Alternatives to Alarms
Bedwetting alarms are not suitable for all patients and not all patients will respond to an alarm.
Children who continue to wet the bed may respond to desmopressing/desmopressin acetate, which supplements the body’s natural vasopressin.
Arginine vasopressin (AVP) is a pituitary hormone which varies in production over a 24-hour period. Under normal circumstances this regulates the amount of urine a child produces: generally less at night.
Children who wet the bed several times a night and who have normal bladder capacity may respond well to treatment with desmopressin acetate. They may respond more quickly to this medication than to alarm treatment, though combined treatment may be effective where PNE persists.
A recently published study shows that desmopressin treatment achieved a >90% reduction in wet nights for 17% of patients, and >50% reduction in 41% of patients.
Parents may benefit from counselling about the importance of not punishing their child for bedwetting. They should be made aware that nappies are not a treatment.