Over sensitive bladder??

[Caromummy]

Hi there, my son is 5 and in Foundation at school, he is having two or three wee accidents a day and a few soiling accidents a week. His wee accidents are never a full emptying of the bladder but small to medium wet patches, then he is told to go to the loo and then he fully empties his bladder. He never takes himself to the loo at home or school unless instructed and if asked why he has had an accident, says “I don’t feel it” every time. My husband and I are having a nightmare getting a diagnosis but, reading some of these feeds and looking at the ERIC website, I suspect he may have an overactive bladder. It’s important to add here that he was completely dry up until the end of July day and night for a good year. And also to mention that before the summer he had frequent soiling accidents which we did see a bowel Consultant about and she felt his tummy and ruled out constipation. The soiling accidents stopped around May but have been starting to happen again over the last month. We have pushed the GP for more help on all of this and she has referred us to a Urologist. So my questions are... Do you agree his wee accidents could be an overactive bladder? If not, any thoughts on what this could all be? Can an overactive bladder also have a knock on effect on the bowels? And perhaps most importantly, what have your routes to diagnosis been and what have they involved? (A scan perhaps?) Aside from a Urologist who else should we be seeing? Thankyou so much for reading this. Any help appreciated! Yours, brick wall head banging mum!

[AMOGO]

You are lucky to be referred to a urologist in the first instance; I don't think anyone else is better qualified. My 9 year old had to wait until she was 8 to be referred and then we were sent to a Paediatric Surgeon with no urology expertise and spent a year seeing him 3 times with no real help. We are now finally on a urology waiting list. Do you know where you are being referred?

You say he was dry until August; is this a link to starting school? Is it anxiety about that? I guess it's doubtful but worth considering. I hope you get an appointment soon and I'm sure the urologist will be very supportive.

Don't be shy to call ERIC for help; It took me a year of frustration before I felt justified in actually calling ERIC; they were fantastic, completely supportive and full of great advice and gave me the confidence to ask my GP for a re-referral as we were completely wasting our time with the PS (not his fault, just all the incontinence clinics for children have been closed in Kent).

I wish you and your son the best of luck; it's so hard but you are doing really well to get help when he's still so young x

[Caromummy in reply to AMOGO]

Thanks so much for your reply. We are under Cambridgeshire NHS, so we will either be referred to Addenbrookes or Hinchingbrooke hospital. Good news you have finally been referred to the right person! Assuming in Kent? We will have to swop notes once they have both been seen. Shared knowledge is gold on this subject matter I think! I am hoping for an MRI scan but it sounds like many people on here have waited a long time and had to push hard for one of these.

Re school anxiety, I agree it is absolutely worth considering although my instinct says it’s pretty doubtful, as his accidents started at the start of the summer holidays with bed wetting, and have got progressively worse from there. He is a very laid back boy who is very settled and happy at school and has never appeared fazed about it.

I wish you and your daughter the best of luck too, keep me posted x

[Caromummy in reply to Caromummy]

P.S) I did call the ERIC helpline when my son was having the bowel issues and they were great. I will definitely call them again if we are feeling frustrated after the Urologist appointment. I’m also thinking about ordering some of their toilet training products to help us deal with things day to day