BEDWETTING
Should your child use a bedwetting alarm?
March 3, 2009
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Madhavi Acharya-Tom Yew
PARENTCENTRAL.CA
If you’re thinking about trying a bedwetting alarm to deal with your child’s nighttime accidents, don’t expect a quick fix.
Even fans of these devices say it can take a long time — as long as four months — before your sleep-through-anything kid will be able to wake up to use the bathroom during the night. And that’s only if the alarms are used consistently.
These alarms are meant to treat what’s known as primary nocturnal enuresis, or involuntary discharge of urine at night by children who have long-since mastered staying dry during the day.
They’re typically recommended for children who are eight years or older.
There’s no shortage of websites that sell the alarms, and prices tend to start at about $80. There’s even a Wikipedia page devoted to explaining the three basic types of bedwetting alarms.
Wearable alarms have a moisture sensor that goes inside or on the child’s underwear or pajamas to detect the first drops of urine. A cord goes up to a small speaker that can attach to the shoulder Velcro or metal snaps. On some models, the speaker also vibrates.
Wireless units are also known as two-stage alarms. Here, the signal that the underwear is wet is transmitted to a speaker that is across the room. Once it’s activated, the child needs to get out of bed to turn it off — probably on his way to the bathroom.
The other alternative uses a sensor pad that is hooked up to an alarm that goes on the nightstand.
These alarms have been around for a long time, but are now generally considered to be inferior to the newer, smaller models. The trouble is that if the child rolls off the pad, or it’s not completely soaked, the alarm won’t go off. Also the pads can be uncomfortable to sleep on.
It can take about three or four months to get to what is considered success — two weeks of dry nights.
In the meantime, it could take about 4 to 6 weeks just for your child to wake up at the sound of the alarm.
Medical studies have shown that older children who wet the bed tend to be very deep sleepers, and a moisture alarm won’t change that right away.
In the beginning, it’s usually the parents who hear the alarm first, hustle over to their child’s room, wake her up, and walk her to the bathroom to finish the job.
These alarms are loud. Think smoke-alarm loud. Often they wake up parents and siblings — the entire household — except for the child who needs to get up to pee.
And that’s precisely what some doctors and child development experts don’t like about them.
Behaviour modification just does not work on people who are asleep, said Dr. Mark Feldman, chair of the Canadian Paediatric Society’s Community Paediatrics Committee. “It’s like saying to somebody, if you don’t do your homework, you won’t get this reward, or if you do your homework, you’re going to get it. Well, if they’re sleeping, they’re not going to get it.”
In a 2007 paper, the Canadian Paediatric Society cautioned that in the long term, bedwetting alarms are effective in less than 50 per cent of children.
As for the reasons why they don’t work, “Number one is they’re sleeping so you can’t teach somebody something when they’re sleeping. Number two is that they’re such a pain that people stop using them,” Feldman said.
Where it does work, 15 per cent of those kids would have stopped wetting the bed on their own during those couple of month anyway, he added.
Feldman is not a fan of these devices.
He recommends the alarms only for older children: teenagers who request it themselves and are highly motivated to make a change.
Most of the time, it’s parents who need to adjust their expectations, he said.
“Bedwetting is not an emotional or behavioural or psychiatric problem. It’s a normal developmental stage. These kids sleep more deeply. That’s it.”
In the meantime, he said, let older children do as much for themselves and in private when they’ve had an accident. Make sure they’ve got a laundry basket and easy access to a set of clean sheets.
“What the family should do is focus on making it no big deal, not rewarding dry nights or punishing for wet nights. The short answer is, don’t sweat it.”