With respect to your first question – you may want to think about using an alarm that is not worn inside his pyjamas but on the bed. The advantage of this is that it will not be in direct contact with his skin and should not react to him sweating. The disadvantage of these alarms is that they cannot be used in combination with absorbent pants so you may need to deal with the added burden of wet sheets. While the conditioning alarm is no suitable for every child it may be worth keeping in mind that most parents find their children are unable to wake on their own initially. You and your husband should continue getting up and waking him even if he is already wet as he needs to learn to turn the alarm off by himself. The time it takes for children to achieve dryness can be anything from a few weeks to a few months with about 10-15% of children experiencing some relapse – when this happens you need to reintroduce the alarm treatment although treatment is typically much quicker the second time around. Some families have also combined this with other more experimental approaches such as hypnotherapy and have found it to be more successful than when used in isolation. Success also depends on how motivated children are to become dry, which is why many doctors do not recommend their use until children are closer to 7-years of age.

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