8 year old Overactive bladder and 2 night away school trip! Please Help! Incontinence support

[Leah1011]

Hello All,

I am after some help and reviews regarding incontinence products for children that actually hold the volume of urine a child with an overactive bladder produces at night.

We currently change dry nights pull ups 2/3 times a night or if she is trying without one then lift her every 1-2hrs which you can imagine is hard going.

She is due to go away with the school in April and i would like to find a product that is discreet, looks ideally like pants rather then a pull up or nappy, can cope with the absorbency required etc

If she was only going for 1 night it would be so bad as if the incontinence product failed and the bed was wet then she could just leave and it would be changed, but as its 2 she will be sleeping in wet sheets for another night.

Any help and experiences will be greatly received...

Thankyou

A worried mummy x

[CatDub]

I’m in a slightly in the same position as my 9 year old is going on a school ski trip for a week! He was away for 2 nights last year and, luckily, I spoke to the school nurse beforehand who checked his bed each morning and changed the bed. He took plastic bags to pop dirty clothing in and the nurse scooped up sheets and pj’s and popped them in the washing machine while they were all at breakfast so, by the time they returned from activities at the end of the day, it was all fresh and his room mates knew nothing! He has recently been put on desmopressin by our consultant which is starting to work and we actually had 1 night last week when he forgot his pull up and was dry (that’s not happened since) but where he was wetting through his pull up at night, he’s now going all night in 1! Does she wet in the day? I’m more worried about him wetting himself on the slopes and being wet all day! Anyhow, speak to the teachers taking the children. I have and they have been brilliant! They’re taking spare underwear on the slopes and have really reassured me that they will change any beds and wash and dry any wet clothing. It will not be the first time they’ve come across this. You need to get the adults on board and not worry your daughter about being away. I can’t help with products I’m afraid - there’s really not much out there but if you find anything to slip in the pants, let me know! My son has an irritable bladder with small capacity so being able to pop something in to soak up small accidents would be brilliant!

[Leah1011 in reply to CatDub]

Hi CatDub,

Thankyou so much for replying and im sorry to hear that your son is in the same situation as my daughter.

She was diagnosed with a very overactive bladder couple of years ago after years and years of HELL, and that simply is the only way i can describe it. She wet 3-4 times a day and night and soiled occasionally too

It wasnt until i pushed and pushed and went private in the end to a specialist consultant that she had urodynamics done and they finally diagnosed her.

She was put on solifenacin 10mg

(she had already tried oxybutynin and tolterodine that didnt help)

And it has been a WONDER drug!!!! She is dry most days now.. which is a massive improvement and i cant tell you how much of a strain this has lifted from me.

Thankyou for your reassurance regarding school trip, i just want it to be made as discreet as possible.

My daughter also has desmomelts although they seem to give her runny poos so cant win really with them.

There are the "dry like me " pads for children BUT i found that they dont hold a whole wee so werent great for my daughter when she wet in the day as also she was alot younger and wouldnt change once she has wet so then another wee would happen and they would explode.

[CatDub in reply to Leah1011]

My son is on oxybutanin...he has been diagnosed with an overactive bladder which also has a low capacity. So, where a normal 9 year old can hold 300ml of liquid, he can hold 75-100ml! He is currently on the slow release oxybutanin but he’s been on that for a while and still sets daily! The main problem is when he’s playing sport, which is daily! He won’t STOP to go pee! He also went through daily messing but we resolved that by going through disimpaction and he takes fiber gummies daily!! It’s difficult as they’re tricky to get in the UK so a friend would bring them back from the states but I’ve just found some on Amazon! Apparently it’s a vicious cycle as the oxybutanin causes constipation which causes leakage! We didn’t get on with movicol. You cannot win! I completely get where you’re coming from when you say you’ve been through HELL!! I’ll take note of your wonder drug for when I next see my consultant, thanks. Might try the dry like me as, because he has low capacity, the accidents aren’t huge!

[Poppymum in reply to Leah1011]

No way! My daughter is on solefenacin and can wee every 30 minutes and wet in between that! It doesn’t help her in the slightest! You must be lucky!

[Leah1011 in reply to Poppymum]

That's funny i guess from your name that your little girl is also called Poppy? Poppy is on 10mg of Solefenacin she is now 9.. how old is your daughter? Believe me i have been there and done it.. it has been complete hell since she was 3yrs old.

[ParentwithsoilingDD]

Could your daughter place a bath towel on the bed then after the first night put the towel in the laundry so the bed would probably be ok for the second night

[Leah1011 in reply to ParentwithsoilingDD]

Hi lovely, Thankyou for this. Unfortunately her wees really are so heavy that at times when ive put a towel on her bed when shes gone through all the sheets when i cant turn them around quick enough it does still go through to the mattress.

But you have given me an idea.. whether i could make a couple of like sleeping bag thingys which she can sleep inside under the covers? maybe made with a towel or fleece with a waterproof layer?

If i made 2 then she would stuff one in a bag after the first night and use the other on the second. If i made them both the same she could say its a comfort thing or something???

[ParentwithsoilingDD in reply to Leah1011]

I know the problems I had with my DD at 8 years were slightly different but perhaps lining a several pairs of plastic pants with towelling which she could pull on in bed and perhaps when wet put into a zip loc type plastic bag to put discretely in her hold-all untill she gets home.

I would also speak to the teachers / carers on the trip so she will get any assistance necessary.

In my experience other kids, particularly friends generally accept if there is a medical condition and may be in a good position to support if your DD feels comfortable them knowing

[Leah1011 in reply to ParentwithsoilingDD]

Thankyou.. yes this is something we could consider thanks re: plastic pants etc.

Im sure the teachers will be supportive, i will be speaking to them after half term.

Kid wise.. she has got some good friends but because they are at that AGE.. they are going through the whole " xxx has a secret, but im not telling you" stage.. and this also isnt nice.

So tough isnt it

[Jackball]

Have u ty the tena pull ups or slip too that what we used they are good

[Leah1011 in reply to Jackball]

Hi Jackball,

It just the sizing really that we struggle with in the pants, they dont seem to sell S in many places and the pads, we have tried the always ones. The problem is she is big for her age but the pads are Massive in her little pants so the move around and dont quite fit in the space she has between her legs if that makes sense?

[Slice in reply to Leah1011]

Try Tranquility disposable absorbable underwear. They are meant for night time and go from XS-2XL. (XS is 17-28" waist.). You'd have to get them on line.

[annarobish]

Hi Leah, I know you posted ages ago - and I hope the camp went well. I've only just joined so I've been looking though posts. I'm 15 and I've been bedwetting since 12 because I started to grow faster than my bladder. I tried all the meds but they didn't work very well so I started to use drynites but they leaked lots. My mum talked about it with me which help because it felt like an adult conversation - I agreed with her that I should try nappies again which I felt really wired about but once I did it was such a relief... I hadn't realised how stressed I'd been getting about wetting the bed. I started with the larger pampers ones (size 7 and 8) and eventually grew out of those so went to tena slip juniour and abri form juniors- which I still use. When we went on a school residential recently my mum asked me which teacher I trusted the most and went and spoke with her about it - they came up with a "care plan" that the school signed off on that meant the teacher could help me change in the evenings ... I wore a onsie to bed (big fury one!) so none of the other girls knew and I just dumped my stuff in a bin in the shower in the mornings. I was so worried about going - but ended up having an amazing time. I just want to encourage your daughter that it's not the end of the world. I hope this helps. Anna