bed wetting saga

so we've totally regressed with the night potty training thing. wet...wetter...and still wetter. i think the kid is going to bed too late. she doesn't even wake up when there is a big wet spot. she just sleeps in it. i was a bed wetter until i was about seven. i read that if a kid has a parent that was a bed wetter, there's a big chance they will inherit the problem. sorry kid! some of the causes of bed-wetting include the following:

• Genetic factors (it tends to run in families)
• Difficulties waking up from sleep
• Slower than normal development of the central nervous system--this reduces the child's ability to stop the bladder from emptying at night YIKES!!!
• Hormonal factors (not enough antidiuretic hormone--this hormone reduces the amount of urine made by the kidneys) YIKES AGAIN!!!
• Urinary tract infections (EEK)
• Abnormalities in the urethral valves in boys or in the ureter in girls or boys DOUBLE YIKES!!!!
• Abnormalities in the spinal cord TRIPLE YIKES!!!!
• Inability to hold urine for a long time because of small bladder

bed-wetting is NOT caused by

• drinking too much before bedtime. (no, she's not an alcoholic)
• It's not a mental or behavior problem. (thank God)
• It doesn't happen because the child is too lazy to get out of bed to go to the bathroom. (no one could ever call my child lazy!)
• And children do not wet the bed on purpose or to irritate their parents. (well.... that's debatable)

time to turn to the infamous wee-alert from sears. my mom bought one when i was having problems. its this metal sheet that goes under your matress pad, hooked up to some sort of box by clamps. the principal is it makes this horrendous buzzing noise to alarm you when you start to wet the bed, with the result that you become so terribly shaken by this noise that your brain begins to warn you to wake up before it happens, so you go to the bathroom to avoid being frightened to death night after night. yes, my mom did it to me. it worked. am i considering it? yup. we'll try again before i resort to the wee alert.