Bedwetting Alarm: How to Use

Treatment with a bedwetting (enuresis) alarm can help children and teens who wet the bed at night. Using the bedwetting alarm until your child has nighttime dryness can take a long time, but the reward of having your child stay dry at night is worth the work. 

Your child will still wet during sleep for a while. The goal of the bedwetting alarm is to help your child become aware of the bladder stretching. This will let your child wake up to go to the bathroom before wetting the bed.

The bedwetting alarm makes a noise when a sensor notices moisture from the urine (pee). The alarm works through conditioning, which means the child learns to connect wetting with the alarm sound.

The sensor can be placed in the child's pajamas, underwear, or training pants like Pull-Ups®. The sensor detects wetness and triggers an electronic alarm to go off. The alarm may be wireless.

Before Starting the Alarm

At first, using the bedwetting alarm can be frustrating. Following these tips can help make it easier:

1. Help your child feel interested and willing to participate in the treatment.

2. Plan for the treatment to take up to 3 months. During this time, limit vacations so that your child's daily home routine stays the same.

3. Do several daytime practices with your child before starting the bedwetting alarm. Make sure your child can do the tasks safely. For example, if your child will shower after wetting the bed, he or she should know how to turn the hot water to a safe temperature.

4. Agree on a starting date with your child.

Using the Alarm

• You and any other adult family members should take turns during the nights to wake your child during treatment. Getting enough sleep is important for everyone.

• Be prepared for the alarm to go off several times during the night at the beginning of treatment. 

• Have your child wear regular underwear and pajamas.

• Use disposable bed mats underneath your child, such as GoodNites®, so you won't have to wash linens and bed mattress pads.

• Your child needs to do three tasks when the alarm goes off:

  1. Walk to the bathroom and try to urinate (pee) for 2 minutes.

  2. Wash the area of the body that has pee on it.

  3. Change the bed mat, then dry off the sensor and reattach it to the new mat.

Kids go through three stages during treatment:

• First stage: Kids are unlikely to wake up when the alarm goes off when it's first used. Instead, parents or others will wake up to the alarm, then wake the child to do the 3 tasks.

• Second stage: Kids will start waking up to the alarm and make the connection between the alarm and wetting the bed. When they hear the alarm, they will naturally begin to hold their urine instead of wetting the bed. During this stage, parents will find their child awake when they go into their room. The child may or may not have wet the bed. It's important to ask them to do the 3 tasks. The child should be able to pee in the toilet because their bladder will not be completely empty. The child should continue to do the 3 tasks until they reach the next stage.

• Third stage: The alarm won't go off because the child will get out of bed to pee and completely empty the bladder.

It's important to keep using the bedwetting alarm until your child stays dry for 14 nights in a row. A child who wets the bed during this 2-week period will need to restart the treatment.