First Two Weeks of Using a Bedwetting Alarm are the Hardest

Helping your child begin to use a bedwetting alarm is not easy! But it does get easier after the first few weeks.

What to Expect in the Beginning

Your child will most likely sleep through the loud sound. That is normal. Go to your child's room and wake them when you hear the alarm sound. Make sure they get out of bed and walk to the bathroom, even if they have a large wet spot in the bed.

One of the first signs of progress is urine left to empty in the toilet when they get to the bathroom. Help them back to bed and put on the other clean pair of underwear. Reattach the transmitter and turn the alarm back on.

Some children wet more than once a night in the beginning. This provides two opportunities to practice but is exhausting for parents. This phase of wetting more than once a night is usually finished after a couple weeks.

Your child may have no memory of the alarm sounding or using the bathroom. That is okay. Learning can still take place. Wetting in the first few hours of going to sleep is an especially hard time for children to wake up and think about what they need to do next. If the alarm sounds closer to morning, they have a better chance of hearing the alarm and remembering the incident in the morning.

Commit to using the alarm every night possible. It should not be used for a sleep over so have a backup plan available. But your child should use it every night he is in your own home. Some parents take turns responding to the alarm until it goes off less frequently. Keep some records of when the alarm sounds and how big the wet spot is in the bed. This is helpful to track progress.

It Does Get Easier

Children do learn to respond on their own and walk to the bathroom. When this happens, you can stay in bed. Your child will begin to wet less frequently per night, then begin to have some dry nights mixed with the wet ones. You can all sleep on those dry nights.

Even though the average child takes 10 weeks to become dry, many of these final weeks will only have the alarm sounding a couple of times a week/ month. Patience and persistence pay off! Consistently use the alarm until 14 consecutive dry nights are achieved.