Wet pants at school

[Tom012]

i picked my brother up the other day from school he is 11, I could smell a strong stench of pee from his trousers. He claims he never wet him self, but I think otherwise . Has anyone had any experience with 11 year olds wetting their self at school?

[Lizzy08]

Hi Tom, my daughter who is 11 often comes back with damp pants, sometimes she's stuffed toilet paper in there. For you to be able to smell it, it must have been a fairly big accident. You need to tread carefully cos he'll be embarrassed. It could be many things, anxiety, a urine infection, a teacher not letting him out during class time . It seems a lot to take on yourself, you are obviously a kind big brother to try and help this way, but think you need to speak to a parent or another trusted adult and share your concerns. Good luck to you

[Tom012 in reply to Lizzy08]

I told my parents about it, I didn’t want to embarrass him either. Hopefully it was a one off

[MrsSquirrel]

Hi Tom, our son who is 10 often has accidents. He has a history of bladder problems. As Lizzy says could be one of a number of things. Could a trusted adult/parent help? May need to go to GP and take a wee sample - they can test with a strip to see if there's an infection.

You could always make sure he pops a spare pants and trousers in his PE bag (with plastic bag and elastic band to seal up wet stuff and bring home) in case it happens again. He can change in a disabled loo and no one will know. Its hard when you're at school and an accident happens but there are things to do to find out why and to put in a plan to help if if does happen again. Parent/carer may want to talk to teacher - sometimes teachers are funny about letting kids go to the loo in lesson time (which I think is daft) so it would be good for them to be aware that some kids can't hold on 'til break.

[Tom012 in reply to MrsSquirrel]

Something similar happened last year, the teacher didn’t let him to go the toilet despite him being desperate! He ended up having a full blown accident. He had to pour his water bottle on his trousers to make it look like he spilt water on his trousers. The teacher was rather embarrassed too, and he let him to go to the toilet after that. Awful policy. He was lucky he went bullied