Success
Home Up Bed-wetting Treatment Success Clinical Services Manual

 

Conditions for successful Treatment.

The bell-and-pad treatment can produce up to 95% success rate. You can with confidence have your child treated with the bell-and-pad method. There are conditions for achieving this high success. Some children are more difficult than others. Very few families have difficulty in applying the program.

What are these conditions for success? There are three main ones:

Practitioner Supervision - experience makes the difference;
Bell-and-pad has required features.
Family Activity - close adherence to the treatment procedure.

We outline these conditions here so that families can know that treatment will be a successful family activity.

Practitioner Supervision

 Proper supervision contributes to success. This continues to be shown. Often, parents tell us of unsuccessful attempts at treatment without supervision. 

On the other hand, some parents will tell you of success without supervision. There are examples in families of more than one bed-wetter where the first child got dry without supervision but it "didn't work for the second".

What parents have to consider is effect of failure on the child if they decide to go ahead without supervision. 

The practitioner will support the child and parents throughout the program, at least weekly until the program has become routine, with the parents reminded to telephone where any concerns arise. This support is vital in the early weeks of treatment where differences, real and apparent, will arise. Not every possible occurrence can be discussed during the interview. There is more than enough to learn without canvassing every  possibility. Should the unexpected arise, your supervisor will be a telephone call away to explain and advise. 

One particular skill of  practitioners is to pass responsibility for the home treatment from themselves to the child. Only the child is to switch the alarm on and off. It is the child's task to switch the alarm on before going to bed. Then when the bell rings and the child awakens, it is the child's task to get out of bed and switch the alarm off. This is the child's commanding role.

There are some children who have difficulty at first in waking to the bell. Again, your practitioner will guide you in ways to assist the child to wake up. The kind of assistance and how long parents will have to provide it varies greatly. Children do learn to wake-up to the bell's sound.

The practitioner will allay worries about the bell's sound waking other members of the family. 

 
Quality of Bell-and-Pad

Parents require a high quality in the bell-and-pad to assure high rates of success. Knowing what these features are can assist you in choosing a practitioner.  These features in a Ramsey Coote bell-and-pad are

Loud bell - to arouse the child; Bright lamp to show where the bell is.
Large bed-pad  - to contain most if not all the urine so dry bed linen; can see the progress from  reducing size of wet patches
Normal bedtime - child prepares for and goes to bed normally.
Normal sleeping routine - child free to roll and move in the bed.
Reliable - the bell rings every time the child wets.
Simple operation - for the child, one red lever to switch on an off, the same as light switches.
Waking Up Steps - the child has to get out of bed and take at least two steps to switch off the bell's sound.
Motivation -the child can take possession of one of the two parcels, and carry it away to his/her bed to begin their personal journey to dry nights.
 

Parents come to us after an unsuccessful attempt at treatment with inferior equipment. Some of these will have decided that the method is at fault rather than the equipment. 

Family Activity

It has been proven, since 1956 by Ramsey Coote that treatment can be a successful family activity. Your local practitioner can vouch for this.

Treatment is in the home, particularly in the child's bedroom. The practitioner transfers responsibility to the child and to the parents. The child and parents have to follow instructions.  But often some things are forgotten or not fully understood. There may be differences between what happens and what is expected. Practitioner are there to instil the confidence that their external supervision can overcome any difficulties that arise. 

Better family activity requires that they read the educational information provided by the practitioner. Its purpose is to educate the parents -explode any myths and end any practices such as restriction of fluids and lifting, and any punishment. It prepares families for the interview and brings questions and concerns to mind to be put at the interview. It enhances the success of the interview.

The family has before it, on average, some 6 weeks of activity to get the child dry. Most families will take this in their stride. Other families may have to make adjustment to their routine. Parents have to attend the child when the bell sounds. In some houses, it may be necessary for one parent to set up a bed and sleep in the same room as the child. 

The treatment can be successful where the child's parents have separated and the child has to sleep in different homes.  

 
Experience the difference - Continuous improvement bringing highest efficacy and reliability.