Wetting the bed...
- Thread starter Xero
- Start date
The kid sleeping through the alarm is a common problem, but the alarm can be set up so that the parent is awakened, and the parent wakes the kid at or near the time of the incident, thereby training the kid's brain over time to wake up when he needs to urinate.
I have not used one, and it sounds like a lot of trouble for the parent, but it's considered the method that works best according to the AAP. It may be the only method backed up by evidence that it works. However, it's no where near 100% effective.
The cost may be paid by insurance if prescribed by a pediatrician since its considered a proven medical device.
I have not used one, and it sounds like a lot of trouble for the parent, but it's considered the method that works best according to the AAP. It may be the only method backed up by evidence that it works. However, it's no where near 100% effective.
The cost may be paid by insurance if prescribed by a pediatrician since its considered a proven medical device.
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I hadn't mentioned the bedwetting alarm because I thought I already had. It must have been another forum. But yes, I have utilized them with great success.
It does a good job of teaching the child's brain to associate the urge to urinate with waking up, by consistently adding sound to the equation. It took exactly 12 weeks of consistent use before our child started waking up dry, and another few weeks before bedwetting ceased entirely. That is about the average time frame, too.
Yes, they do sleep through the alarm at first. But the parent will be able to hear the alarm and wake them up by other means until they get used to it and start waking up themselves. Assuming you're committed to not using diapers, isn't it better to get woken up right away to deal with it, rather than having them be wet all night?
It's really important to chart progress, or it can seem like it's just not working. If you only check them every morning, and they are always wet, you may not realize improvements like bedwetting less often (once per night, instead of five times) or staying dry longer into the night. When we first started using the alarm, our child wet the bed within an hour of falling asleep. But after a month of using the alarm, bedwetting happened early in the morning after almost a full night of being dry. So it's definitely a solution (80% effective on 4-12 year-olds), but it takes some long-term effort.
It does a good job of teaching the child's brain to associate the urge to urinate with waking up, by consistently adding sound to the equation. It took exactly 12 weeks of consistent use before our child started waking up dry, and another few weeks before bedwetting ceased entirely. That is about the average time frame, too.
Yes, they do sleep through the alarm at first. But the parent will be able to hear the alarm and wake them up by other means until they get used to it and start waking up themselves. Assuming you're committed to not using diapers, isn't it better to get woken up right away to deal with it, rather than having them be wet all night?
It's really important to chart progress, or it can seem like it's just not working. If you only check them every morning, and they are always wet, you may not realize improvements like bedwetting less often (once per night, instead of five times) or staying dry longer into the night. When we first started using the alarm, our child wet the bed within an hour of falling asleep. But after a month of using the alarm, bedwetting happened early in the morning after almost a full night of being dry. So it's definitely a solution (80% effective on 4-12 year-olds), but it takes some long-term effort.
I grew up in the '40s and wet from 5 until 11 when having nocturnal erections helped me wake up. I now can see that terrible stresses and serious misery in our very troubled family contributed to my deep sleeping patterns where I didn't notice an urge to go or had very vivid dreams in which I'd often being peeing! Sometimes I'd wet several times at night which drove my angry, abusive parents NUTS!W.M. said:
LOL, back then no doctor would have DARED tell my very stubborn parents that I was suffering with STRESS due to a horrible and terrifying home life.
Same here! My parents tried everything from beatings to shame to rubber sheets, more shaming and finally threw their hands up in the air!
I identify with those Black Outs!
I'm pretty sure mine was all about emotional stress and trauma and I've spent a lot of years in therapy working on the emotional "damages" from very bad and abusive parenting.
Yes, and it's so weird how so many professionals and parents CANNOT or WILL NOT see that it's directly connected to some kind of trauma or stress in the kid's life and environment! But that would mean examining one self and one's parenting - OH NOOOOOOOOOOOO! ..... better to keep buying rubber sheets and other equipment than to look at your own questionable parenting!
Thank you for posting your experiences!
jim
I remember that I had tons of NIGHTMARES in those years and believe I slept too deep to sense my bladder because I just wanted out of there! I also didn't recognize the urge because I'd dream of taking a nice, comfortable, relaxing pee in a normal way then wake up to a pool of p!IADad said:
If I were you, I'd examine every single thing in his life, starting with my own parenting to see if there is anything that is bothering him, scaring him, hurting him, worrying him, disappointing him, etc. Ask him about that! If anyone had ever asked me about my feelings, I could have said "It's extremely scary around here!" But those idiots would have just laughed it off! I was TRAUMATIZED! :shocked: