“Our son is 14 and still wets multiple times a week. He outgrew disposable pants so now we use waterproof pads and do a lot of laundry. We’ve tried walking him to the bathroom when we go to bed, limiting drinks, a couple of alarms and a vibrating watch. What can we do to help him?”
This is an excerpt from a recent conversation. This teen and his parents were understandably frustrated and not sure what would help. They were open to any suggestions.
Treatment was started
- The alarms tried in the past were flimsy, not reliable and were difficult to attach in the right place.
- The Rodger Wireless alarm was started. The teen agreed to wear the moisture sensing underwear to bed and picked a tone on the receiver, which was plugged into the wall opposite his bed.
- When the moisture sensing threads sensed any wetness, a signal was sent from the transmitter wirelessly to the loud receiver, where the sound comes from.
- The receiver continued to sound until someone pressed the button under a flashing red light. This required that he get out of bed to turn it off when the alarm sounded.
- Initially, his mother woke him when the alarm sounded and reminded him to turn off the alarm and walk to the bathroom.
- Within a few weeks, he was waking up to the alarm and walking to the bathroom. He had medium spots in his bed, but urine left to empty in the toilet once he got there.
Progress
- With some dry nights and smaller spots in his bed, his confidence drastically improved.
- He did not miss a single night of wearing the alarm and handled that independently. Because the Rodger alarm is just like wearing boxer briefs to bed, there were no excuses that it wasn’t comfortable or that it wasn’t positioned properly.
- He consistently woke up to turn off the alarm and go to the bathroom.
- He had more dry nights, where he did not wake until morning. He also had a few times where he just woke up to use the bathroom, without the alarm even sounding. He had never done that in his entire life.
Success
- The longer he used the alarm, the more dry nights he had.
- The recommendation is to use a bedwetting alarm until there are 14 consecutive dry nights.
- After 2 months, he was dry most nights. But he continued to consistently wear the alarm until he reached the goal of 14 dry nights.
- After 3 months, he was dry every night. Most nights he slept until morning dry, and a few nights, he woke up on his own to urinate.
Persistence and patience paid off. He could now plan camp and sleepovers with friends. If wetting ever restarted in the future, he could simply use the alarm for a few weeks to remind his body what to do.
