What makes a bedwetting alarm a good bedwetting alarm?

There are many bedwetting alarms available on the market, from a few tens to hundreds of euros. So we often get the question: What makes a bedwetting alarm a good bedwetting alarm?

In this article you will discover what to look for when choosing the right bedwetting alarm for your child.

However, one thing is very important to realize. Your child will not become toilet-trained from the bedwetting alarm. Your child will become toilet-trained from good bedwetting alarm training. In order for the use of the bedwetting alarm to really have an effect, the right advice and good guidance during the bedwetting alarm training is important.

The bedwetting alarm itself is not a miracle cure. It is an aid in bedwetting alarm training. The goal of bedwetting alarm training is to teach your child a wake-up reflex. This means that it must wake up on time when it feels that it has to pee.

You need the bedwetting alarm to wake your child up every time it starts to pee during sleep. At that moment, only a little has been peed, so the bladder is still almost full. And your child will feel that when it has woken up properly at that moment from the alarm.

At some point, your child will make the connection between waking up and the feeling of a full bladder.

By repeating this daily, your child will eventually recognize the stimuli of a full bladder and wake up in time to go to the toilet.

Many bedwetters are deep sleepers and have difficulty waking up. That is why it is very important to get good guidance with the bedwetting alarm, in case your child does not wake up quickly and properly from the alarm. Because then the use of the bedwetting alarm has little effect. Or if it turns out that your child has multiple moments to urinate during the night. The training then eventually becomes much too tiring with the chance that it is terminated prematurely.

1. Quality: Does the bedwetting alarm sound the alarm quickly?

Your child should be woken up quickly when he starts to urinate, because the bladder is still almost full and he should learn to recognize that feeling of a full bladder during sleep. When choosing a bedwetting alarm, pay attention to the following:

• How much urine is needed to set off the bedwetting alarm?

The best-selling bedwetting alarms in the Netherlands consciously use special sensor underpants. These look like normal underwear, but have sensor wires incorporated that immediately signal urine loss.

Solutions without sensor underwear, such as a clip or a transmitter in your own underwear, are cheaper but have such a small sensor area that – especially for boys – much more urine is needed to set off the alarm. When your child wakes up from the alarm, the bladder no longer feels full. So there is no connection between waking up and the feeling of having to pee. The bedwetting alarm training is therefore much less effective.

• Is the bedwetting alarm sensitive enough to immediately sound an alarm?

The sensor underwear has a transmitter. As soon as the sensor wire detects urine, the transmitter is activated and sends a signal to the receiver. This is the device from which the alarm comes.

This communication between transmitter and receiver must start immediately upon detection of the first drops of urine. This is where the different bedwetting alarms differ. Some bedwetting alarms use wifi, which is less reliable in certain places in the house, or use bluetooth, which is often a problem for stomach sleepers.

2. Sound and/or vibration alarm: Does the alarm wake your child up quickly and effectively?

Many bedwetters have difficulty waking up, but not all. Every child is different. It is wise to determine whether your child is a normal sleeper, a deep sleeper or a very deep sleeper. In other words: How difficult is it for you to wake your child?

Depending on the answer, the following options of the bedwetting alarm are important. There is really no need to spend unnecessary money on options that you actually do not need at all.

Desired option for a normal sleeper :

• An adjustable sound volume

Desired options for a deep sleeper :

• An adjustable sound volume, with the maximum volume being loud
• Multiple alarm sounds to prevent habituation.

Desired options for a very deep sleeper

• An adjustable sound volume, with the maximum volume being loud
• Multiple alarm sounds to prevent habituation.
• A vibrating alarm. A flat disk that is usually placed under the pillow, vibrates very loudly and this wakes even the deepest sleeper.

3. Ease of use: Easy for child and parent

A bedwetting alarm should be easy to use, both for the child and the parents. Consider:

• Is the bedwetting alarm easy to set for use?
• Can your child use the bedwetting alarm themselves? During the bedwetting alarm training your child has to do as much as possible themselves. The awareness of what is happening is then the greatest and this has the most effect.
• Is the alarm easy to turn off to avoid unnecessary stress during the night?
• Are you dependent on Wi-Fi? This can make setting up cumbersome, but the bedwetting alarm can also stop working if the Wi-Fi connection is lost.

4. Wearing comfort: Can your child sleep comfortably with the bedwetting alarm?

Children should also be able to sleep comfortably when using a bedwetting alarm. Therefore, pay attention to the following:

• Is the transmitter small and flat? Especially for a stomach sleeper it is important that the transmitter is not felt during sleep.
• Are the sensor briefs comfortable? It is best when they feel like normal underwear.
• If you use a bedwetting alarm with a clip, it is often connected to the receiver with a wire from which the sound comes. Be aware of this, because many children do not like such a wire while sleeping.
• Does the transmitter stay on the sensor pants well during the night? Even if your child is a restless sleeper and moves a lot.

5. Additional features: Smart technology can help

Some bedwetting alarms have additional functions that make bedwetting alarm training more effective. Think of functions such as:

• A reward system. This can be done with score cards and stickers or via an app. Whatever the form, the goal is to make the progress of the bedwetting alarm training visible and this can be motivating.

But beware: The most important motivation must come from your child himself. Does he want to stop wetting the bed himself? Any external stimuli can work, but usually this only has a short effect. The own motivation and fast progress are the most important keys to success.

• A wireless bedwetting alarm or even a wireless vibrating element. This way your child feels nothing and there is no risk of being bothered by wires. Of course this sleeps most comfortably.
• A rechargeable battery in the transmitter instead of regular batteries that need to be changed every so often. The transmitter with a rechargeable battery is the flattest, so extra comfortable. In addition, this transmitter is also the safest, because there is no risk that your child can remove the battery themselves (and swallow it).

With some transmitters, the battery cannot be charged or replaced. If the bedwetting alarm training lasts longer, or you want to use the bedwetting alarm for multiple children, a new transmitter must be purchased regularly.

6. Value for money: Is it worth the investment?

A good bedwetting alarm certainly does not have to be the most expensive. If your child does not respond to the alarm and you do not get good advice on how to wake your child up, then the most expensive bedwetting alarm is of no use to you.

But cheap can also be expensive if it turns out that your child does not like to sleep or is only woken up when the bladder has almost completely emptied.

Ultimately, it is all about the effectiveness of using the bedwetting alarm.

The following points may also play a role:

• Customer service. Is the supplier easy to reach? Is the contact pleasant? Do they have experience and are they knowledgeable? Very important if you are not supervised by a hospital during the bedwetting alarm training.

Call a few suppliers during your search for the right bedwetting alarm for your child. Do you feel that you are in safe hands to solve your child's annoying bedwetting problem? This can help you make your choice.

• The lifespan of the bedwetting alarm is normally many times longer than the duration of a bedwetting alarm training. Renting a bedwetting alarm is also possible. Isn't this more attractive? It is certainly much more sustainable!
• The bedwetting alarm is often reimbursed from the supplementary insurance. But this does not apply to all models of bedwetting alarms! Does the supplier of the bedwetting alarm also arrange the settlement with the health insurer or do I have to pay the costs myself and declare them? Not all suppliers arrange this for you, so keep that in mind.

If there is a reimbursement for a bedwetting alarm, the Urifoon is always (partly) reimbursed. Where the health insurer also allows it, Urifoon also arranges the processing of the reimbursement and you do not have to pay the costs in advance. However, some insurers have the policy that the insured must do this themselves. Click here to check whether you are eligible for reimbursement.

7. Are there any positive user experiences and success stories?

Nice talk fills no holes. There is a provider of a bedwetting alarm that advertises that the bedwetting was solved within 6 days. Although this can happen, it creates a false image of reality.

The same provider compares different bedwetting alarms on its own "independent" site, bedwetting alarm comparator. You can take one guess as to who comes out on top.

The most honest thing is to listen to real experiences of real people. Ask your friends or other parents in the schoolyard. If necessary, get advice from your GP or pelvic physiotherapist.

By clicking here you can read on Klantenvertellen the independent feedback of over 1,100 real customers on the Urifoon bedwetting alarm training. Not all suppliers are open about their independent customer experiences, but quite a lot can be found via Google.

The Urifoon bedwetting alarm training

Urifoon is the only supplier of bedwetting alarms that also expertly supervises the use of the bedwetting alarm – the bedwetting alarm training. This ensures that your child wakes up quickly and properly from the bedwetting alarm, progress is quickly visible and motivation remains the highest. With the highest chance of success as a result.

More than 90% are free of bedwetting within 10 weeks. Not for a short while, but for the rest of their lives.

With our unique training we have helped multiple generations in the past 70 years and helped over 1,000,000 children stop wetting the bed. We are super super proud of this.

Conclusion: Choose the bedwetting alarm that suits your child

Each bedwetting alarm has its pros and cons. Choose one that suits your child's needs and your family situation.

Be aware that the bedwetting alarm is not a miracle cure, but a training aid. Expert help during training can be very important for (very) deep sleepers to achieve the desired effect: Your child is the boss of his or her bladder.