Blake and Brooklyn were both potty trained just before 3.5 years old. Brooklyn stayed dry at night from that point on, but I can probably count on two hands the number of times Blake has ever stayed dry. Yes, even at 8 years old, he still peed the bed. Size-wise, he could still fit into Pull Ups (tiny heiny), but he would leak through them, so we upgraded to heavy duty UnderJams for older bed-wetters. Box after box of these UnderJams made their way into our house. We always had Blake empty his bladder before bed, but that didn't matter. We tried limiting liquids, especially before bed, we tried taking him potty before WE went to bed for the night. Nothing helped him stay dry overnight. Matt was convinced Blake was just being lazy and didn't want to get out of bed. I just thought that when he shut down for the night, he just didn't recognize the sensation of needing to go.
For the past few years at Blake's annual well-check with the pediatrician, I've brought up the fact that he's still wetting at night and she's given us information along with some tips and tricks to try. This year when the pediatrician asked, we decided that it was time to take some action to get this under control. She recommended that we try a bedwetting alarm, the Potty Pager. I couldn't believe that this thing cost $80!!!! After poring over reviews, I was optimistic and ordered it.
The word "alarm" is deceiving with this particular model. This little pager sized device slips into the pocket of the brief and is clipped to the underwear. It doesn't emit any noise, rather vibrates 30 times more powerful than a cell phone. Imagine that on your sensitive private parts!!!!
We started with the alarm on February 14. Blake was excited about it! I instructed him to come get me during the night when he felt the buzzed so I could help him get things changed and cleaned up. For that first week, he came in THREE times a night, just about every 3 hours like clockwork. I was exhausted and felt like I had a newborn baby again!!! I had no idea he was peeing three times during the night!! By that next week, he had slowed down to twice a night, then all of a sudden, he was dry. It took just two short weeks before we saw the results we were hoping for. I was nervous when Matt and I took our trip to California and he stayed with cousins, but he managed to stay dry while we were gone. We let him go without the pager at that point and he hasn't looked back since!!!
I had promised him that when he stayed dry for 10 days, he could pick out a toy from the store. He picked out a gigantic Lego Ninjago set.
It's been just over a month now that Blake has been dry. He still comes in every morning and whispers, "I stayed dry, Mom!" :) I'm so proud of him for working through this and excited that we can put this behind us for good!!!
It took two hours to complete.
3 comments:
Great for him!!! We're having the same issues here in our house. Bennett's just about 7 now and we've tried all the things you mentioned. He's just an absolute ROCK once his eyes are shut! I'm going to have to check out the "pager" and see if it might work for us =). $80 is definitely cheaper than boxes and boxes of pull ups!! Thanks for the info and yea Blake!!
Yea for Blake!! Scott was a bed wetter as well but we seem to have done well with him not wetting the bed anymore. I got some motivation into him when I told him that by the time he 7 he was not wear anymore pull ups. He does well if he doesn't have any liquids an hour before bedtime. Just know that you are not alone and I'm excited for you!!
Yeah Blake!
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