned to wake up when he had to go. Not all problems can be solved that easily though.
Techmom
February 6th, 2012
11:56 am
1 in 9 kids wet the bed past the age of 5 but something like 99% outgrow it by age 12 with or without intervention. Bottom line is that A) your child is NOT alone and B) although routines may help some children, doing nothing but letting time pass will help almost all of them. It’s frustrating to say the least but it’s also not the end of the world. After trying to “solve” the issue we finally accepted it, bought GoodNites and moved on with life. I figured they were cheaper than doing a load of laundry every single day (water, electricity, detergent) and it saved my son the embarrassment of waking up wet.
By the way, I know it’s something most people don’t want to talk about but I think it’s encouraging to kids to know they aren’t some freak of nature if they wet the bed. We were at a friend’s house when our son was about 13 and their daughter was 11. We didn’t know she was a bedwetter but our son noticed she had Goodnites in her closet when they went into her room to get a game. He later told me that he confided in her that he too had wet the bed until he was almost 12. The mom called me later and told me that her daughter was SOOO relieved to finally know someone else who had overcome bedwetting.
Lori
February 6th, 2012
12:16 pm
My son wasn’t what I would call a consistent bed-wetter, but he would have issues if he drank too much too late at night and/or would fall asleep without going to the bathroom first. I just started limited his drinking at night. And I always made sure he went potty, even if I had to hold him up on the toilet and make him go, which I admit is a challenge for some larger kids. But if he did wet the bed, I never made him change his own sheets or embarrassed him or made him feel bad about it. We’d just say “oops, must have forgotten to use the potty last night”, I’d get up and change pull off his sheets, get him to wipe off and change his clothes, then we’d be sure to shower in the morning. I keep a water proof matress pad on his bed even now that he’s outgrown this (he is 8 now, this lasted until he was about 6), but the pad is still there just in case he gets a stomach virus or anything so the mattress doesn’t get ruined. Why make the poor kids have to deal with the sheets in the middle of the night. There is no reason to shame them, or make them feel like they are such a burden to you that you can’t even get out of bed to help them for a few minutes. Clean it up and move on. Be the adult.
BigSis
February 6th, 2012
12:45 pm
Growing up my brother wet the bed. Mom tried the alarm, but it went away very quickly. He slept through it and it woke me up! Not good. I enjoy my rest. He out grew it. I remember he couldn’t have anything to drink after dinner and one of us woke him up to go when we went to bed (which was after him).
jmb
February 6th, 2012
1:00 pm
I say absolutely NO to the alarm. My brother had one when he was around 11 and it woke everyone in the house up when it went off. I often had friends over and when they found out about it, of course they told others. My brother eventually stopped around 13 but the embarassment of that machine sounding scarred him until the day he died. He said it was like screaming to the whole house “”"”"peed the bed again!
MomsRule
February 6th, 2012
1:05 pm
@TWG – the Mom you wrote about should not feel alone. I have been surprised to learn how many of my children’s peers have/had difficulty making it through the night. Based upon the numbers of kids with this “problem” perhaps the adult expectation is the issue. :)
Anj
February 6th, 2012
1:46 pm
I vote to veto the alarm as well.
Use pull ups, use a bed pad.
Don’t use shame or anger or guilt.
Cut back on fluids before bed.
I’d also suggest cutting out all caffeine if the child is allowed coffee, tea or caffeine containing soft drinks.
Ditto for low calorie sweeteners.
Best of luck!
malleesmom
February 6th, 2012
2:13 pm
For the record, I would gladly give up sleep if it meant my child had a dry night. My point was, waking a child up multiple times in the night created additional issues. It was dangerous for a sleepy child to be sitting on a toilet unaware of if she’d hit her head or not. I gladly got up and would continue to do so if I found it helpful. Once parents get to the alarm-stage, they’ve already done everything else.
Denise
February 6th, 2012
2:52 pm
An adult friend of mine has wet the bed a few times because she dreamt she was in the bathroom. Would waking a child, getting him used to using the bathroom after being asleep for a few hours, cause him to wet at that time when no one wakes him up because he’s used to going at that time? I’m just trying to figure something out for my nephew. My dad wakes him up at night and sometimes that works. My brother and his mother do not and he wets most nights. He wears the pull ups so they don’t have to change sheets every night. He just showers again in the morning when he does.
mom2alex&max
February 6th, 2012
2:56 pm
I still don’t see what the big deal is. This isn’t anything that can be fixed. It’ll go away eventually!
HB
February 6th, 2012
5:09 pm
Several families I sat for tried the bed alarms — didn’t work for any of them. It’s my understanding that as others have said here it’s usually a physical issue that can only be grown out of — it’s usually not something that can be remedied through training. That being the case, I think it’s cruel not to provide a child with pull-ups at night to deal with the problem, and I hope none of you who think that’s a good idea find yourselves denied similar products by caregivers if you need them a few decades from now.
catlady
February 6th, 2012
6:18 pm
I’ve read the suggestion that waking a kid up to take him to the bathroom means you are teaching him to pee while still asleep–something he might be good at doing already! And, for those of you who think changing the bed was a punishment–it was just like cleaning up something she spilled. I washed the clothes the next day.
As I said, my experience was somewhat different–my daughter had been clean and dry for 2 years before her wetting time, and it lasted less than 10 days.
I do wonder if a sleep specialist might be helpful, since we have them now, and they might be able to advise.
!Janelle
February 7th, 2012
4:36 am
Yes, the monitor worked in our situation. We first had our daughter checked physically and found no abnormalities. Our daughter was a deep sleeper. She was unable to arouse herself out of that deep sleep in order to go urinate. The alarm on the monitor would go off when the first bit of liquid left her body. Her assignment was to get out of bed after the alarm woke her. She would use the bathroom. and then help us change her sheets. This was breaking that deep sleep pattern.. it took two nights. She never had another accident.
Diane
February 7th, 2012
3:55 pm
My brother wet the bed until he was about 8. The ped told my mom to have him allergy tested. Once he was tested and started allergy shots, he quit wetting the bed. He was allergic to lots of things like dust, dust mites, mold, mildew, and many other things.
Kat
February 9th, 2012
11:21 am
@Pissychrissy: In case you ever come back here to check, I wanted you to know that it is not wrong to enlist your child’s help in doing THEIR OWN LAUNDRY. What are you, a maid for your kids? If your kid spills his/her Cheerios at the age of 2, you should clean it up. If they do it at the age of 5, the child should clean it up.
I didn’t keep my kid awake at 2 a.m. to do laundry, and I certainly didn’t tell her friends that she was doing it. Your suggestion that I might as well “make her wear a sign” is idiotic, foolish, and not well-thought-out for an adult.
Kat
February 9th, 2012
11:22 am
@Pissychrissy: Oh, and your screen name relates to your attitude rather than your “bed-wetting issues” I presume.
cjscfu
February 10th, 2012
9:10 am
We are in the middle of bedwetting issues with our 8 year old boy. He has consistently wet the bed every night forever. He wets so much that any kind of pull-up we would put on him, he would soak through and soak his bed and still sleep through it until morning. We limited fluids after school – 1 glass of milk at supper and 1 sip of water at bedtime. We made him double void before bed and when my husband and I went to bed 2.5 hours later would wake him and make him go to the bathroom then too. He still soaked everything every night. In the past year we have had 2 dry nights. There is no concerns from the Ped. but we are not wanting to introduce a medication with all the side effects that can happen. We have started the alarm which is amazing. It clips to his underwear, and catches the first drop of urine. We moved his brother to the floor of our bedroom and I am sleeping in his room to help him wake up. In the past week, I have only had to change the sheets 2 times for a small amount of urine. The alarm goes of anywhere between 1-3 times per night, but he gets up, goes to the bathroom and changes his underwear (if they are slightly damp, they will sound the alarm). While the change in sleeping arangement has caused me less sleep, it has worked well for the rest of the family and they are not affected by it. Last night it went off once, and he woke himself up 2 other times without the alarm going off by himself. I would call that a miracle.
As for those who say absolutely don’t use the alarm, that may be your opinion, but if you read other places, there are many, many success stories from other parents who like myself have tried everything else they can think of. I would recommend the alarm.