Wish us luck with the bedwetting alarm: Final update #25

[wendibird22]

See post #25 for a final update.

Ordered DD1 a bedwetting alarm. Should arrive tomorrow. She had her 5yr check up yesterday and the doctor gave us the go ahead to try it. DD1's been day trained since about 2.5yo and has never had a single dry night and if she takes an afternoon nap and it's longer than 1hr she'll wet the bed at nap time. She's the heaviest sleeper (like DH). She keeps asking us about wearing underwear and begs me to wake her up a couple times at night because, in her words, "my body doesn't feel the pee to wake me up." My heart breaks for her because she wants this so badly. We've ruled out constipation (she's been on miralax for 3mo w/ great success since day 1), diabetes, and too much fluids. The doc thinks she's just a deep sleeper and the alarm might help her body learn to wake up. She's got 4 wks before starting K so if we don't try this now it would have to wait until at least xmas break.

Wish us luck. I really really hope this works for her sake.

[cono0507]

She sounds exactly like my daughter who turns 5 next week. Mine is such a deep sleeper, she'll be sleeping soundly in a sopping wet bed so she's still in pull ups and is dry about 50% of the time at night.
I look forward to hearing how this works out for you. Might be in our future too.

[BabbyO]

Best of luck. I hope it is just what she needs to help her along. It seems like she wants it so badly.

[scriptkitten]

what is a bedwetting alarm?

my DS is almost 4 and we have to take him to potty at 11pm sharp at night or he wets the bed. he just doesn't feel it but doesn't want to wear a pull up any longer because his twin doesn't.

i've been thinking it would be nice if he could wake up himself to pee with some sort of alarm.

[wendibird22]

what is a bedwetting alarm?

my DS is almost 4 and we have to take him to potty at 11pm sharp at night or he wets the bed. he just doesn't feel it but doesn't want to wear a pull up any longer because his twin doesn't.

i've been thinking it would be nice if he could wake up himself to pee with some sort of alarm.

It's a device that clips onto the child's underwear and sounds an alarm/vibrates as soon as the sensor detects wetness. It's supposed to help the child's brain make the urge/wake up connection. The goal is that over the course of days/weeks it takes less wetness, and eventually no wetness to wake the child up so that they are waking up themselves upon feeling the full bladder/urge.

[wendibird22]

Update on day 1:

Bought the Malem Ultimate 1 which has 3 "alarms": sound, sound/vibrate, vibrate. I let DDs play with it when it arrived so they wouldn't be freaked out by the alarm (kind of like the sound when someone goes out an emergency exit. It's loud but not deafening). DD1 was so excited to wear it last night to bed. We showed her how to clip it on to her underwear, I talked to her about how it might take a while and not to get upset, and that we could stop any time she gets too frustrate and try again a later date.

She went to bed at 8pm. At 10:30pm the alarm went off and she'd wet the bed. I was certain it was going to be a long night and a lot of laundry. Well she woke me up at 1:45am to tell me that she had to pee and that she was dry and no alarm. She was so happy. She woke me up again at 5:50am for the same reason. So, only one accident! Tonight she was equally excited to put on her alarm for bed. Here's hoping that tonight is as easy as last night.

[hillview]

Wow that is great -- so glad she is excited!!

[karstmama]

excellent so far! i think it sounds like you're introducing it really well.

[wendibird22]

We just finished night 4. 2 accidents last night, 11:45pm and 1:45am. At least the 1st accident is getting later (each night it gets a bit later 10:30, 10:45, 11, etc). I was actually surprised that she had a 2nd accident last night because all the other nights it's just been the 1 time. She's still sticking with it and not discouraged so we'll keep pressing on with it. I told her it wouldn't work overnight. Thankfully the laundry hasn't been too bad because it's only been her undewear, pjs, and ultimate crib sheet that are wet. All of her bedding has stayed dry.

[azazela]

My 5 1/2 year old just finally started sleeping dry through the night a few weeks ago, so I know exactly where you're coming from. I've looked into the alarm and decided to give her until 6 before we consider trying it. She hasn't been particularly distraught about sleeping in a pull up, so I didn't want to rush it. And then a month or so ago it just sort of started clicking. She'd wake up with a less full pull up and then have enough to do a good pee in the morning (sorry if TMI). I told her if she does that for a week, she can try sleeping in underwear and off we went. She'd have accidents every now and then and we would always wake her up to pee about 2 hours after she went to bed (before we went to bed ourselves). The accidents have lessened over a few weeks. Then last week we went on the cruise and I was freaking out about what would happen if she wet the bed. I bought Goodnites disposable sheet covers to take with us. She was dry ALL WEEK! I think she still won't really wake up when she needs to pee honestly, but her bladder is finally big enough to hold her through the night. We do make sure she has no drinks after dinner (which is about 2 hours before she goes to bed) but that has never been enough to keep her dry through the night before.

[wendibird22]

Just another quick update because I'm so excited about this one. Night 5, alarm goes off at 11:45pm, not surprised given pattern, only in my semi-conscious state (I went to bed at 10:30) I can't figure out why the mattress protector looks dry. So I hesitantly start running my hand around the pad and the sheets expecting to get a wet hand and yet, I can't find a wet spot. So now I'm looking at the top sheet and her blanket wondering if she was asleep on top of one of those. Still confused. So DD1 comes back from the potty and I'm asking her if her underwear is wet and she's says yes and I'm like, really, your bed isn't wet, and she says, just drops mommy. Sure enough her underwear is just barely wet. She started to go, the alarm woke her up, she held it and went to the bathroom, just like it's supposed to start to work!!!! (for those who've never used one, the alarm over time is supposed to help the brain wake the body earlier and earlier in the wetting process). She was so proud of herself. It's great to see this progress in just 5 nights.

[hillview]

Wow that is awesome go DD!! I have to say I was not someone who'd have been a fan of an alarm but your posting has changed my mind -- it sounds like a great solution for some folks. Thanks for posting!

[wendibird22]

Wow that is awesome go DD!! I have to say I was not someone who'd have been a fan of an alarm but your posting has changed my mind -- it sounds like a great solution for some folks. Thanks for posting!

Thanks hillview. I think of the alarm this way...it isn't much different than a parent waking their child up to use the bathroom except for the alarm is helping the body learn to recognize the urge and wake up whereas the parent is more likely getting to the kid before the urge happens. I wouldn't need the alarm if I was willing to sleep with DD1 and keep my hand on her underwear and wake her when my hand feels wet, but well, I'm not gonna do that. :hysterical:

The only downside is I'm now a parent who doesn't sleep through the night...again. Even when DD wakes up on her own, she comes to tell me first that she's woken up w/out help of the alarm. Gee thanks kid.

[anamika]

that's great! We used the alarm with great success too. I was initially against but after reading and talking to people, decided to go for it. DD's progress was exactly the same. For us it took 2 weeks or so before she was done. I could not believe it!
Good luck!

[wendibird22]

Night 9: A dry night all night long!!!! Woooo hoooo!!!!!!! :yay:

Of course she woke up like 5 times to pee and woke me up each time to report on her goings on so I'm dog tired. But, that's a very small price to pay for such an accomplishment. I'm sure there will be more wet nights ahead but this is her very first dry night and I'm so proud of her.

[hellokitty]

That's awesome! I was really nervous, DS2 (who is turning 7 soon) went to sleep away camp for a wk and I had to send him with goodnights. Usually we wake him up around 11-midnight to pee again, but obviously we couldn't do it at camp. He said he only had one wet pull up at camp, but last night he wet himself (not full blown, just in underwear) again. We are going to have to try an alarm. I've always wondered about the constipation issue, but he is also a very deep sleeper, and that probably doesn't help either. Thanks for, "blogging" about your experience here at BBB, lol!

[hillview]

whooo! wtg!

[karstmama]

i think this sounds like it went perfectly. thanks so much for sharing - i know it will help other people on the fence make a decision.

[wendibird22]

So, we're just a few days shy of the 3wk mark since starting the alarm. Right now she's on a 3 day dry streak. Last week she had a 4 day in a row dry streak. And overall she's dry more days than wet (last week dry 5 out of 7 days). If she has an accident it's just once a night, usually in the first 4hrs when she's in deepest sleep. We had a couple rough days during week 2 when she was up like 10x's a night to pee and would wake me each time to tell me. I was soooooo exhausted! Thankfully, that was a brief phase. She's in a great mood about the alarm still and DH and I are really pleased with the progress. The instructions say to wear it for 2wks after being dry or else there could be a relapse. Every time we hit a dry streak I keep hoping it'll be the start of the 2wk count down.

Definitely confident in saying it was the best $100 spent on a kid product. I can't get over how something so simple is so effective.

[wendibird22]

We are now at the 1month mark. Had quite a few set backs this week sadly. She did have a 6 day dry steak after my last post and then the last 4 or 5 days have only had 1 dry night. The other nights have had 1 accident and one night had 2. She hasn't pooped in like 4 days, so I know that's contributing (she was on miralax for 3 mos and has been off for the past month...may need to revisit that). She's not frustrated by it, but I am. Last night she was soaked at 1am and again at 3am. She only woke up once she was wet and the alarm was sounding. It feels like a giant leap back. And I'm worried about the next few weeks because she's starting kindergarten, which is full day, and I know she's going to come home EXHAUSTED and that coupled with her being a sound sleeper I know is a recipe for peeing disaster. We started this 1 month ago hoping that was a good chunk of time to get her more consistently dry before starting school.

Here's hoping a)she poops today and b)we get her back on a solid dry streak.

PS: thanks for following my updates. I figured it might help someone down the road who tries an alarm.

[essnce629]

We tried two bedwetting alarms with DS1. The Nighthawk one, which both vibrates and has an audible alarm. I helped a little, but DS is such a deep sleeper that he would take forever to wake up when it was going off so he and the alarm would still be soaking wet. One of the alarms stopped working and I opened it up and it had rusted from having so much pee on it!!!!!

What I found has completely stopped the accidents is this Bedwetting Hypnosis CD. At the time, DS1 (8 years old at the time) was having multiple accidents a week. I bought the cd almost 4 months ago and DS had an accident on the second night of listening to the cd. That was the LAST time he had an accident!!!!!! It will be 4 MONTHS next week with NO accidents! He still listens to it every night before bed, but he did stay at my mom's for a week over the summer and forgot to listen to it and still stayed dry. I was already a fan of hypnosis, but now I'm even more so. I really need to write a review on Amazon since there's only one review on there that's legit and the other is some random rambling review.

The cd says it's for ages 10-15 though. Not sure why. DS started listening to it at age 8 and I think that was fine.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1905557175

There is this other brand that says it's for ages 3-8 years old, but I don't know anything about it (it's an MP3 though, not a cd)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007YK09JG

[wendibird22]

We are back on track!!!! She's been dry for 9 nights in a row :cheerleader1::cheerleader1::cheerleader1::cheerle ader1::cheerleader1::cheerleader1:

I was worried about that last set back heading into an exhausting first week of kindergarten. I thought for sure that she'd be so worn out from school that she'd have an accident from sleeping so soundly and going to bed about 45min earlier than she had been, but nope. She's doing great!

If she makes it just 5 more nights we'll be at the 2wk dry mark when they say it's ok to stop using the alarm. If that happens we'll have used the alarm for 6 wks all together but only had is trigger during the first 4wks. That would be so great!

ETA: thanks for following my updates. I figured I'd post a journal of sorts in case someone else down the line goes the alarm route and wants to know what to expect.

[hillview]

great news!

[hellokitty]

Yay! Oddly, I look forward to your updates, lol. However, I have an older child who is still a bedwetter too, so that's why I am watching your experience closely.

[wendibird22]

Final update.

We are done with the alarm!!!! DD1 used it for a full 6 weeks, with weeks 5 and 6 being completely dry and no alarm sounding. Some nights she goes the entire night dry and asleep. Some nights she wakes up in the wee hours of the morning for a bathroom break. She's so proud of herself and of course we are of her. The first 2-3wks were challenging and a lot of wake ups for us all either from being wet or being to hyper vigilant and making 100 trips to the potty and telling us about each trip. But overall it was super easy and well worth the $100. I wouldn't hesitate to use it again for DD2 sometime in the future if needed.

[zukeypur]

Thanks so much for posting this. I remember reading it a few months ago. I took DD (6yrs) to the Dr. this past week to explore our options. We used meds with DD1 starting around age 6 or 7, but this ped is recommending the alarm. I am overwhelmed with which one to get and where to get it, but this review helped.

I hope things are still going well!

[wendibird22]

Good luck. Everything thing I read said the Malem brand is best. Outs was the single sound plus vibrate.

Here it is, 3 mos later and DD is doing great. Not a single accident. She holds it all night typically waking around 5am to go. Just the other night as I was tucking her in I was reflecting on how well the alarm worked in just a short time. I keep wishing I could use it with my 3yo.


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[hellokitty]

I am so glad you, "blogged" uour experience with this alarm. We have had it with ds2. Wearing a pull up doesn't even help, since he pees so much that it overflows anyway He is 7 and still wetting his bed. We've tried miralax and it doesn't seem to Be helping I'm thinking about convincing dh of getting this alarm. Ds3 is 3 and even he is better night trained than our 7 yr old and ds1 was night trained when he was 3, so it was a non-issue with him too.

[zukeypur]

Has anyone used the Chummie brand? I was just looking on drugstore.com since DH gets a Walgreens discount there, and they sell a brand called Chummie. The sensor doesn't clip to the underwear, but you attach it with tape, a bandaid, or sandwich it between two pairs of underwear. The best part is that it's eligible for FSA, and it says its covered under most insurance! The reviews on amazon are really good, specifically with the company. In the instances she people have left bad reviews, the CEO of the company is contacting them to help them. You can order replacement sensors, but many people have reported being sent replacement sensors for free if there is a problem. It seems to me that the flat sensor would be more comfortable than the clip on, and it seems that it would be more sensitive as well. I just called DH, and he said to get a prescription and he could run it through at Walgreens. I'll let you know how it works on Monday!