Our Continence Nurse has advised a bedwetting alarm for our 5 year old, the first one we tried he was scared of the noise it made, so they gave us a vibrating one, it has gone off tonight and he has woken up sobbing by the time we got to him he was already wet. My husband is now refusing to use the alarm with him, I want to try it more as the Nurse said if the alarm didn't work it would be medication. Anyone been in a similar situation or got any advice or words of wisdom?
Thanks in Advance.
I would say unless your son is on board with the alarm then it's not going to work. We had a similar situation with our daughter. He is still only young, essentially you are waiting for the hormone vasopressin being produced and that's something you can't control. There are things that you can do to help though, ensure that he drinks plenty of water during the day, this will help to train the bladder to hold more liquid, do not lift to take to the toilet at night as this only manages the issue and not deal with it, but do make sure he completely empties his bladder, count to 30, you will be surprised how much wee comes out again. Don't restrict liquids after a certain time, it doesn't actually work. bbuk.org.uk/wp-content/uplo...
We also tried an alarm at that age and found my son to be too young. He’s almost 8 now and we’ve been using a PJ alarm for the last fortnight and fingers crossed it’s looking quite positive. We were also advised to use medication but resisted - we invested in a peapod mat, stopped all drinks part from water and upped his daily intake to 1.5l.
Good luck - trust your instincts x
gosh hes only 5! they wont even see kids for night time bedwetting til at least 7 in my area, & night time bedwetting is still considered common at age 5 so i'm surprised your nurse even talked about meds at his age ( i dont think theres any evidence for efficacy anyway til at least 6) ...so agree with your husband ,dont stress at this age, hes still got some maturing to do.
Thanks everyone, he was initially referred for daytime wetting which at home isn't really an issue but was in school and because as part of the telephone consultation I mentioned night time wetting and she said once he turned 5 we could look at it hence where we are with the alarm.
I think you're all right I'm not sure he is ready for the alarm yet, think I'll have to contact the continence nurse and discuss it.
I brought an alarm my little boy sleeps through then still wet in the morning, woke the rest of us up by then it’s to late he’s wet
We used an alarm with my son when he was 5.5 and within 5 weeks he was completely dry - he’s 7.5 now and hasn’t had an accident since (our big problem is soiling). We got an alarm that had multiple different settings with different types of beeps and vibration, and volume as well - best £35 we ever spent! Then we ‘played’ with it to see which setting he liked best, and so he knew what to expect. We also clipped it on different places to find what was most comfortable for him.
For the first 2 weeks, we put his mattress on the floor in our room. This made him more comfortable (as he would sleep with us every night if he could!!) and meant I would wake up straight away when the alarm started, so that he didn’t get upset - sometimes he even slept through it! Eventually got him back in his room, and every day was a bit better, with him stopping very quickly after the alarm went off so that there weren’t major bed changes. Some people put dry nites on over pants to keep the bed from needing a change, as this can be disruptive for the child, but we just got a couple of washable bed pads with wings so that we only had to swap the pad if it was a big accident.
He was so excited and proud, and we always gave him lots of praise. If your DS isn’t that bothered or motivated, it may be worth waiting a bit and trying again when he wants to? Good luck!!
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