Can A Pee Alarm Prevent Wetting the Bed? Our Experiment Says Yes

As parents, there are milestones that are fantastic to hit. When your kiddo walks. When you hear that first “mama.” When your kids — all of them — start sleeping through the night and you have a glimpse again of what a normal night of sleep is like. And one big one: When you upgrade from diapers to underwear and can stop buying those darn diapers in bulk. And then, when you finally get rid of the overnight diapers for good.

Some kids, once they potty train and are dry during the day, have no problems staying dry overnight. Other kids, however, aren’t dry overnight for a very long time (ask me how I know). Wetting the bed can be super frustrating for the kiddo. They know they’re a big kid, they don’t want anything to do with a diaper or overnight underwear that feels like a diaper, but they also don’t want to wake up wet. It’s frustrating for the parents because it’s back to overnight wake-ups to rescue your child from sleeping in a cold, wet ocean. Then it’s the laundry. Because one thing I do not need more of is laundry. So, say you have three nights in a row of accidents? You’re basically going through every set of sheets and blankets you’ve ever bought.

Your kids, of course, aren’t trying to punish you, although at 2 a.m. it can definitely feel like a form of torture to have to make a bed. They’re simply in too deep of a sleep to wake up to their bladder’s signals, and it just takes more time for some kids to get there. It’s also hereditary; if it took you or your partner ages to stay dry overnight, you’re more likely to see history repeat itself.

Our pediatrician suggested a bedwetting alarm as a first measure to combat what felt like a never-ending battle. I was a bit skeptical, but I went ahead and ordered the Wet-Stop3 ($36). It’s only been about a week, but I wish I had ordered this thing a year ago because it has made that big of a difference in just a matter of days. It’s a simple alarm that clips to pajamas at the collar by a magnetic latch. Then you thread the cord under the PJs and clip the sensor to the front of the underwear. When it gets wet, the alarm goes off, the child wakes up and finishes peeing in the toilet. The hope is that the child will begin to wake up on his/her own in anticipation of the alarm when he/she needs to go to the bathroom.

The first night, the alarm went off and it was a level 8 accident on a scale of 10. A couple of nights later, the alarm went off and we caught it earlier, so it was only about a level 3 accident. Since then, we’ve only had a couple of very minor incidents that just required a switch of underwear. It detects even the most minor dampness, so if you’re able to get to your child quickly, you’ll prevent the accident from even happening. It’s so nice to be able to be proactive about it; hearing the alarm and being able to get in there and prevent an accident is infinitely better than having to deal with an accident once it’s happened and you have a drenched and grumpy child.

I’m looking forward to the dry nights adding up, and I’ll be so excited when we start waking up before the alarm even goes off. I swear I’ve already gotten my money’s worth in the amount of detergent and time spent doing laundry.

Have your kids ever struggled with wetting the bed? I cannot recommend this alarm highly enough. —Erin