Night alarm training

[DeeOwen]

Hi folks. Just after some extra advice. We started our 6yo on a night alarm last night, which woke him twice in the night. On speaking with the school nurse today she said that they advise that if they have been woken once, to disconnect the alarm and let them sleep the rest of the night through. This contravenes what the alarm instructions say and I can't see that it would be very condusive to his night training. Any thoughts?

[Nospig]

Hi Dee

Depends on if you both can function being woken multiple times at night. The summer holiday is always a really good time as there is time for lazy mornings if required. It can take a number of months for the alarm to be effective, also have you considered using Desmomelts in conjuction with the alarm as this may help reduce the amount of urine produced therefore may be the alarm may go off once or not at all😀

[FranAdam]

It really depends on how many times a night he is being woken. In our clinic a child who is wetting more than twice a night is not really suitable for the alarm as the issue may be an overactive bladder and not arousability. They would need assessment in a continence clinic. However, We always advise that the alarm is put back on again, this is how it is supposed to be used.

[DeeOwen]

Hi Nospig and FranAdam, that's really helpful thank you. We did the second night last night and what a nightmare. He wet at 11pm and then 12 then for some reason we all slept through the next alarm so when when we got up this morning he was absolutely soaked through bless him. He was so tired and even said that it wasn't a good night's sleep and since he got home he's been really weepy. When I mentioned about putting the alarm on again this evening he flatly refused so I'm not going to make him. We have definitely not been functioning great today. It also doesn't help that our youngest one doesn't sleep through every night and she has daytime continence issues (huge sigh).

We have been prescribed Desmopressin tablets but he picked up a bug a couple of days after starting them and on top of that he had some sickness as a side effect of the tablet so we decided to give that a rest until the holidays, which the GP was more than happy with. My idea of the alarm was to try in the meantime. What it has done is allowed us to see that he is wetting at least twice a night so I don't see it as a waste of time.

In terms of his bladder capacity, he emptied a full bladder of 240 ml before he went to bed so capacity shouldn't really be an issue.

Out of interest, if it was an overactive bladder would that not affect him during the daytime too? He very rarely has accidents in the day, only if he is really preoccupied with what he's doing or when he has had a big growth spurt.

Thanks again for your lovely responses.

[SallyandPaul in reply to DeeOwen]

Sounds to me that he's just not ready. Having had three boys and forty eight foster children we adopted a little girl who is nearly eight. She has had lots of constipation issues which at last are improving. From four I annually tried leaving off the Pullups for a few days but it wasn't until she was seven that she finally cracked it. Others can take longer. Personally I wouldn't even worry about it. Ps I did try an alarm bu she was just terrified of it. Good luck xx

[DeeOwen in reply to SallyandPaul]

I suspect you are absolutely right. My biggest concern was that from time to time he gets little fungal infections but I can manage that with the cream from the gp. Thanks for your reply, it's really helpful.

[FranAdam in reply to DeeOwen]

Overactive bladders can be postural so you may get symptoms at night but not during the day or wetting in the day and dry nights. It sounds like the alarm is not suitable for you and your family. Give the desmopressin a go.

[DeeOwen in reply to FranAdam]

We are going to restart the Desmopressin at Easter but the lower dose as the higher dose seemed to create some sickness. Thanks for the info on overactive bladder, that's useful info.

[FranAdam in reply to DeeOwen]

If he gets sickness with the desmopressin tablets. Ask th dr to change to Desmomelt formulation, that sometimes helps.

[DeeOwen in reply to FranAdam]

Hi Fran. We have stopped all meds. His whole personality changed even on the lower dose and it made no difference at all to his volume of nocturnal wetting. We chatted with the doc and she agreed to just leave him be and not worry about it for a good while. We've had to prioritise our daughter's daytime issues so and in doing so taken off quite some stress.

Thanks for your advise anyway lovely.

Dee