Many parents call asking why their child does not wake up to the sound of the bedwetting alarm during or after bedwetting. It is normal that children do not wake up to the sound of the bedwetting alarm at the start. Children who wet their beds are often deep sleepers and therefore do not wake up. You could set off a fire alarm without waking them up. Children who wet their beds sleep so deeply that they don’t even wake up to the sound of the bedwetting alarm. The question is: how is that possible?
How come my child doesn’t wake up from the bedwetting alarm?
The Dryly bedwetting alarm training is based on the idea that we make the signal from the bladder to the brain stronger. In children who wet their beds, a signal does travel to the brain when the bladder is full, but the brain does not translate this signal into the behavior of getting up and going to the bathroom, therefore they do not wake up. With the Dryly bedwetting alarm, we train your child that hearing the sound should trigger a response, which is going to the toilet. This process takes time and is done in steps, so it is normal that they do not wake up at first. Waking up from the alarm is the first step towards being potty trained
Step 1 of becoming potty-trained
The fact that children don’t wake up is very normal, but the first step your child is going to take is waking up to the sound of the Dryly bedwetting alarm; this takes an average of 3 weeks. How does this work? Every night before bed, you follow the Dryly bedtime ritual. It is especially important to consistently follow the Dryly bedtime ritual in the mobile app every night. Consistency is key. When your child is in bed, you play the sound of Wizzu (the bedwetting alarm) through the app. Then together you say out loud; “if I hear this sound, I will wake up tonight’. Repeat this at least three times.
It is important for your child to realize that when that specific sound occurs, an action is expected. The first step to potty training is for your child to wake up to the sound of the bedwetting alarm. It is still quite normal for your child to have fully emptied their bladder in bed at that point. Reward your child when he/she wakes up and ignore the fact that they wet the bed.
Mobile Dryly app helps wake up to bedwetting alarms
De mobiele applicatie die bij de Dryly plaswekkermethode hoort stuurt je ook een bericht wanneer je kind in bed plast. Dit doen we om twee redenen; de eerste reden is dat je ’s nachts kan opstaan om je kind te steunen en om je kind wakker te maken van de plaswekker. Let op dat er altijd een vertraging is afhankelijk van je netwerkverbinding tot 30 seconden voordat jij het bericht ontvangt. De reden hiervoor is dat je kind primair zelf moet leren wakker worden. Als dat echt niet lukt kan je je kind als ouder wakker maken.
The second reason we send parents a message is so you can see in the dashboard how the bedside alarm training is going. This allows you to see if your child is making progress.
Step 2 of becoming potty-trained
If your child wakes up from the bedwetting alarm, the key is to start working toward peeing in the toilet instead of in bed. This also does not happen overnight. Step two of getting potty-trained is that your child will wake up to the bedwetting alarm and release most of the urine into the toilet. So the alarm will go off and the pants will be wet, but your child will stop peeing at the sound of the bedwetting alarm. This should be the case after about 5 weeks. There are always exceptions and if in doubt you can always visit your doctor.
The final phase
Now that your child is waking up from the bedwetting alarm and peeing out on the toilet, your child must learn to go to the toilet before the bedwetting alarm goes off. This is only possible if the signal from the bladder to the brain has become strong enough through training. So in the final stage, the bedwetting alarm will no longer go off, because your child will feel that he/she needs to go to the toilet himself/herself. When your child achieves this, it really is a very big milestone. This is a moment that you should truly celebrate. Once you have reached this step, we recommend that you continue with the bedwetting alarm for at least another three weeks to prevent a relapse.
