Business builds fix for embarrassing problem
Kapiti has become a growing hub for a business that claims to have ‘‘world-first’’ wireless technology for stopping bed wetting.
Anzacare in Waikanae, north of Wellington, develop the world’s first two-piece wireless bed wetting alarm.
The company sells about 12,000 of the alarms annually, with Germany and Australia the two biggest customer nations.
The alarm has a sensor, placed in the child’s underwear which, when activated by moisture, sets off an alarm, waking the child. The sensor can be linked to two or more alarms up to nine metres away, alerting parents and encouraging children to get out of bed.
The company also produces a wired alarm. The patented sensors on both alarms are made of conductive plastic, which does not rust and is easier to clean than metal.
Anzacare co-owner Karen Radford said the two-piece alarm had advantages over wired and other wireless alarms.
‘‘Some kids are restless or deep sleepers. and some kids are naughty and pull the wire out and go back to sleep.’’
The alarms are manufactured in Christchurch.
Radford and co-owner Stephen Sexton, both Waikanae residents, bought the company five years ago.
When they bought it two thirds of their sales were for wired alarms. Now, the statistic had flipped.
Bed wetting was mostly genetic, Radford said.
Children were 40 per cent more likely to wet the bed if one parent did, and 70 per cent more likely if both did.
One in seven children under five years old wet the bed, and one in 12 under 12, she said.
The awkwardness around bed wetting was encapsulated when Sexton introduced Radford to the business, she
Howthe alarms work
The alarms are amethod of classical conditioning, researched by Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlovwhen he looked at digestion in dogs. When Pavlov fed the dogs, he would ring a bell, and the dogs would come to the food, salivating. He discovered they would do the same if the bellwas rung, even without food present.
In the sameway, children learn to associate the bell with bed wetting. Over time, the stimulus of a full bladder becomes as powerful as the alarm, conditioning the child to wake up to it. said.
‘‘He wouldn’t tell me what it was. He threw it at me and said ‘read this’. I think he was embarrassed.
‘‘No-one talks about bed wetting.
‘‘Parents think they’re to blame for their kids wetting the bed. ‘‘It’s really hard for kids. ‘‘They think there’s something wrong with them, that they’re not up to the mark.’’
Bed wetting alarms condition the child to wake up before urinating, and usually take between two and 12 weeks to fix the problem, Radford said.
The alarms can also be sold for elderly bed wetters, but to alert caregivers, not fix the problem.