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Bedwetting alarm cures a common issue

December 18, 2014 3 min read

Bed wetting is a very common issue young children and their parents deal with - but with a bedwetting alarm, it's easily curable, allowing everyone to move forward. It can get tiresome changing sheets in the middle of the night on a regular basis, and it can knock children's confidence and disrupt sleep patterns.

Bedwetting is Extremely Normal

It's important to remind your child that what they are going through is in fact very normal - stressing this encourages them to focus on overcoming enuresis and gives them more confidence.

Catherine Kalpakis, a nurse with the Durham Region Health Department, says night time accidents are considered normal until a child reaches the age of six years old. 

“Parents should be very supportive and reassuring with lots of encouragement,” she said. “It is very common and there is nothing wrong with the child. It is not their fault and there should never be punishment or humiliation.”

Ms. Kalpakis also noted that bedwetting may be influenced by genetics - If one or both of a child's parents used to wet the bed, the chances of their child also dealing with enuresis increased by 65%. 

Medical intervention unnecessary

Kalpakis recommends parents wait until their child is at least 7 years old before contacting the doctor if they are yet to outgrow bedwetting.

Medical intervention with drugs is generally not recommended till after age 7, though we would heavily discourage this type of intervention because of the risk of side-effect from drugs. Bedwetting alarms, on the other hand, can be used from the age of 5 onwards, to help the child cure his or her bedwetting. 

Limiting fluids won't necessarily help

The article suggests parents should limit the amount of fluids before bedtime and encourage children to use the bathroom before bed. 

Primary nocturnal enuresis is generally the result of a developmental delay in the bladder reflex, plus, in some cases, a child may not product enough ADH (anti-diuretic hormone) at night.

Limiting fluids before bed, or toileting before bed, therefore, is not going to result in the child NOT wetting the bed…it may (if ADH is production is normal) slow the rate at which the bladder fills up during the night but the signal to the brain when it reaches capacity is weak or inoperative so the bladder just voids automatically.

The function of an alarm is to replace this weak or inoperative signal with a strong noisy one that wakes the child as it is wetting. Over time the child’s brain starts to associate the sound of the alarm with the feeling of a full bladder and will begin to wake in response to this feeling before the alarm goes off.

Bedwetting Alarms are here to Help

Overcoming enuresis is a case by case basis; there is no real right or wrong age to grow out of it. However, both you and your child are likely to want to pass through this phase as quickly as possible. This is where Dri Sleeper eclipse bedwetting alarms and Dri Sleeper excel bedwetting alarms can help speed up the process. 

Keeping Positive

Kalpakis advises that “keeping a positive attitude at all times is key, as bedwetting can cause self-esteem issues later on.” If you would like to find out more about our bedwetting alarms and enuresis, take a look at our resource page. 

You can also get in touch with me here.