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For those who didn't see my previous thread, my just-turned-11 year old (and his younger brother) both have primary nocturnal enuresis. That means that they have never, aside from a small handful of times, stayed dry at night when they sleep. We took them to the pediatrician, and medical complications were ruled out. The issue for my older boy is two-fold. His body doesn't produce enough of the anti-diuretic hormone that tells the body to produce less urine at night, and he sleeps like the dead. Seriously. With Boy Scout camp happening this summer, we turned to an alarm system to try and 'train' him. This thread is to give you the low-down on which alarms worked, which didn't, and how we're doing.
We started off about four months ago with the Wet Stop alarm. Pros for this one are as follows. The alarm is loud. Not loud enough to wake my kid, but it's the highest level of decibels allowed for a night time alarm. It also has a vibrate function which, in conjunction with the audio alarm, was enough to wake him most nights (initially). The sensor is extremely sensitive to moisture and will pick up even a tiny drop. And lastly, you can choose sound only, vibration only, or both. Now for the drawbacks, which led us to give up on this alarm. The sensor is tiny - about 1/2" X 1/2" - so if it wasn't in exactly the right spot, he would be quite wet before the alarm went off. The sensor connects to the alarm box with a cord that you run under your kid's pjs, then the box clips to the neckline of the shirt. This wasn't too big an issue for us, but I can see it being uncomfortable for some. The other big problem was that he became accustomed to both the beeping and the vibration, and started to sleep through the alarm. Crazy, since it was loud enough to wake me in the next room, but that's how soundly he sleeps. We had six dry nights during the two and a half months we used this alarm. Disappointing, even with the caveat that alarms can take up to six months to work, and sometimes aren't effective at all.
Next we moved to the Chummy alarm. He hated this one from the beginning because it has a face on the alarm box and comes with cartoons to color and stickers. Too babyish. However, I it advertised having eight different sounds and a larger sensor - I thought it would work well for us. Nope. The sensor, while bigger, is not as sensitive. Worst of all, it has no clip to attach it to the underwear. Instead, there is an adhesive strip. A completely useless adhesive strip, which only kept the sensor in place one of the (only) three nights we used the alarm. The other problem with this was the advertised 'different sounds'. It's all the same tone, but the pattern of beeps varies. Really, how well is a kid who doesn't wake up supposed to differentiate between beep -- beep -- beep, and beep, beep -- beep? Our unit also malfunctioned one night, and only beeped a single time before shutting off for an entire minute before resuming. Oh, the Wet Stop can be purchased for about $35; the Chummy was $85.
In desperation, and after more searching than I've ever done online before, we found the Roger alarm. This system works a bit differently than the others. The 'sensor' is a section of wire built into a pair of regular boy's briefs. (Two briefs are included, and panties are available for girls.) The wires lead to two snaps, where you attach a transmitter. I was worried the wires would be uncomfortable, but they're not at all (at least according to my son). The alarm is separate, and receives a wireless signal from the transmitter. This was another worry - that it would fail to transmit - but it's been working perfectly. The alarm does have truly different sounds, so if your child gets too used to one, you can change it to something completely different. We had a few laughs with this feature, as one sounds like a fire engine alarm, and one sounds like the Star Trek alarm, lol. I'd have to check, but there are at least six, if not eight, different sounds. Because the wires are stitched throughout the front of the briefs, they pick up the first drops of urine, no matter where it occurs. The alarm comes with an optional "bed shaker", which the instructions say to put between the box spring and mattress. Yeah, sure. Ours is under the pillow. One of the best things about this is that my son can't turn it off without getting out of bed, since it has to be turned off at the alarm, not at a box clipped to his pjs. It does come with a chart to track progress. It's bit childish, but is very good for keeping track. There are four boxes to choose from for each night - two blue and two yellow. The bottom blue means the child has slept through the alarm and the bedding is wet. The top blue means the child woke up, but the bedding was still wet. The bottom yellow shows that the alarm woke the child before the bedding got wet, and the top yellow box is for when the child sleeps through the night without the alarm going off. So far, we've been using it for 17 days. We had one top blue (awake, but wet bedding) the first week, and a dry night (top yellow box) on the last day of that week. The second week, we had one more top blue, but two non-consecutive nights of sleeping dry. The first three days of this week, we've had two consecutive nights dry. My son came out of his room yesterday morning with a smile on his face. Here's hoping for one more tonight. This system wasn't cheap, at $165 with the "shaker" and an extra pair of briefs, but if this works it will have been more than worth the money.
I'll update the post in a couple days with any new progress (or not). Hopefully this very long post is of use to others. Even with all my searching, it was nearly impossible to find a comprehensive and unbiased list of alarms, with detailed information about pros and cons, length of time used, and specific successes or failures. It was also hard to find good, personal accounts of Desmopressin use (the synthetic hormone to reduce urine output at night). Given my family's history of VonWillebrand's (bleeding), and the potential - if infrequent - side effects, we're not going to go that route. I would still be interested in hearing from anyone who has actually used it, though.
Thanks for the update. The alarm that worked for us is called the Wet Stop 3. It was the one recommended by the specialty clinic at the children's hospital.
For us, the alarm went off every night. One of us got up, made sure he was getting up, helped him wake up enough to go to the bathroom. With the nightly cycle of waking in the night, he started to make the hormone, and started to sleep through the night without wetting. I think it took less than 2 weeks, but I think the nightly waking was necessary for the hormone production. Once it worked, it worked. He was wet at night maybe one time after that.
I should have been more specific. Our Wet Stop was also the 3. It worked well for him, until he learned to sleep through it. Even though I went into his room each time the alarm went off, and made him get up, I don't think he was fully awake. He would go in to the bathroom, pee, come back to bed and have no memory of it the following morning. He even asked me to video it one night, because he didn't believe me when I told him he'd been up, lol.
I should have been more specific. Our Wet Stop was also the 3. It worked well for him, until he learned to sleep through it. Even though I went into his room each time the alarm went off, and made him get up, I don't think he was fully awake. He would go in to the bathroom, pee, come back to bed and have no memory of it the following morning. He even asked me to video it one night, because he didn't believe me when I told him he'd been up, lol.
Another update. My son is doing better than he was, but it looks like the alarm isn't going to solve everything. As long as he's well-rested he doesn't wet at night anymore, but as soon as he gets very tired, all bets are off. Most recently, we'd had two weeks of dry nights without using the alarm. Then we took a day trip to the beach on Wednesday. The beach trip, in combination with four days a week, two hour long football practices was too much. Hello deep-sleep. Hello wet sheets.
I'm still glad we had the alarm, since it does mean dryness most of the time. Now I'm wondering if there's any kind of sleep-therapy available to kids who have this kind of deep sleep issue. Anyone have any experiences in adjusting kids' sleep? Is it even possible?
OP....don't worry!
Up until a few months ago my son who turned 11 in May, wet his bed 5 times/week. He too slept very hard. Nothing would wake him. Even when we woke him up to pee he peed in bed. Very exhausting. His doctor thought he would grow out of it and wanted us to wait.
Well, all of a sudden it stopped, 6 months ago. It just stopped on its own. He sometimes wake up on his own to pee. Just hang in there and don't spend too much money on alarms.
OP....don't worry!
Up until a few months ago my son who turned 11 in May, wet his bed 5 times/week. He too slept very hard. Nothing would wake him. Even when we woke him up to pee he peed in bed. Very exhausting. His doctor thought he would grow out of it and wanted us to wait.
Well, all of a sudden it stopped, 6 months ago. It just stopped on its own. He sometimes wake up on his own to pee. Just hang in there and don't spend too much money on alarms.
Happened to mine as well. He went through periods of being completely dry and then would go back to bedwetting. We tried:
1. Making him responsible for doing his own laundry every day.
2. Eliminating liquids after a certain hour
3. DS set up his own alarm system where he would wake himself up every few hours
4. Medication
5. A method(don't remember the name of the doctor) where you purposely feed the child highly salty foods in the evening(potato chips, pretzel etc) which makes the every thirsty. Allow them to drink as much as possible. Then the parent wakes them every hour till about midnight or one am, then again wake them around 5am. The kids *usually* have a dry period of about 4-5 hours. Then each night you lengthen the gap (first night is 4hours, second night 5, and so on) till child can sleep through the night dry.
The one that worked*best* for us(and it wasn't perfect but it had the higher success rate) was the last one.
Around when DS hit puberty it stopped completely , which is what his Pediatrician and others parents said would happen
Now I'm wondering if there's any kind of sleep-therapy available to kids who have this kind of deep sleep issue. Anyone have any experiences in adjusting kids' sleep? Is it even possible?
My child had a deep sleep issue, so I imagine exactly that when you describe yours. I called it "sleeping like a rock", not even turning, just like a sack: how you drop it, it will keep laying that way.
Unfortunately, that was just a secondary thing to his main problem, epilepsy. His brain was wired differently.
He had a brain surgery to deal with epilepsy (it worked, thanks god). The secondary issue of "deep sleep" went away as well. He now sleeps more like regular people: tosses, turns, there is a period of shallow sleep, and can wake up with noises/lights, which he could not do before.
So in my experience it was the brain wiring, and I don't know if there is a therapy for it.
Another update. My son is doing better than he was, but it looks like the alarm isn't going to solve everything. As long as he's well-rested he doesn't wet at night anymore, but as soon as he gets very tired, all bets are off. Most recently, we'd had two weeks of dry nights without using the alarm. Then we took a day trip to the beach on Wednesday. The beach trip, in combination with four days a week, two hour long football practices was too much. Hello deep-sleep. Hello wet sheets.
I'm still glad we had the alarm, since it does mean dryness most of the time. Now I'm wondering if there's any kind of sleep-therapy available to kids who have this kind of deep sleep issue. Anyone have any experiences in adjusting kids' sleep? Is it even possible?
My son was like this and wasn't consistently dry until 7th grade. We used the Malem alarm (I think). Another thing we did is either myself or my husband would wake up my son before we went to bed (which was usually an hour or 2 after he went to bed). This seemed to help break the deep sleep cycle.
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