Bonkers Good! – Sort of unbelievable – (If Dr. Sagie could do a program for weight loss, he would solve American obesity)
Amazing.
Our story: Our 4.5yo was still in pull-ups after having been totally potty trained since BEFORE he was 2 years old! I had cloth-diapered so the waste of pull-ups was killing me. When we experimented without the pull-ups, he would wake up shivering–you see, he would wet the bed, but wouldn’t wake up until he was freezing from being covered in urine that then cooled off! It was obvious to me that this wasn’t laziness or too much liquid—it’s that my child was an incredibly deep sleeper. My heart broke for him, and it was time to do something.
The price tag was hefty–a year’s worth of pull-ups basically. But he was beginning to notice that his friends didn’t wear pull-ups anymore, and I knew that the effect on his self esteem was right around the corner.
The first week was rough on all of us, one of the worst in my life because of sleep deprivation. We discovered that he was wetting himself FOUR to FIVE TIMES A NIGHT! The alarm would sound at 10, 12, 2:30, 4, 5am! I didn’t know how that was physiologically possible (to have that much urine). The alarm would go off, he would start to cry, and then there was the ten minutes of changing his sheets and getting him back to bed. It was worse than having an infant! At least with an infant, you can lay down while feeding them, and when he was an infant, it was only three times a night, not five!
(We finally bought two more sets of sheets so that we would quadruple-make the bed, so changing was much easier.)
I was so discouraged, and I was concerned that he had a major organ function problem. I was exhausted. The whole family was grumpy from lack of sleep. And not even lack of sleep, but the surprise of waking up to an alarm like this one. It was the worst. My husband and I agreed that we would do it for one more week, and if there was no change, we would stop and try again in a few months.
I would have expected my child to have started to resist, to say, “I don’t want to turn on the alarm tonight.” But it was the opposite. He took pride in plugging it in and turning it on. I would tuck him in and he would say, “I think I’m going to have a dry night. I think Dr. Sagie is going to be proud of me.” This happened for several nights, and he would wake up to the alarm. He would feel sad, but not overly distressed. He kept having hope that eventually his body would learn.
Well….let.me.tell.you. The second week, the switch got flipped! He had his first dry night of his life, and hasn’t wet the bed since!!!!!!!!
I remember the first time hearing his little feet walking to his bathroom in the middle of the night. I thought I was dreaming; it was like, “OMG, I think he’s getting up to pee!” Then he went back to bed! The first few times he did this, it was in the middle of the nights. Then it gradually became less often and later in the night (unfortunately, I still wake up, but I think I’ve slept with one eye open since he was born :)). Now he wakes up maybe one time a night, and it’s much closer to wake-up time. It’s winter now, so he goes to the bathroom and then crawls into our bed to get a warm snuggle; that’s just fine by me. 🙂
We went on our first trip to a hotel without bringing pull-ups! He also did an overnight at grandma’s in just undies. We were both a little nervous that he didn’t have his alarm, but he was so proud when he woke up dry!
I can’t say enough about the power of Dr. Sagie. In the first few weeks, my son was telling everyone about “my Dr. Sagie.” He would explain that “he’s helping me to not wet the bed.” People kept thinking there was a new pediatrician in town, because their relationship seemed so strong; they were shocked to find out it was an online program.
I would watch my son’s face when he would watch the videos and it was completely adorable. When Dr. Sagie would make empathic, normalizing comments (like, “I know you don’t like to wet the bed.”) my son would nod along as though Dr. Sagie could see him, or he would smile from that nice feeling that someone understands you. You could tell my son instantly started to believe that Dr. Sagie really could help him, and he was so motivated by putting the stars in the chart. Also, getting a new video (every two weeks) was so exciting for him. He was literally counting down the days—“How many days until my next Dr. Sagie video?”
It was a total transformation: four and a half years of peeing at night, then one week of 5-times-a-night wetting, and now two months of totally dry nights. I will be telling my pediatrician how impressive this program is, and posting it on Facebook. Everyone needs to know what an amazing thing has been created here.
What a sense of pride this program gives. My son feels more confident in himself, and his body. He has had the experience of working hard at something, experiencing a little sadness and frustration, and then getting to the other side where he has a sense of achievement.
For me, I have the true joy that comes from feeling you made a really great parenting decision. It’s rare that I think to myself, “I’m doing great at this whole being-a-mom thing,” but buying and doing this program is one of those moments. I made a great decision for my son in buying this program.
I know you are hesitating about how expensive it is. It’s worth it. I wouldn’t take the time to write this review if I wasn’t truly impressed.