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Of these, eight were boys and three were girls. Their ages ranged from 7 to 15 years.
Relapses occurred for a variety of reasons, sometimes after a cold or some domestic
excitement, School examinations coincided with some relapses and one child became
wet again on leaving school to start work.
The original improved and wet groups showed little change at follow-up although
many had by then begun treatment by other methods. Of the 17 improved children
15 had maintained their improvement and two were more wet.
The group of 19 wet children showed 17 who had remained wet and two who had
improved.
Discussion
Having one health visitor in charge of a scheme such as this enables her to build uj&
a considerable experience in a comparatively short time. This is of value in understanding
the problems of enuretic children and the attitudes of their parents. Some
parents, particularly those of low intelligence, require a great deal of encouragement
to persevere with the use of the apparatus or indeed to start using it at all.
An advantage over a clinic service is that the apparatus is installed and demonstrated
in the place where it is to be used. This has been found reassuring to parent and child
and most helpful in ensuring co¬operation.
The amount of visiting required from the health visitor has not been so much that
it could not be fitted in with her other duties. New cases have been referred at the rate
of about three per month and each has required an average of about five visits. This
works out at less than one enuresis visit per working day and although a wide area
is covered it is possible to arrange many visits to fit in with other work. In a suburban
area with a school child population of 30,000 the work involved does not seem to be
too heavy an additional burden for someone willing to accept a specialised role of this
nature.
Making the machines within the department reduces the expense considerably.
Certainly it is necessary to have a member of the staff with the requisite electrical
knowledge and a willingness to give time to the project. The apparatus, however, is
a relatively simple affair and can be assembled from its components in about one hour.
Repairs can be speedily effected without having to send machines away and it is
possible to build and keep sufficient machines in service to prevent a waiting list.
The children referred have contained a large proportion in the youngest age
group probably because awareness of the easy availability of the apparatus had led to
its employment as soon as a child was considered to be an established enuretic.
Although five years is thought an early age for this type of treatment and this group
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