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How is the DRI-Sleeper® alarm different from other bedwetting alarms?The DRI Sleeper® alarm unit is small (about half the size of a credit card, but 5/8 inch or 15mm thick), made in bright, child friendly colours. The DRI Sleeper® alarm has special electronics. When the detector is wet by urine, it triggers the alarm to start beeping, and almost instantly the alarm unit isolates itself from the detector, and then keeps on beeping, but with no current running through the detector. This is quite different from most other alarms - they have current flowing through the detector as long as the alarm is beeping. The problem with this, is that even although the current may be small and is completely safe, that small electric current can still cause the urine to become acidic, and this can irritate the child's skin. In the case of the DRISleeper®, this cannot happen - because there is no current in the detector.
Is the DRISleeper® electrically safe?The DRISleeper® runs on only six volts and a tiny current, and it is so safe that you can put the detector on your tongue, and trigger the alarm, but you will feel nothing. All that happens is for less than a second a few microamps (which you can not feel) passes through the detector and triggers the alarm unit, which then keeps beeping.
How does the alarm turn off?The moisture detector plugs into the alarm unit and this switches it on so that it is ready to detect urine. When the alarm has been triggered by the urine, the alarm will keep on beeping until the detector is unplugged from the alarm unit. This switches the alarm off, and also resets it ready to be switched on again when the detector is plugged in. What sort of batteries does the DRI Sleeper® use?The batteries are 4 X 1.5 volt alkaline "button type" similar to those used in a calculator. (Panasonic LR 44 or equivalent, we put a sticker inside the battery compartment showing the equivalent ones which are suitable).
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| (i) | The alarm unit of the DRI Sleeper™ is placed on a Velcro patch on the shoulder of the child, and so is much closer than an alarm clock, and therefore, while the alarm clock may appear to be quite loud, it is not as loud as the DRI Sleeper®. |
| (ii) | The DRI Sleeper® is triggered as the child starts to pass urine, and this is likely to be when the stage of sleep is closer to waking, and so there is a higher chance of the child waking to the sound. |
| (iii) | An alarm clock being set to go off at a particular time will have no relationship to the child experiencing the urge to urinate, and so not only is the alarm clock not as loud as the DRI Sleeper®, but it is going off without there being the important relationship between the sound and the urge to empty the bladder, and the child being in a lighter state of sleep. |
Surprisingly these are the children for whom the use of an alarm is very important. Take a look at what well-known paediatrician Dr Green says. He explains that the children who initially do not wake to the alarm are very suitable for alarm treatment.
With these children the strategy is that you hear the alarm, go into the room, put on the light, say your child’s name, and if no waking is happening, wipe your child's face with a cool damp cloth. Leave the alarm beeping.
Then have your child get up (by themselves) and go to the bathroom with the alarm still sounding, and ONLY then should you unplug the alarm.
The reason for this is so that waking is happening with the alarm sounding, and a link between waking and the sound of the alarm can be formed in your child’s brain.
It is very important that in the morning that your child remembers the alarm sounding and going to the bathroom, because only if your child remembers will learning happen effectively.
However, for these children there is this extra step in the treatment programme and so expect it to take longer.
When there is still no progress (and I guess it’s no comfort to you that not many children are in this category), a part of the learning to wake to the alarm is practised during the day.
Have the alarm box already attached to a favourite pyjama top, or maybe a T shirt that you have bought especially for this treatment (anything that makes the process special will help).
Check the alarm is working correctly by plugging in the detector and touching the sensing surface with a damp finger and noting that it beeps.
Before you follow this routine, make sure you know it well. Explain it to your child, and make sure your child understands that this practise is teaching the brain to be ready to wake to the buzzer, and, that with practise your child's brain will get fast enough to beat the buzzer. Then he or she will have dry beds.
| 1. | From dinner time on, have your child drink extra liquids. This may sound strange, but we are wanting to get plenty of practise at the routine of responding to the alarm. |
| 2. | Have your child tell you when he or she needs to go to the bathroom (you could call it having a “bladder signal” or any other term you like, as long as it is one that you have agreed on and you continue to use that term). |
| 3. | Immediately go with your child to the bedroom, have him or her put on the pyjama top with the alarm box attached, lie on the bed, and pretend to be sleeping. Plug on the detector, but you hold on to it. |
| 4. | When he or she is relaxed, you make the alarm "beep" by touching the detector sensing surface with your damp finger. Then your child is to get up and you both run right along to the bathroom, with the alarm still beeping. |
| 5. | Have him or her unplug the detector from the alarm box, just as would happen if this were during the night. |
| 6. | When possible, another parent or sibling may also help, by going to the parents’ room and when the alarm starts beeping, "race" the child into the bathroom. Children of this age tend to like this kind of competitive involvement. It also encourages the sense of urgency to react to the alarm beeping. |
| 7. | Have your child splash his or her face vigorously five times in a row with cold water. Then pretend to use the toilet for a few seconds as if to urinate, and have your child say, "I have a bladder signal (or whatever is the term you have agreed on), but I can wait to urinate." |
Return to the bedroom and repeat steps 3 to 7 above four more times. If your child cannot hold off urinating, then let him or her urinate and then continue until you have practised steps 3 to 7 five times in total.
If after a week your child is still not waking to the alarm at night, then increase the number of repetitions to 10 times per evening. For more difficult cases go to 20 repetitions in the 3rd week.
If even this is not successful (and that’s very rare) then leave it for a few months to allow more brain maturing and then start again.
20% of 5-year-olds and 10% of 7-year-olds wet the bed at night. By the age of 10, that figure is closer to 5%, and even at the age of 18 it is still 1-2%. In short, bedwetting is quite common.
Bedwetting is hardly ever caused by abnormalities in the bladder. But if your child is previously "dry" and then starts to wet the bed at night or during the day, then it is important to see a doctor to check out if there is any medical reason for that. A few children may have a rather small bladder, but that usually shows up by a child needing to go to the bathroom frequently during the day, and passing only a small amount of urine. Again, if you suspect that this is the case, have you child checked out by your doctor, and bladder stretching exercises may be necessary before starting any treatment for night-time bedwetting.
All children who wet the bed sleep very deeply, but research indicates that all young children sleep more heavily than adults, because they spend more time in the deep sleep phases. Therefore there is no consistent evidence that children who wet the bed actually sleep more heavily than children who do not. Nonetheless parents will usually agree that their bedwetter sleeps more heavily that their other children.
Yes, that is very likely, because it has been found that if both mother and father were bedwetters that there is around a 70% chance that the pattern will be repeated in one of their children. If only one parent was a bedwetter there is a 50% chance of a child being a bedwetter.
Yes there are. Never having been dry at night since coming out of diapers is what is called "primary" bedwetting, and that's the most common problem, and is the one which is passed on in the genes.
When a child has been dry and starts to wet the bed, perhaps in the daytime too, that is called "secondary" bedwetting, because it is secondary to some other problem. It is most likely to be caused by a medical condition or perhaps an upset of some kind. This secondary type is the one that needs to be checked out by a doctor. However, it is fairly uncommon, perhaps around 1-2% of cases.
There is no definite answer but I will sum up what is known so far.
| 1. | Primary bedwetting runs in families and is a genetic condition. There is a pattern of heavy sleeping, and producing high amounts of urine while asleep. |
| 2. | Secondary bedwetting might be due to a physical or emotional problem, but as I said, it is quite uncommon. |
| 3. | Recent research suggests that some children who wet the bed may suffer obstructed breathing while they sleep. These children may have problems with their tonsils, and some of them have been found to have a rather narrow ''V'' shaped palate. These children are inclined to snore. If your child snores at night, and in particular you notice that breathing stops for a period, or your child suffers from infected tonsils, then it is important to have this checked out by your doctor. |
First of all decide whether your child's bedwetting is the primary kind, the primary kind is when your child has mostly not been dry at night since coming out of diapers (a rule of thumb is that your child is at least five years old, and bedwetting is happening at least two times a week). This type of bedwetting is the case with 98% of bedwetting.
If your child has been dry at night for two or three years, and then begins to start bedwetting, then this is likely to be the secondary kind and needs to be investigated by your doctor.
If your child suffers throat infections, or snores at night and in particular appears to stop breathing at times, then this also needs to be investigated by your doctor.
Prof Hjalmas, a world expert from Finland, has said that the bedwetting alarm "… is the only method proven to have cured the problem".
The DRI Sleeper® has two parts to it. It has the alarm unit which is approximately half the size of a credit card in its width and length, and only 5/8 of an inch (12 mm) thick (one of the smallest alarm units available).
On the back of the alarm case is a hook piece of Velcro, and we supply the loop piece of Velcro which you can sew or pin to the pyjamas. The alarm case sits firmly in place on the Velcro patch, and you can pull it off in the morning.
The second part is that the moisture detector, and this plugs into the alarm unit which sits on the child's shoulder, and has a wire which goes inside the pyjamas down into the crutch of the underwear where the detecting part sits (see "how does the detector stay in the underwear").
When the child starts to wet, the urine hits the detector and triggers the alarm and wakes the child.
For you to be a team, there has to be an alignment between you and your child. Maybe right now you are trying to use logic to get your child to agree to doing something about the problem of bedwetting, but perhaps your child is in an emotional, negative mode and so there is no alignment between the logic that you are trying to use, and the emotional , maybe negative state your child is in.
So when I say that you both need to be aligned, this means that you both need to be in a logical, fact based mode in which there is little or no emotion.
The way to get to the position of both being aligned is to have a very logical, unemotional conversation with your child about his or her bedwetting. In particular ask whether it bothers him or her, and whether he or she would like to stop wetting the bed. If the answer is yes, then explain that you have to work on it together as a team, and the team is you, your child and the DRI Sleeper. Explain that you all want the same thing, and that is for him or her to be able to wake up if he or she needs to go to the bathroom in the night.
Explain that the issue with bedwetting is that he or she is too much asleep to wake up, and the only way to stop wetting the bed is to learn to wake up, but that you both know that he or she cannot do that alone (it's important that you also have agreement on that).
So what you are asking your child for, is for him or her to agree to work as a team with you, and the DRI Sleeper.
The next step is to summarize what you have both agreed on and to make sure that your child understands that you are going to work together as a team to beat the bedwetting.
The conversation you have just had with your child is an example of how good communication proceeds, and so it is important that you tell your child how grown up he or she has been in listening and understanding how you are going to beat the bedwetting as a team.
It may be necessary to have this conversation again if there are objections, but at all times stay unemotional and just stick to the facts as I have explained above.
Finally if your child says that he or she does not want to work as a team and will not use the DRI Sleeper, then tell him or her that you will leave it until he or she is old enough and ready to work as a team. However, because he or she has decided to keep wetting the bed then he or she will have to look after it, i.e, to change the bed linen and put everything in the wash every day, and to make the bed up again (depending on the age of your child you may need to help). If it happens in the night he or she will have to do it then as well.
The point of this is that even a child must
learn that decisions have consequences. Cooperation has the
consequence of working as a team and being helped to solve
things, not cooperating means the problem continues and you
have to look after it yourself. That's a very important lesson
of life.
It may take a few days, and in some cases a week or two, for some children to begin to wake to the alarm, and until that happens it is important that you wake your child, and make sure your child is completely awake before unplugging the detector to switch off the alarm. The reason why it is very important to make sure your child is completely awake (even using a cool face cloth on the face to make sure) is so that your child is aware of being woken to the sound of the alarm, and can remember the next day having been woken.
This is so that there is memory developing for having been woken, and from this memory, learning will occur.
Over the next few weeks the child is learning to react more and more quickly to the alarm, and then begins to "beat the buzzer" by waking up before starting to pass urine. Now the child is beginning to respond to the sensation of the bladder filling, which is exactly where the treatment has been heading to.
The process is then to keep using the DRI Sleeper® every night until there have been 14 nights in a row with no triggering of the alarm, and no bedwetting.
The answer is no, and here is another aspect of bedwetting that is not understood. As I mentioned before, children who suffer primary bedwetting (never having been dry at night since coming out of diapers) produce too much urine during the night, as well as being unable to wake themselves. However, a consistent observation from my experience over 30 years, is that after being successfully treated with the DRI Sleeper®, within a month or two (and often more quickly) the child begins to sleep right through the night, and does not wet the bed, but also does not need to get up to go to the bathroom. This suggests that they are now moving into the more adult pattern of producing less urine while they are asleep and therefore most often not needing to get up during the night. However, this is a guess, and has not been researched at this stage.'
| 1. | Don't limit drinks, it will not help, and in fact may make things worse. |
| 2. | Don't expect that setting an alarm clock or waking your child at a regular time to empty the bladder will teach the child to wake - it doesn't. |
| 3. | Don't blame your child or use punishment, it is not the child's fault. An anxious child will be less able to cooperate with you in the treatment. |
Some of the earliest drugs used for treating bedwetting were antidepressants. Specialist doctors agree that they should never be used to treat bedwetting, because few children are cured from bedwetting using these drugs, and they can cause rashes, irritability and carry a risk of poisoning.
An alternative drug stimulates a reduction in urine (a DDAVP) and can help for short term control, but most often bedwetting starts again when the drug has stopped. However, used for two years or more at a maintenance level it is successful for some children. But these drugs also have side-effects, and in particular it is important to reduce water intake for the next 10 hours after taking this medication. Because the medication is reducing urine output, drinking after having the medication can result in a fluid build up and affect the fluid balance of the brain, and cause mental confusion, or even a convulsion (a fit). Doctors recommend that a child taking this kind of drug should be monitored by a doctor to make sure it is being used correctly. This means that allowing a child to take this medication while going to a school camp, for example, is potentially dangerous because there may not be close monitoring of the taking of fluids after the medication.
Yes, parents have used the DRI Sleeper® successfully during the day to teach the child to tune into their bladder signals.
Yes, the DRI Sleeper® has been used successfully for children with special needs to assist them to become toilet trained so that they can become mainstreamed at school.
A few children may go back to bedwetting after a few months,
and in that case simply using the DRI Sleeper® again will fix
the problem. However there is also a method called overlearning
which can be used to prevent relapsing and to strengthen the
When your child has had 14 consecutive dry nights with no
wetting and so no alarm activation, start to have him or her
drink an 8-10 oz glass of water around a half an hour before
bed. What this will do is make it necessary for him or her
to need to go to the bathroom two or three hours later, and
either it will cause the alarm to be triggered, or he or she
will wake up. Either way this brings about more learning to
respond to the sensations of the bladder filling. Continue
with this for 7 nights. Then stop the extra drinks (let your
child drink what he or she wants to) but keep the DRI Sleeper® attached each night until he or she has achieved 14 dry nights.
Email: info@DRI-Sleeper.com | Phone: 1 877 331 2768 (USA) or +64 3 548 9655 (Worldwide)
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