At what point do you give up on a bedwetting alarm?

[kentuckymom]

Squirrelboy recently turned 10 and he has never been consistently dry at night. The poor kid is beginning to think he'll be wearing pull ups to bed in high school. So back in mid December we started using a bedwetting alarm. Initially it went really well. The alarm consistently woke him up as soon as he started peeing, he cheerfully went and used the bathroom and changed his underwear, it was great. He even started to have occasional dry nights, up to a week in a row a few times. He even started waking himself up to use the bathroom every once in a while. However, for the past six weeks or so everything has gone downhill. The alarm doesn't wake him up. We have to do in and wake him and it can take up to five minutes. He's really angry and grouchy when we do wake him and has a bad attitude about the whole thing. I want to put the alarm aside and maybe try again in a few months, but DH says we need to see the process through. My view is that we've seen it through and that it's currently failing and creating a bad attitude. Any advice? Anyone else been in a similar position?

[Sun]

I would wonder what has changed that he is sleeping through it now. Is the alarm still working as well as it did originally? Are the batteries failing? Is the sound not as loud and/or the vibration not as intense?

[kentuckymom]

I would wonder what has changed that he is sleeping through it now. Is the alarm still working as well as it did originally? Are the batteries failing? Is the sound not as loud and/or the vibration not as intense?

 

We've been through that already. The batteries have been checked and are fine, the alarm sounds the same to us. Oh, and it has vibration as well as sound. We thought perhaps DS had just become too accustomed to the tone we'd been using so we switched to  new one, but that hasn't made any difference.

[Rosie_0801]

Take him to a chiropractor if you haven't. They often treat bedwetting in older kids. The oldest my chiro has seen was 16.

[zoobie]

Have you done a sleep study?

[Spring Flower]

I have no real experience, but my mother in law had 4 bed wetters and has been through everything with them. One thing she said that has helped her kids is stretching their bladders. During the day they have to drink a large amount of water and hold it in their bladder as long as possible. Over time their bladder stretches enough to hold urine through the night. She had a lot of success with the alarms but once they hit puberty she says it was almost impossible to train them. Her first two bed wetters took a long time to recover because she wanted to be so nurturing and kind and supportive and she thought they would grow out of it. With her second two, she was much more aggressive with it and they were able to recover at a much younger age. 

[amo_mea_filiis.]

See a urologist and pulmonologist or neurologist. Pulmonary or neurology to rule out sleep disorders. Urology can rule out bladder and kidney problems, and may prescribe a low dose oral DDAVP to add to your routine.

 

My 10 year old is about 6 months in on DDAVP, alarm, and no diapers, and while he's still wetting, it now averages to less than once a week as opposed to an average of 25 days each month.

[amo_mea_filiis.]

I don't think stretching the bladder is the way to go. Our bodies suppress urine production when we sleep. It's not like we just hold it all night.

[VeteranMom]

I'd give up on the alarm.  My ds wet the bed 3-4 times a week for 6 years.  We did pullups, since I didn't want his sleep interrupted for an alarm.  I'd be cranky, too.  Ds is 12 now.

We recently figured out the cause for ds's bedwetting.  I had mentioned the problem to a homeopath that I see.  She said with certainty "that's due to a food allergy".  I had ds tested and he has multiple food sensitivities.  The worst were wheat and soy.  I removed those from his diet and he's no longer wetting the bed.  He's gone over 2 months without wetting the bed.  It's been life changing for him.        

 

[Paige]

When the bedwetting alarm didn't work for us, something else was causing the problem. I'd look at his diet, his bathroom habits during the day (no BM=bedwetting for us), and any medication or OTC supplements. Benadryl or other antihistamines cause bedwetting for us as well. I know our triggers aren't unique to us. 

[HSmomof2]

I'd give up on the alarm. My ds wet the bed 3-4 times a week for 6 years. We did pullups, since I didn't want his sleep interrupted for an alarm. I'd be cranky, too. Ds is 12 now.

We recently figured out the cause for ds's bedwetting. I had mentioned the problem to a homeopath that I see. She said with certainty "that's due to a food allergy". I had ds tested and he has multiple food sensitivities. The worst were wheat and soy. I removed those from his diet and he's no longer wetting the bed. He's gone over 2 months without wetting the bed. It's been life changing for him.

nm

Edited September 30, 2017 by Bethany Grace

[Scarlett]

My 14 yo step son finally has some relief. I was able to get him to a pediatric urologist last summer. It took about three Appts trying a couple different combinations of drugs. It has been miraculous for him. It was really really a bad situation before.

 

If it was my kid I would take him now to the specialist.

 

Edited to clarify which child....he lives with his mom and she was resistant to taking him to a specialist and refused to give us his insurance info.

[wapiti]

I agree - I would see a ped urologist.  In the meantime, while you're waiting for the appointment, you might try magnesium and/or D-Mannose - both help my ds.  Bedwetting is only a problem if I don't give him either for a few days.

[amo_mea_filiis.]

Do you have a calendar to track?

 

I have a year long calendar printed on one page. If there is anything out of the ordinary, I'll note it. Otherwise I just color red, green, or purple. Red is wet, green is dry, and purple means the alarm got him up but the bed was dry.

 

It really helped when we went to the urologist to have 6 months of tracking. In our case, there's no consistency. He can have nights where he drinks a ton, goes to bed late, and wakes dry. Or just random wetting.

 

Out of the ordinary would be sleeping out, extra late activities, seizure, sick, etc.

[Scarlett]

Do you have a calendar to track?

 

I have a year long calendar printed on one page. If there is anything out of the ordinary, I'll note it. Otherwise I just color red, green, or purple. Red is wet, green is dry, and purple means the alarm got him up but the bed was dry.

 

It really helped when we went to the urologist to have 6 months of tracking. In our case, there's no consistency. He can have nights where he drinks a ton, goes to bed late, and wakes dry. Or just random wetting.

 

Out of the ordinary would be sleeping out, extra late activities, seizure, sick, etc.

With dss it was easy. He was never dry. Maybe twice in 6 months. It was horrible.

[Scarlett]

With dss it was easy. He was never dry. Maybe twice in 6 months. It was horrible.

Edited to add but I agree tracking is helpful. The urologist did ask a lot of questions.

[kentuckymom]

We've actually already seen multiple specialists about this and nothing has helped long term. We have, however, never looked into food sensitivities so i'll consider that. I'm glad to hear multiple people saying to give the alarm a rest, since that's my inclination.

[amo_mea_filiis.]

I started tracking before he gave up diapers. It was green (dry), yellow (wet), and red (leak). Once he gave up diapers, I saw that he was dry a little more than we thought. He'd even have stretches of up to 5 dry nights, but they were rare. Urologist said that since he did have a decent amount of dry nights, he didn't expect to find anything wrong. Scans were normal, so we just started meds.

[amo_mea_filiis.]

We've actually already seen multiple specialists about this and nothing has helped long term. We have, however, never looked into food sensitivities so i'll consider that. I'm glad to hear multiple people saying to give the alarm a rest, since that's my inclination.

Have you seen a pediatric urologist?

[Ellie]

Squirrelboy recently turned 10 and he has never been consistently dry at night. The poor kid is beginning to think he'll be wearing pull ups to bed in high school. So back in mid December we started using a bedwetting alarm. Initially it went really well. The alarm consistently woke him up as soon as he started peeing, he cheerfully went and used the bathroom and changed his underwear, it was great. He even started to have occasional dry nights, up to a week in a row a few times. He even started waking himself up to use the bathroom every once in a while. However, for the past six weeks or so everything has gone downhill. The alarm doesn't wake him up. We have to do in and wake him and it can take up to five minutes. He's really angry and grouchy when we do wake him and has a bad attitude about the whole thing. I want to put the alarm aside and maybe try again in a few months, but DH says we need to see the process through. My view is that we've seen it through and that it's currently failing and creating a bad attitude. Any advice? Anyone else been in a similar position?

 

:grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug:

 

My older dd wet the bed until she was 5ish. We tried a variety of different things (although not an alarm). Finally, her doctor prescribed Tofranil. She took it for 10 days; then the dosage was cut in half and she took it another 10 days; the dosage was cut in half again and she took it for 10 more days. She was never wet at night again.

 

I have heard of children who were lactose intolerant who wet the bed when they consumed milk. If you haven't eliminated dairy, that might be something to try.

[MyThreeSons]

I knew a family who hooked up their alarm to activate a tape recorder, which had Dad instructing the son to wake up. They said he responded to Dad's voice much better than to the alarm / vibration. 

 

 

[Desert Strawberry]

Gem is five (6 in June). He wets every night. 

He is sensitive to dairy, soy, and wheat. Eliminating them has not helped.

At what age would meds be reasonable?

He's little. He wears training pants at night, double stuffed. That usually holds him, but he leaks often enough. 

Sigh. I was hoping he'd outgrow it.

[Tsuga]

The doctors in the former USSR told my ex-SIL that they might stop at each milestone age, so like, one, three, seven, twelve, but some don't stop until puberty, especially boys. :( And in fact that is what happened with her boys. 12 or so they stopped.

 

That is very hard and I'm sorry.

[EmseB]

I'm not qualified in this subject but that sounds like a bad idea? Like over time it would weaken the pelvic muscles or something? My son was having some issues which made me think he had a UTI but he didn't. When I did some research I came across "voiding dysfunction." This advice sounds like it could lead to that. I have to get on my son's case about holding it too long as I think it contributed to his issues.

 

OP, this is the first I have heard of a bedwetting alarm. I am confused... the alarm sounds after they wet the bed? Would it be more efficient to just set an alarm that goes off at a certain hour to tell the child to use the restroom (probably something you have tried??). If you tend to get out of bed anyway it seems like it might be easier? Sorry, I am just not really clear on how the alarm is meant to work.

 

The alarm isn't just about alerting the child to wetness. After awhile using the alarm the brain gets trained not to release urine during sleep. It's actually really fascinating to me (the science of it). But waking a child up and making them pee at night doesn't have the same effect.

[Scarlett]

Gem is five (6 in June). He wets every night.

He is sensitive to dairy, soy, and wheat. Eliminating them has not helped.

At what age would needs be reasonable?

He's little. He wears training pants at night, double stuffed. That usually holds him, but he leads often enough.

Sigh. I was hoping he'd outgrow it.

At 5 I wouldn't worry at all. Just take good measures to protect the mattress and as well as keep him in pull ups.

 

My dss was 13 when I took him to the pediatric urologist. Puberty had not stopped it for him. He also wouldn't wear adult diapers even though it did cut down on how wet everything got. He ruined two mattresses ( at our house) and washed laundry....bed clothes, sheets blankets every. Single. Morning. As you can imagine going to visit relatives or being in a hotel was horrible. My dss would even wet himself if he fell asleep in the car or on the sofa.

So before it gets to that point I strongly recommend people take their child to a specialist....certainly by age 10.

[ChristusG]

DD8 is still wet nearly every night. I think we'll be looking into an alarm. I wonder if it's covered by insurance?

[jenn-]

My youngest has really responded well to the alarm. After 3 nights of use, he was staying dry. He really wanted to try going without it, but that night he woke up soaked. In his case, I think he is a seriously deep sleeper but the alarm keeps him just uncomfortable that he doesn't sleep as hard.

 

Our pediatrician will start hunting for reasons for bed wetting at age 6. We were hoping he would outgrow it like his brothers did around 7. No such luck.

 

We bought the wet-stop3 system on Amazon as that was one of the only ones in my price range that had decent reviews.

[EmseB]

DD8 is still wet nearly every night. I think we'll be looking into an alarm. I wonder if it's covered by insurance?

I doubt it, but the one we got was about $50USD, so not hugely expensive.

[kentuckymom]

So apparently I spoke too soon. Squirrelboy was not ready to give up on the alarm, and it has worked really well the past two nights. If he's willing to get out of bed, what it normally does at this point is wake him just as he starts to pee. Then he finishes in the bathroom and only has a tiny we spot in his underwear. I really think the root of his problem is that a) he pees more than an average amount at night (my body works the same way - I wake up to pee at least once a night while hubby and DD normally don't wake up) and b) he is a super heavy sleeper and his bladder doesn't wake him up.

 

Just for the record, we have been to a pediatric urologist, and the visit was a total wash. He decided that an overactive bladder was the cause and prescribed a bladder relaxant. It did nothing to stop the wetting and made Squirrelboy's chronic constipation worse. About a year ago we started seeing a GI doctor to deal with the constipation. She prescribed a high dose laxative and also did a variety of tests to rule our physical causes. When physical causes were ruled out she referred him to a behavioral psychologist with whom we have worked successfully to finally end the constipation and encopresis. He's still on a laxative to prevent the holding behavior that started this whole thing years ago, but is slowly being weaned off.  The psychologist is the one who recommended the alarm and gave us a specific set of instructions to use with is, which we have followed.

 

All that to say, we have definitely ruled out constipation as a cause. Oh, and when he had his tonsils removed the ENT said that stops bedwetting about 60% of the time, but it didn't work for him. I doubt food sensitivity is a cause since he's had stretches of dry nights as long as a week since we started the alarm with no diet change. 

 

We may look into the food sensitivity, but for now I guess we'll keep plugging away with the alarm. Squirrelboy did have a long series of late nights when the bad stretch started, so maybe he's finally over his tiredness and is ready to be sensitive to the alarm again. 

 

I'm glad this thread has served to educate a few others.

[RoundAbout]

Gem is five (6 in June). He wets every night. 

He is sensitive to dairy, soy, and wheat. Eliminating them has not helped.

At what age would needs be reasonable?

He's little. He wears training pants at night, double stuffed. That usually holds him, but he leads often enough. 

Sigh. I was hoping he'd outgrow it.

 

 

I was told not to worry about it at all for a boy until age 7ish.  We used a bedwetting alarm at 6.5 mostly because we were moving soon and thought it would be a convenient time to try.  We tried it for two weeks and it didn't seem to work so gave it a break, but then DS miraculously started staying dry a few weeks later when we went to visit my mother. So it was probably a combination or alarm, motivation, and changing circumstances.  

[mymomtime]

I used an alarm starting between 7 & 8 with my son.  I was supposed to start earlier, but didn't.  We bought one that just vibrated, no sound.  It clipped to the front hole in his undies with a little clip.  We chose no sound to start with because it was cheaper and he was sharing a room with his new brother.  Our pediatrician suggested to start using an alarm between 6 & 7, we waited because I was balking at spending the money on an alarm.

 

It took MUCH longer than I anticipated to work.  I want to say it took 9-12 months.  He was still using it when his brother got ahold of it and broke it.  BUT he had been dry most of the time so we decided not to replace it unless needed.  And we didn't need to replace it.  We've had a couple of accidents since then, but nothing I worry about.  He has always been my bed wetter, even as a baby he would soak through, wetting chest to toes dripping wet in the morning.  We actually had him tested for diabetes (type 1) and diabetes insipidus at age 2 due to this  He had neither.  I figured out it was worse right after a growth spurt.  It seemed as if his bladder was the last to grow.

 

My son is still a hard sleeper.  Before we started the alarm, I tried getting him up to go in the night, he never remembered it and would often fight me.  He never/rarely fought the alarm.  And I believe it taught his brain to "recognize" the signals to get out of bed or hold it.  

 

Good luck.  

[HeWillSoar]

One of my boys was like this and then at around age 11, he stopped wetting the bed.  The doctor wasn't concerned about it, saying that some kids just do this and eventually outgrow it.  My brother also wet the bed until he was older so I wasn't worried about it, other than the pain in the neck it was constantly changing and washing sheets.  I thought about getting the alarm but my son wouldn't have used it, and he refused to wear pull ups.  The main thing I recommend is just to not make a big deal of it because they can't help it (I'm not insinuating that you are), and to have them help with the clean up.  Just take heart that eventually it will stop. 

 

Just wanted to add that my son is a heavy sleeper too.  We would wake him to use the bathroom and even if we could get him to go, he would still wake up wet.  In fact, he would sleep in the wet completely unaware. 

[walkermamaof4]

I'd give up on the alarm.  My ds wet the bed 3-4 times a week for 6 years.  We did pullups, since I didn't want his sleep interrupted for an alarm.  I'd be cranky, too.  Ds is 12 now.

We recently figured out the cause for ds's bedwetting.  I had mentioned the problem to a homeopath that I see.  She said with certainty "that's due to a food allergy".  I had ds tested and he has multiple food sensitivities.  The worst were wheat and soy.  I removed those from his diet and he's no longer wetting the bed.  He's gone over 2 months without wetting the bed.  It's been life changing for him.        

Same here. We did an IgG and found out is was a dairy and egg sensitivity. If he gets a miniscule amount of these, he wets. Age 10 now. On the Pullups site, dairy is listed as the #1 cause of bedwetting!

[weddell]

I've posted this before about the link between constipation and bedwetting, it's really eye opening to read the whole book:

http://www.slate.com/articles/life/family/2012/03/bed_wetting_the_simple_cause_your_doctor_probably_missed_.html

 

I know the OP said that her son was already treated for constipation, but I thought this might help someone else. The author is a pediatric urologist and says that even once you get the constipatin fixed, it can still have caused nerve damage and muscle problems that may take a year or more to solve. So even just treating the constipation may not be enough.

[Scarlett]

So apparently I spoke too soon. Squirrelboy was not ready to give up on the alarm, and it has worked really well the past two nights. If he's willing to get out of bed, what it normally does at this point is wake him just as he starts to pee. Then he finishes in the bathroom and only has a tiny we spot in his underwear. I really think the root of his problem is that a) he pees more than an average amount at night (my body works the same way - I wake up to pee at least once a night while hubby and DD normally don't wake up) and b) he is a super heavy sleeper and his bladder doesn't wake him up.

 

Just for the record, we have been to a pediatric urologist, and the visit was a total wash. He decided that an overactive bladder was the cause and prescribed a bladder relaxant. It did nothing to stop the wetting and made Squirrelboy's chronic constipation worse. About a year ago we started seeing a GI doctor to deal with the constipation. She prescribed a high dose laxative and also did a variety of tests to rule our physical causes. When physical causes were ruled out she referred him to a behavioral psychologist with whom we have worked successfully to finally end the constipation and encopresis. He's still on a laxative to prevent the holding behavior that started this whole thing years ago, but is slowly being weaned off. The psychologist is the one who recommended the alarm and gave us a specific set of instructions to use with is, which we have followed.

 

All that to say, we have definitely ruled out constipation as a cause. Oh, and when he had his tonsils removed the ENT said that stops bedwetting about 60% of the time, but it didn't work for him. I doubt food sensitivity is a cause since he's had stretches of dry nights as long as a week since we started the alarm with no diet change.

 

We may look into the food sensitivity, but for now I guess we'll keep plugging away with the alarm. Squirrelboy did have a long series of late nights when the bad stretch started, so maybe he's finally over his tiredness and is ready to be sensitive to the alarm again.

 

I'm glad this thread has served to educate a few others.

I would take him back to the urologist. The one we took dss13 to had us keep coming back until they found the right combination of drugs.

[KrissiK]

My dd was about 8 when she finally got out of pull-ups. The way she quit was very strange. We had her in pull-ups indefinitely because she would be highly combative if we woke her up to use the bathroom. So, we just kept the pull-ups with no real plan for otherwise. Now, she sleeps on the floor of our bedroom. She started that when she was having nightmares and calling dh every night. Finally we told her if she woke up with a nightmare she could come in and sleep on our floor, but not to wake us up. That worked well until she started wanting to start out in our room. Well, for obvious reasons, that wasn't going to work. But, we finally decided to try one more time getting her out of the pull-ups. We bribed her by saying that we would wake her up when we went to bed to come into our room, but she had to cooperate and go pee first. It worked. After a week she decided she was done with pull-ups and we never looked back.

[kentuckymom]

I would take him back to the urologist. The one we took dss13 to had us keep coming back until they found the right combination of drugs.

I'll consider that if the alarm doesn't work in the next few months, but honestly the guy just really got on my nerves. He didn't seem to have any interest in actually listening to our concerns, he just made a conclusion and wrote a prescription in less than 5 minutes - this was after a nearly one hour wait past our appointment time. He's the only game in town, so I'd have to go up to Cincinnati to see someone else. We had a great experience in Cincinnati with the other two specialists I mentioned, but the drives are a real bear. Plus, I'd really rather teach his body to wake up than resort to drugs that stop him from peeing at night. It seems that just masks the problem.

[PinkyandtheBrains.]

I'll consider that if the alarm doesn't work in the next few months, but honestly the guy just really got on my nerves. He didn't seem to have any interest in actually listening to our concerns, he just made a conclusion and wrote a prescription in less than 5 minutes - this was after a nearly one hour wait past our appointment time. He's the only game in town, so I'd have to go up to Cincinnati to see someone else. We had a great experience in Cincinnati with the other two specialists I mentioned, but the drives are a real bear. Plus, I'd really rather teach his body to wake up than resort to drugs that stop him from peeing at night. It seems that just masks the problem.

 

While it can mask the problem, if you've been through all the testing and such already it really is just providing relief while you wait for the alarm to work and/or for him to grow out of it.

 

 

 

If you really don't like the doctor, make the drive to Cincinnati to meet a new one that might be more helpful.

[Scarlett]

I'll consider that if the alarm doesn't work in the next few months, but honestly the guy just really got on my nerves. He didn't seem to have any interest in actually listening to our concerns, he just made a conclusion and wrote a prescription in less than 5 minutes - this was after a nearly one hour wait past our appointment time. He's the only game in town, so I'd have to go up to Cincinnati to see someone else. We had a great experience in Cincinnati with the other two specialists I mentioned, but the drives are a real bear. Plus, I'd really rather teach his body to wake up than resort to drugs that stop him from peeing at night. It seems that just masks the problem.

 

 

I feel your pain about the long drive.  The specialist is about an hour's drive for us and for dss's mom.  We loved the one we found.  You won't be able to teach his body to wake up.  He may grow out of it but my dss did not.  We tried many things....nothing worked.  The volume and the smell got worse and worse and it affected everyone's life.  He sleeps upstairs and I could just walk by the stairs down stairs and the smell would nearly knock me down.  He is over 200 pounds so we were way beyond pull ups or pads working.  He hated wearing diapers but even when he did his bedding was still wet.  At just 10 yo you may not be to that point yet.  ds was not near as bad at 10 as he was at 13.  It just got worse for him.

[kentuckymom]

I feel your pain about the long drive.  The specialist is about an hour's drive for us and for dss's mom.  We loved the one we found.  You won't be able to teach his body to wake up.  He may grow out of it but my dss did not.  We tried many things....nothing worked.  The volume and the smell got worse and worse and it affected everyone's life.  He sleeps upstairs and I could just walk by the stairs down stairs and the smell would nearly knock me down.  He is over 200 pounds so we were way beyond pull ups or pads working.  He hated wearing diapers but even when he did his bedding was still wet.  At just 10 yo you may not be to that point yet.  ds was not near as bad at 10 as he was at 13.  It just got worse for him.

Well, according to the psychologist who started us on the alarm path and is a national authority on bedwetting, 80% of the time you CAN teach the child's body to wake up, so I'm not ready to give up. I was ready to give the alarm a break, but the alarm user isn't, so we're continuing on. If he were taking medicine that stopped him from peeing at night the alarm would have absolutely no effect.

 

I've gotten the opinions I was looking for. I've chosen a path for now. I need no further advice.

[Scarlett]

Well, according to the psychologist who started us on the alarm path and is a national authority on bedwetting, 80% of the time you CAN teach the child's body to wake up, so I'm not ready to give up. I was ready to give the alarm a break, but the alarm user isn't, so we're continuing on. If he were taking medicine that stopped him from peeing at night the alarm would have absolutely no effect.

 

I've gotten the opinions I was looking for. I've chosen a path for now. I need no further advice.

 

 

I guess I should say if he has an issue like my dss no alarm in the world will help him.  We tried getting dss up every two hours from 10 until 4.  He went everytime we woke him.   By 6:00 he was soaked. His body is not getting the message that he is sleeping so stop making urine and his body is not getting the message, 'hey your bladder is full, get up and empty it.'  Not to mention,  NO ONE can function having to get up and pee every 2 hours even if he COULD wake up.  

 

Ultimately it is up to you and your child.  So if you are happy with the path you are taking that is great.

 

Hopefully other will benefit from our experience.  I hope no one delays taking their bedwetter to the doctor as long as my dss's mother did.  

[amo_mea_filiis.]

If he were taking medicine that stopped him from peeing at night the alarm would have absolutely no effect.

Not true. My son takes .2mg of DDAVP. It has helped tremendously with the wetting, but he still sometimes wets. He now averages about 2 times a month wetting the bed, and another 4-5 times of triggering the alarm. That's about once a week.

[IsabelC]

First organize a comprehensive medical checkup if you haven't already. Only around 5% of kids that age still wet, so it's worth ruling out any underlying causes just in case he is one of the few cases where drugs or other treatment are indicated. Ask your health professional to check for fecal impaction, as this is a common cause of enuresis, and is often not diagnosed (it can be present with persistent bedwetting as the only symptom).

Then have a serious talk to your child about how you are going to handle this issue. My general feeling is that it *is* best to 'see it through' with the alarm. Most times when bed-wetting alarms fail, it's because the child/family hasn't kept at it long enough. However, it's very difficult to succeed if the kid himself isn't on board, so if a month or two break is what he needs to be 100% committed to getting dry, then so be it. While we know that kids shouldn't ever be punished for bed-wetting (because it's not their fault), it is worthwhile ensuring that you're not making things too easy for him, i.e. you need to set things up so that continuing to wet is *more* inconvenient then working on fixing the problem. At the age of 10, he should be able to strip/remake bed and do all his laundry himself.

A few more Don'ts:
Do not attempt to 'stretch' his bladder by asking him to 'hold on'. This approach is not based on accurate physiology and will usually achieve nothing (in fact it can cause incontinence if taken to extremes)
Also just in case you don't know this (you probably do but I'm always surprised at how often it's recommended) never stop or limit his water intake in order to reduce nocturnal urine production. Instead, encourage him to keep well hydrated. 
Don't wake him to go to the bathroom. Waking him at at a set interval (or even just late at night before you go to sleep) doesn't teach his brain/body to wake in response to full bladder signals.
Don't use pullups unless it's a special occasion (eg sleepover). Pullups stop kids from feeling the wetness, making it more difficult to wake up when they have wet themselves.

 

Oh and if the alarm was working to wake him but now it doesn't, try changing the alarm sound. We got one that has eight different sounds so that if they learn to sleep through one, you set it to a different one.