How to ensure long-term success with a bedwetting alarm

Bedwetting alarms have consistently been shown to be the best treatment for achieving a long term cure for bedwetting, with the majority of children who use alarm becoming permanently dry.

Success at 14 dry nights

As a general rule of thumb, the alarm treatment has been successful when 14 consecutive dry nights are achieved. At this stage, the bedwetting alarm can be removed and a child should remain dry at night. Occasionally, however, children do relapse. But there is a further step to take to reduce this risk of relapse.

Overlearning

Once 14 dry nights are achieved with the alarm, start giving your child extra drinks before bedtime. This additional fluid intake causes additional stress to the bladder. The alarm treatment is then continued until 14 consecutive dry nights are achieved again.

Long-term success

“Over-learning” in this way has been shown to halve the relapse rate. This extra step therefore seems very worthwhile in promoting long-term dryness at night.

Conclusion

Bedwetting alarms clearly have the best long-term success rate - a recent study found a 73% cure rate with bedwetting alarms. In comparison, drugs (vasopressin) only promotes short-term dryness and have no long term curative effects. To receive the full benefit of the bedwetting alarm treatment, we recommend “overlearning” by training the bladder to retain more fluids at night and ensure long-term dryness.