Bed Wetting Alarm - Pleasant Hill,CA

Both of me boyfriend's sons wet their bed into their teens. Completely physiological. For the oldest, the alarm worked great. Nothing has worked so far for the 15 year old but at least he does his own laundry!

I second the comment about a chiropractor. WHen I was a young child about this age, I had a bed wetting problem. I remember that my mom took me to a chiropractor and the problem was non-existent after that!

Sweetie, you are doing everything you can and it is just not going to help. He cannot stop this on his own. It is a biological thing that his brain turns on someday. His brain has not started turning off the urine production once he falls asleep like it should. There is nothing that can be done to stop this until his brain kicks in.

Let him sleep in pull ups and get some rest. Everyone must be exhausted. If you are changing him and the bed each time you find he is wet then you are creating a large addition to your bills. The water, electricity, gas, laundry soap, fabric softener, dryer sheets, etc...plus your time being tied to the laundry room. Pull ups are much cheaper and they free up your time.

All alarms do is wake everyone up and make them have a lot less sleep and they do NOT make him stop wetting the bed. Search the topic in the box at the top and you will find that this is common even up to adolescence.

He needs to drink, let him have fluids. It does not make him have less urine and some research shows it makes the wetting go on longer due to the bladder never getting full enough to turn on the signal to wake up. He is still making urine since it has not been turned off by the brain and if he gets full enough it may wake him up.

I agree with Grandma G. Have him try sleeping in Underjams Underwear for a bit. They are designed for older kids that have this problem. I think setting an alarm will be disruptive to his sleep pattern and will make him anxious to go to sleep.

Another note, have you spoken to a Urologist about the issue? They could help rule out any physical/medical reasons that would be behind the problem.

My little sister had this same issue growing up. My parents bought one of those alarms for her, but it never ONCE woke her up. Only me...every night. If you have a deep sleeper on your hands it is a complete waste of money. My sister ended up growing out of this. by the age of 10 or so. She wore goodnights until then. Goodluck!!

We had the same problem at our house.

We used an alarm system that my hubby found on-line. There was a sensor that went in the child's underwear (I sewed a little pocket so it would stay in the right place) and an alarm that sat next to his bed. We talked about it A LOT before we started. We practiced by having him lay down in bed and close his eyes and then I would set off the alarm, he would then get up and go into the bathroom. The first 3 or 4 nights it was like having a newborn in the house, up every few hours taking him to the bathroom and changing sheets if needed.

This was VERY SUCCESSFUL. We knew that our son would be in Boy Scouts and of course going on sleepovers and we just had to get this under control. It is just training our brains to recognize the signal and wake up the body.

When researching a product we read all of the suggestions that other customers had listed, they were very helpful.

Good Luck!

I was a bedwetter off and on until college. Sometimes I still have issues and I'm 31. I eventually trained myself to start dreaming about bathrooms, and if I feel any relief I know it's time to wake up.

Definitely take him to a doctor if you're really concerned. I don't know all the details, but I know my Grandfather had to have some sort of surgery in his teens that was related to bedwetting.

One thing to help at night (does he wet more than once?) is to use the waterproof sheets. To save time at night, put one down, then regular sheet, then another waterproof one, then another regular sheet. Then you just have to peel off the top 2 and don't have to completely remake the bed.

My son was in pullups at night till he woke up dry 2 weeks in a row - he was 7 yrs old.
Some kids are 11 or 12 before they stop wetting the bed.
By all means see a urologist and make sure there is nothing wrong but most likely he's fine and just needs more time.
Use pullups long as you can and let him sleep..
Kids will sleep through smoke alarms - the noise just doesn't register to rouse them if they sleep deeply.
A wetting alarm is not going to make his bladder mature any faster.

We used the Malem alarm for my son, when he was much younger (he's 7 now). It worked miracles! He was also an extremely deep sleeper, and had accidents almost every single night. He was accident-free within 2 weeks!! He didn't like it at first, and fought us about putting it on subsequent nights after the first one, but with a little coaxing, he used it and became a dry sleeper. It's well worth the money, for both your sanity, and your son's!

I used the alarm for my son and it worked instantaneously! He was such a deep sleeper that I thought it couldn't possibly work. He was 10 when we tried it and he had NEVER had a dry night until then. However, one week with the alarm, and he never had a wet night again.

I bought ours on eBay (and enjoyed reading the success stories of the people passing their alarms along), but you can also get them at bedwettingstore.com.

If your son is signed on, I recommend giving it a try. And if it doesn't work right away, you can always wait 6 months and try again.

Good luck!

I would talk to the doc about this honestly.

My son is 6 and is still wetting the bed more often than not. We are doing what you are, except we haven't restricted his fluids because the doctor told us that can sometimes make the problem worse rather than better. We have him go to the bathroom like 3 times before bed and some nights I wake him before I go to sleep. Most of the times that's successful but not always. Our doctor suggested a bed wetting alarm as well but they are REALLY expensive so I want to exhaust all other methods. At the end of the day though, he said that some kids, especially boys, will have bed wetting problems until they are teens. He did give us a prescription for a medication that I can't remember the name of off hand that we use in situations when we really can't have him wetting the bed. I've used it twice since we got it in Sept....once when we were spending the night in NYC at my cousin's apt. and this past Friday when we spent the night at a local museum.

Have you seen a doctor to make sure that there are no medical issues going on? I would definitely want to rule that out before going any further. If you haven't already done so, I would call his pediatrician asap and make the appointment.

I'm not a fan of keeping fluids from a child at night. Just make sure that water is the only fluid he drinks after a certain time.
Having had the bedwetting problem until I was in my teens, I know that a person who is a sound sleeper is going to find it difficult to wake up to go in the middle of the night. The alarm may work for your son, but I don't have any suggestions as far as the kind to get, other than I think there are some that wake the child more by a vibration than a sound. I believe that would probably be the better choice.
As for the problem of laundry every day, I would minimize it by putting down a heavy waterproof pad over his sheets, and then put a piece of cloth over the pad to absorb the urine. An old bath towel would be a good choice for the cloth cover because it's very absorbent. That way, you take his P.J.s and the towel or cloth to wash in the morning, wipe the waterproof cover, and you're done. You might even want to have your son take care of removing the towel and have a place for him to put it and his P.J.s ready for the wash, then he can wipe off the waterproof cover himself. Having some responsibility in the clean up might help him to learn bladder control too. Just don't make it an embarassment or punitive thing.

I swear to you that I am not a chiropractor! I am just a normal mom that had a 4 year old daughter that wet the bed every night too. I was complaining to one of my customers and she said her daughter had done that too until she took her to a chiropractor and had her adjusted. Well, I have a good friend that I go to that's a chirpractor so I asked him about it and he was very confident that it would help her. So....no kidding, one adjustment and she didn't ever wet the bed again. He said it was like resetting the nervous system. Obviously, the nerves that should be telling the brain the bladder is full weren't working. I know it's hard to believe and it might take a few appointments for you....but it sure as heck was the best thing I ever did! Good luck...I feel for you!

I have no other suggestions but want to wish you good luck. My nephew just turned 12 and still wears pull up type stuff to bed because of bedwetting. They have been to urologists, pediatricians, tried alarms, tried specially designed programs by sleep specialists, waking him regularly as you do etc. There is nothing medically wrong with him - he is just a heavy sleeper. They have spent lots of money trying to solve this problem. THey have finally given up. He will simply have to grow out of it somehow - after all have you ever heard of a adult bedwetter (except for those who have a urological medical problem)? It is an embarrassment for him - he has learned to be very discreet when getting ready for bed when he stays at relatives/friends houses so they don't really notice. Any accidents he has he must clean up himself (i.e. he has to strip the bed in the morning and put the bedding in the laundry) as he is older. I wish a quick resolution to your sons issue - you are in my thoughts and prayers.

Lots of people telling you alarms don't work. For some they don't, but for many they do. Key points are that the CHILD must be ready and that the PARENTS must be committed. My 9 yo son wet the bed nightly from the time he was 3. Nightly, multiple times a night. He never cared so we kept him in underjams. Last fall he decided he wanted to try to stop; we restricted liquids, got him up in the night, did every trick under the sun, nothing worked.

In November we got an alarm at his request after his pedi told him what was involved with using one. I taught him how to use it. Following the instructions I slept in his bed with him for 3 weeks, yes, 3 weeks, that's what it took for us. At first he didn't wake up, that's what I was there for. After 3 weeks he was hearing the alarm but waiting for me to kick him, so I moved back to my bed. Increased wetting for 3 nights then we were back to once a night or so. After 6 weeks he was consistently dry. We stopped the alarm in December and he's been dry ever since - through sleepovers, vacations, etc etc - no accidents. If we forget to have him potty before bed I will hear his feet hit the floor around 1am with the frantic run to the bathroom - but it's all on his own.

So yes, alarms can work if used correctly and consistently. Make sure he is fully on board with the idea though or you're in for failure, that is the single most important criteria. I got my alarm from www.thebedwettingstore.com

ETA - we tried a chiro, didn't work for us but he had good results with other patients.

Bet-wetting is often associated with food intolerances. It is such a common problem that doctors just don't seem to have an answer for. I would suggest doing a little reading and maybe trying some dietary changes. I've seen it work for people! Lots of people don't even realize that they have food allergies or intolerances because they don't recognize the symptoms.
Here are a few articles to get you started. I hope you try it! Good luck!

http://healthy-family.org/caryn/139/food-allergies-may-ca...

http://allergic-me.blogspot.com/2011/05/overactive-bladde...

This one has some success stories from parents who tried it: http://www.wellbladder.com/bladder_symptoms__gluten_sensi...