Giggle Incontinence aged 6

[Theflyinkiwi]

Hi, My son is 6 and a half and often wets himself when he laughs. Does anyone have experience with this and any advice to help? There is very little information available on the internet and I can't find much about how to 'treat' it. Is it a physical issue or behavioural? Can they learn to control it or not? Its awful for him and for us as it creates a lot of stress in the family. Thanks for your help.

[Laundrymaid]

Kia Ora Theflyinkiwi!

I have been keeping an eye on your post waiting to see if someone with experience of this issue replied, but as they haven't I couldn't bear for a fellow kiwi to come away with no information at all.

First things first, did you do an 'Eric Search' on this site for 'Giggle'? There are a couple of posts, have a look.

Secondly, has your son ever been constipated? This is a huge issue for my daughter and when her bowels are under pressure, the continence problems often pop up again. It may help you and your GP to keep a diary for a couple of weeks to see if there is any correlation between the accidents and your sons bowel motions. Eg accidents often happen around lunchtime and bowel motions often happen in the afternoon.

Thirdly, you can do some research into pelvic floor excercises for kids - yes boys do have a pelvic floor and often kids that struggle with accidents have very weak pelvic floors and core strength.

Spend a bit of time reading around this site, have a look at daytime wetting too. The more information you have, the better your position when talking to both your child, your family and medical professionals about what is happening for your son.

Wishing you and your son the very best of luck & Kia Kaha!

The Laundrymaid xx

[Theflyinkiwi in reply to Laundrymaid]

Hello Laundrymaid and fellow kiwi! Thanks for your reply and advice. He has never had bowel/constipation issues and no other wetting issues. Was easy to toilet train etc - it's literally just when he laughs. We actually have an appt with a urologist next week after seeing the GP this week so that may or may not shred some light on causes. I will post on here with the outcome since theres so little info around. Xx

[Theflyinkiwi]

Just in case anyone else is experiencing this issue here is an update. I took my son back to the doctor and demanded a referal to an expert. Fortunately we have health insurance so the GP was happy to do this. We saw a Urologist the next week who immediately confirmed that he has giggle incontinence. He explained that for some reason (I suspected they don't really know why) in some people the bladder get irritated when they laugh which makes it void. He said they cannot control it and it doesn't matter how much is in the bladder at the time. he said in his time as a urologist her had treated 4 girls and my son is the first boy so it is not common in young children. The best method of treatment is to prescribe Oxybutynin so my son was started on 2.5mls per day but we were told that if that didn't make a big difference to increase to 2x 2.5mls per day. We immediately saw a difference in the amount of wet pants but as he was still doing it we increased the dose to 2x a day. No he hardly ever wets his pants - occasionally in the afternoon when the medication from the morning dose has worn off. He tells me that occasionally he might do a little wee at school if he is laughing really hard but this is only very small and no one notices and he doesn't need to change. This has made my son very happy as he no longer needs to be embarrassed about wetting his pants in front of his friends. It is hugely frustrating that something so simple was not suggested by the GP when we went over a year ago but I am glad we have now sorted it. We have been told to continue the medication for 6 months and then try without it to see if the bladder has changed. The urologist told us that most kids eventually grow out of it without medication but who would want thier child to endue that? A side effect is apparently drowsiness but we haven't found this to be a problem and our son has been fine at school after his morning dose.

[Laundrymaid in reply to Theflyinkiwi]

Sound very positive Flyingkiwi". Good progress.

Wishing you and yours a very happy Christmas.

The Laundrymaid x