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Dr Catherine
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Girl
8-15 years

Dear Shyhan, firstly, my apologies for the delay in responding over the Christmas period. It can be incredibly frustrating when you feel you have given your all to a treatment and it still doesn’t result in a positive outcome. It is worth keeping in mind however that it can take up to 3 and 6 months for conditioning alarms to work. It is not uncommon for children and teenagers to experience one or two relapses before achieving permanent continence. When this happens you need to re-introduce the alarm and proceed as before. Conditioning alarms do take a great deal of commitment on behalf of the whole family and it can be terribly disruptive to family sleep patterns. Even if you do not wake at first it is still very important that your parents wake you, as this is the only way your brain will learn to respond to the alarm and make the association with the sensation of a full-bladder. Some alarms have different settings that allow you to vary the sound – sometimes a louder alarm will raise a particularly deep sleeper. Others include a vibration option, which your son may respond to more easily. The selection of an alarm is best done in consultation with a medical professional so do not try and do this on your own. All the best - I hope you are enjoying your school holiday break! Regards, Dr Cathrine