Pollakiuria

[1705charlotte]

Has anyone had any experience or even heard of it? My 6 yr old girl recently been through hospital stay for chronic constipation now back to normal daily bowel movement with movicol morning & night but we now have frequent toilet visits when out of the house? She gets a little panicked when first arriving smwh but once found the toilet will make several visits in short space of time. Her urine is good colour & no pain it’s just a habit. When at home only time does it at bedtime routine, will go back 3 times in 20 mins. Everything read tells to ignore it as will go but would love to speak to someone else if child has had this?

[Helen36]

Hello - i have heard of this but no experience. However, my daughter has an overactive bladder which we think was brought on my constipation (a common cause of it) and similar symptoms. Basically the bowel can press on the bladder when impacted and make it ‘twitchy’ meaning they feel like they need to go lots. And then it can’t stop twitching even after the poo has moved on. My little girl actually feels it more when she is at home than out but I have no idea why! I suggest going back to GP and seeing if some further investigations might help. In the mean time, just make sure she has lots of fluid and is emptying her bladder properly with a ‘double wee’ - try once, stand up and jiggle - and go again. It may be she developed a pocket in her bladder from the constipation (not all bladders are perfect ballloon shapes) and wee is getting caught in there so she needs to go again soon after emptying. Maybe she’s emptying better when out. Good luck and maybe have a search on the forum to see if you can find anyone else who had pollakiuria to message - they might not look at this anymore if their issues are solved but a message will email them. X

[SKY01]

Hello. I'm wondering if you resolved this and how, please? I'm pretty sure this is what we're dealing with with my almost 6 year old son and it's stressing me out a bit! They say best ignore it and it will resolve itself but I'd love to hear if this has worked for people? Thanks

[Jasper-2019 in reply to SKY01]

Hi, this did resolve in the end by ignoring it which was very hard to do some days, almost soul destroying. It took months and we are now left with a child who resorts back to this behaviour when she is anxious about going anywhere new. She is a very anxious child which I’m doing work with her & on a very long waiting list for help from CAMHS. The toilet issue is her way of coping or not coping as leads to panic attacks if can’t find it immediately hence planning days out is tricky. I found distraction worked best, at bedtime we tried meditation for few months. I did set targets for reducing amount of times going before bed which worked most of time unless something diff was happening next day, then I would just have to bite my tongue & let her do it without drawing attention to it as would throw her into panic attack mode! Hope this helps, as I said will take time, try distraction, kids sleep meditation. Unfortunately GP looked at me as though I was stupid, referred us to a health visitor to chat about bed wetting!!. X

[SKY01]

Thanks for this. Yes, I'm pretty sure it's all linked to anxiety (which definitely affects him) and has kicked off in the last few weeks with all the talk at school of moving up to year 1, meeting new teacher etc. I'll try distraction and continue ignoring, which is hard!!! Had him tested for UTI which was negative and GP also looked at me blankly when i said I had heard of this condition, as did his teacher :(. I hope you get the help you need from CAMHS sooner rather than later!