Electronic bed-wetting alarm and toilet trainer.

In many children with enuresis repetitive awakening by an alarm as soon as urination begins will gradually train the brain to exert automatic control over the bladder. The child will eventually either wake up before urination or sleep throughout the night without needing to empty the bladder. Such treatment is accepted as the most successful way of curing bed-wetting and may result in over 80% success within a few months.' A few children become adolescent and then adult without any of the methods available up until now achieving dry nights. New device and method of use Existing devices are cumbersome and expensive. They need careful tuition and intensive follow-up to achieve a good rate of success. These are not always available and failure is common. An alternative device has been developed which has many advantages over the traditional bell and pad. It is a matchbox-size, lightweight (50 g) alarm that may be worn unobtrusively on the patient. The alarm is permanently connected to a small, injection-moulded, moisture-sensitive plate placed inside an absorbent, disposable press-on towel with no contact between sensor and skin. With the onset of urination this sensor comes in contact with moisture and a loud buzzer is activated. The alarm uses hygienic, cheap, and readily available press-on towels and is permanently connected to the sensor so that accidental separation cannot occur. The device is triggered as soon as the absorbent press-on towel is moistened, so that actual wetting of the bed may be avoided. The alarm automatically resets and can be used repeatedly during the same night without parental help. The alarm has no on/off switch and the patient cannot forget to switch it on or switch it off and go back to sleep as, only drying the sensor inactivates the alarm. The Electronic bed-wetting alarm. alarm is easily portable and may be used away from home. It may be worn during the day for toilet training of the mentally handicapped and may also have a role in geriatrics to alert nurses to the time of mictu-rition. Case history-A 12-year-old girl presented in 1974 with enuresis, having failed to respond to any of the usual remedies. Over the next eight years she was seen by many doctors and specialists. Proteinuria of minimal-change glomerulonephritis was treated, but enuresis continued whether laboratory measurements reflecting her nephrotic syndrome were normal or abnormal and despite attempts to cure or modify with tricyclics, …