61 people voted.  Their ages ranged from 4 to 56.  12 people were 
        age 21 or over, 12 were age 16-20, 22 were age 11-15, 6 were 
       age 6-10, and 8 did not give their age.

  Votes were as follows:

     19 votes for: "A wetness alarm beeper that wakes them up when they pee and trains them to wake up before they pee." 

     15 votes for: "A vibration wetness alarm, if the child can't be awakened by a beeper alarm."  

      7 votes for: "Having the parent wake the child if they don't hear the alarm."

      5 votes for: "A reward system like 2 poker chips if they wake up to the alarm within 20 seconds and losing one chip if they don't.  The chips are traded for a special prize." 

      7 votes for: "Using a vibration alarm watch that automatically wakes them up to pee every 2-3 hours."

      5 votes for: "Sleeping on a piece of plywood underneath the sheet, so they sleep less deeply while they are learning to wake up."

     20 votes for: "Nothing helps kids learn to wake up."

Do you think kids who wet the bed sleep more deeply than kids who don't wet?      Yes: 40      No: 16     Did not vote: 5

     6 had other ideas on what helps kids to wake up, such as:

Age 13: "give the child diapers if nothing else works"

Age 23: "The use of cloth diapers, as they tend to let you feel the wetness more than a disposable."

Age 13: "wearing a diaper, they know that they will be changed by a parent."

Age 12: "i think that video taping your self all night for a couple of nights and then seeing when you wet os a good idea, then set an alarm to wake up before that"

Age 15: "i guess some things work for some kids but nothing worked for me so far :("

Age 10: "I wish I knew!"

Age 15: "self-hypnosis"

Age 13: "Also Diapers work because we are not used to wearing one and it keeps us less asleep"

Age 11: "having a parent wake them up during the night"

Age 16: "time"

Age 12: "wet diapers"

Age 45: "Alarms only work for some kids"

About 2 out of every 3 people voting felt that some type of alarm helps kids to learn to wake up at night to pee.  4 out of every 5 people felt that kids who wet the bed sleep more deeply than kids who do not wet. 

Learning to wake up from a deep sleep involves work and takes time.  It is like training for a sport or like a job that you get paid for later.  Pulling oneself out of a deep sleep when one is quite groggy takes real effort.  The child or teen must first agree to the wake-up training, and a parent or someone else needs to commit to help the child in the training process.  If beeper alarms do not wake the child or teen, then the parent must awaken them when the alarm goes off.  Vibration alarms will awaken many kids who are not awakened by a beeper alarm. The disadvantage of vibration alarms is that the parent can not hear the alarm to back up the child.  The Palco Wet Stop^TM system comes with an optional vibration alarm (Palco Wiggler^TM) as well as a beeper alarm.

If a child or teen is difficult even for the parent to awaken, passing a wet cloth over their lips will many times wake them.  One mother also reported that she lightly sprayed cool water on her child's face when the child did not awaken to the alarm, and after only 2 nights doing this, the child woke on his own thereafter.  This may seem harsh, but a cold wet bed is no less distressing.  Turning on a light also helps.

A standard alarm clock can teach a child or teen to wake up and go to the toilet, provided that the child does wake up, or the parent backs up the alarm, until the child learns to do it himself.  

Wetness alarms beep just as the child starts to wet and therefore train the child to hold their urine throughout the night or to get up and use the toilet.  About half of children who learn to not wet with a wetness alarm do so by holding their urine the whole night, and the other half get up a use the toilet.  Wetness alarms have about a 70% success rate.

One voter suggested "The use of cloth diapers, as they tend to let you feel the wetness more than a disposable."  Not using diapers at all, and a plastic sheet, is suggested by some during the training process to maximize the stimulus to wake up.

There were only 5 votes for: "A reward system like 2 poker chips if they wake up to the alarm within 20 seconds and losing one chip if they don't.  The chips are traded for a special prize."  But a reward system can give incentive to wake up, particularly to younger kids.

A vibrating alarm watch (click here) can be used to wake a child or teen to pee every 2-3 hours.  If their bladder is not allowed to get full, then spasms and wetting are much less likely to happen.  The alarm is silent so no one else can hear it.  Children can learn to wake up, go to the toilet, and then go back to sleep, just like medical students learn to do this when they are on call.

No matter what the cause of a child's bedwetting, learning to awaken from sleep and going to the toilet will prevent bedwetting.