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My son is going to be 6 next month and we were just at the pediatrician for something else. I asked about night time training because his pull up is still wet when he wakes up. She said some kids just take longer and she isn’t worried about it. So we will keep him in pull ups for now. She also told us they have to secrete an enzyme that makes them create less urine overnight and also they need to be able to wake up on their own to go.

I should also note that DH had bedwetting issues too until 8-9 so another reason I’m not stressing about it.

ETA: I know my response doesn’t help for the alarms, but I just wanted to let you know we are in the same boat with bedwetting.

@irene: Following b/c I have a child who will be six this summer and still wears a pull-up/wakes up wet every morning. I was curious to see what people who had alarm experience would say, because I have also been wondering whether I need to be considering helping my daughter "try harder" at being dry overnight. She is an insanely deep sleeper, which I've always been thankful for - I'd never wish that away for the sake of ditching pull-ups.

So my question to you would probably be this: Does your son WANT to be dry overnight? Does it bother him that he wears a pull-up? If so, an alarm might be helpful. If not, I'd imagine it'd be frustrating or shaming, the way others have said they felt, or, that he might just learn to ignore it. My child is not particularly interested in ditching her pull-up; she has a good friend who wears one too, and they seem to have found solidarity in it. She's resistant to me telling her she can't drink water before bed, and to the idea of me helping her wake up at night to train her body to wake to go pee. She just isn't motivated yet. I'm pretty sure if I used an alarm with her, she'd ignore it, or learn how to turn it off before rolling over and going back to sleep (without really ever waking up).

ETA: I'm not trying to imply that using an alarm would be mean, so please don't be offended...I'm just wondering aloud how effective it will be if your child isn't interested.

@irene: do you mind sharing the title of the book? Thanks! Good luck!!

@irene: If he is still producing enough urine overnight to soak through a pull-up and drench his sheets, then he isn't producing enough ADH to reduce the amount of urine his body produces at night. I think you'll find that you're going to have trouble training him when his body is requiring him to empty his bladder multiple times a night.

I was just doing some research on this for another mom on a facebook group I'm a part of and found this link to have some good information. http://www.bladderbowel.gov.au/assets/doc/drynight.html

Have you tried letting him sleep with regular underwear and seeing what happens? My DD was still waking up with a wet pull up pretty much everyday and she wanted to wear underwear to bed around 4ish. She had maybe 3 accidents over the next couple of weeks while she was getting used to having to get up and go to the bathroom during the night.

I wouldn't do an alarm. Like PP have said, I feel that it will create shame around it. I've heard that especially boys can have a hard time with bed wetting well into elementary school, I'd just relax and give him more time.

@irene it seems like you are pretty set on the alarm, but I thought I would just bring up one last point, which I believe to be a flaw in the logic of these alarms and why I believe they didn’t work for me as a kid. You said, “theoretically, it supposed to teach them to associate the feeling of needing to pee and the action of waking up and going to the bathroom”

Rather, I think it teaches kids to associate the act of already wetting with a loud/scary/etc alarm. The root problem is sleeping so deeply that one does not wake up to pee. If the alarm could sound *right before* the wetting, that night help to associate the need to pee with waking, but it doesn’t go off until you are already peeing. So, the kid ends up peeing while simultaneously feeling scared/ashamed.

@irene totally see where you are coming from! Best of luck! Wishing you dry nights!

@irene: I checked this out after first reading the post and was really surprised to see that there were a lot of positive reviews. Maybefor someone like your son who might just be sleeping super heavily it wouldn’t be so associated with being embarrassed. I think at least for me there were other things tied to it like nightmares, stressors (my dad was very strict), and also I have super high fluid needs and it was just this stressful cycle. I should have looked into it before asking. I hope you guys find a solution soon!

The only thing I would do is to decide when I would back off. If you see no improvement after some time period, that kind of thing.

I also understand completely, it is hard to sit back and continue to wait it out.

@irene: thanks! Good luck and keep us posted on how things go!