“Oh no it’s going to rain, hail and the temperature’s not going to get over 12 C for the next 5 days – how on earth am I supposed to get all these sheets washed and dried……..”
Sound familiar?
Winter is the time of year when wet beds really become noticeable and often frustrating for parents. All that extra washing and trying to get sheets dry.
What is the answer?
Keep buying more sheets?
Continue to keep your child in pull ups?
These are just bandaid solutions.
Meanwhile, your child comes home from school worried, with a notice for camp at the end of term 3 and flatly says they won’t be going.
It’s time to do something about bedwetting.
Our bedwetting program usually takes between 6 & 8 weeks and requires an initial intake interview with parents and the child. In this interview the child is set up with an enuresis alarm, encouraged that they are the only ones to turn it off when it rings and need to manage the accidents.
The program is closely managed and monitored, with the child phoning in to me weekly for updates on their progress. These weekly phone calls are essential for helping to support the child and parent, particularly in the early stages of the program when they may encounter difficulties such as not waking to the alarm.
Despite modern medicine and technology the bell and pad alarm is still the most effective evidence-based method of helping children get dry at night. At the end of the program, when the child has successfully achieved two consecutive weeks of dry beds, a final session is held in order to celebrate the child’s achievement.
Many parents at the concluding appointment report that they wished they had done the program sooner and if they have another child bedwetting enrol them immediately.
Parents often also report that although they never made a big deal of their child’s bedwetting – they realise now how it must have been troubling their child, as they notice a new sense of confidence and happiness now that their child is dry at night. Some parents have even commented that other adults such as teachers and sports coaches have noticed an increase in confidence in their child.
After helping children become dry at night for over 17 years now, I still find it extremely rewarding and satisfying, knowing that for many children and families it has been life changing.
