Bed Wetting and lack of control of the bladder seems to be one of the things that makes it hard for our kids in lots of ways, some they may not even be aware of.

Day accidents seem to always come into play during discussions of your child's progress at school, and it seems that the more that accidents happen, the more it makes things difficult. Staff can be reluctant to help, sometimes leaving your child uncomfortable for longer periods of time, and some will actually bring it up as to appropriate placement.

I think that with alot of our kids learning to control their bladders has to do with learning to recognize the feelings that they need to go. And when they learn to control their bladders they will also gain confidence in themselves and be proud of it. You may even see that they really were getting upset with themselves when this happened and you may see tantrums or acting out decrease with better control.

I am not a doctor as I state often on my web site. I am just a parent, but as a parent some things are still quite apparent. The first thing to ask is "will this work for every child?". NO!

There can be many reasons for the lack of control, some medical and some emotional. It can even be to gain attention, even though it may be less desireable attention that they will get.

No matter what the reason, it is desireable to help them learn to gain control of it. At first it may not appear to mean much to them, but after a while I think it becomes more important to them, especially as they age.

Any plan involves a few things. The device alone, or rewards alone will not be as effective as a combined strategy. There are drugs that will help for overnight, however I know I am always hesitant to use drugs to control something that you may be able to train control without drugs with a little more effort but I think in a way that means more to my child.

What we used and have had to occasionally bring back out every once in a while, to get it back under control is a device like the one advertised on this web site: http://www.wet-stop.com/. (I do not endorse this particular brand and do not gain in any way from naming this one, it is merely because there are not many of these out there and I've seen a few brands come and go).

This device stands a good chance of helping, provided your child will wear underwear over night and can tolerate the feeling of this device near them. Though if they don't and you can keep a cloth pad on the bed, that may do.

This should even be reimburseable as a medical expense. This particular website makes mention of something having to do with that.

How the device works

Basically it uses very low current (like a battery, mine uses 2 hearing aid size batteries that I think are maybe 1.5 V at the most) and being that low you don't really have to worry about it hurting them, you can simulate it by placing a damp cloth in the clip to activate the alarm and hold it against skin, such as your inner arm to assure yourself it doesn't hurt.

The way it is used is that you place it on underwear if possible, at the site most likely to get wet the fastest. The clip is really an electronic clip, and when the material between it gets wet it completes the circuit which sets off an audible alarm.

We got very tuned in to the sound of it, and the quicker you react, the more effective it becomes. Once the link is there in your child's head, that this is why the alarm is going off, it does a number of things for your child.

1.) It first lets them know that they have had an accident. 2.) It helps them learn to recognize the feeling of having to go, which I think is the main problem with many of our autistic kids, that they can't always tell what they are feeling or what it means. 3.) Your action after this teaches them what to do about it.

A Few Other Procedures to Include in your routine.

1.) Along with this alarm set up a chart to keep track of dry nights. Explain to your child when you start this entire program what the chart is for and what the device is for. You can use stars on it or even just on a calendar. When we first started this I really didn't think that would be incentive enough, but I was wrong. Sometimes when she would have accidents again (they do come back periodically) all we had to do was bring the start chart idea out again and that alone would often be enough to get it back under control. You could group them saying "If you get 5 stars you get to go for ice cream" or some such a reward that you know means alot to them. I would not set this goal too high, 5 days may be way too much at first, you might just go for 2 days or at first even one night.

2.) Each day bring out the chart and discuss if you can give him the reward for being dry that night, but do it in a positive only way if you can. I'm sure there is always a negative thing to it, but it is also essential to try to show no negative feelings when you are trying to train them, any negativity will backfire on you. (It's negative reinforcement, it's not that pleasant, but it is granting a reaction to what has happened! And when you are doing this you are really trying to give positive reinforcement to teach the right things to do.)

Frankly this one that I listed appears to be a new manufacturer and it has a lot of features that I think are better than the one I have (which was about 20 years old!). The clip is nice and compact, yet sturdy, ours actually used a snap like on a coat or jacket, it would corode slightly and you'd have to scrub it with steel wool or a wire brush to get it to conduct electricity again.

When I did the search for this on google almost all of the bed wetting solutions were talking about traditional bed wetting solutions. I tend to not have a lot of faith in them for a lot of our kids. They may help with a lot of kids, but I think often that our kids need a little more help than that, and this device is pretty neat that way.

I really hope this helps. I know it did my daughter, and it saves us alot of time in that we may get woken up at night to help my daughter a couple of times, but eventually it is a lot less laundry you have to do.

Good Luck!

Also you may wish to try to do a search on google for "bed wetting alarms".