Giggle/ stress incontinence teenager.

[Vbop2021]

Stress/giggle incontinence in a teen advice needed?

My daughter is 14 - she has severe giggle and stress incontinence and her confidence is knocked to pieces - she wets her self at least 4 times a day and is anxious about school etc. After years of trying we have finally met with a specialist - who has suggested movicol and exercises (despite the fact we have already done this for years!) We are being patient and doing the exercises and the treatment - but she is unable to have a scan for 6 months until she has been seen to be doing the exercises (despite she has been from advice from the GP for over a year now) - due to the hospitals policies we have to follow the treatment plant etc before any further tests can be carried out. As a Mother I am heartbroken for my daughter and want to do the best for her... Any advice most welcome.

[Hidden]

I am not sure that I can offer much advice, but I know what you are going through. My son is 13 and has bladder incontinence. He has always been very wet at night and was very slow to potty train. From about the age of nine he has found it increasingly difficult to control his bladder during the day, to the point that he now has very little control. We have spent years trying different things and visiting different specialists and nothing seemed to help much. We are now waiting and waiting and waiting for an MRI appointment to come through and an appointment with yet another specialist. It is so difficult to get to see the right people and to get helpful advice and information. Most of the time I come out of an appointment believing that I know more than the medical 'professionals!' It is all very frustrating and in the meantime our children carry on suffering!

[liverish]

Hello, my daughter has giggle incontinence diagnosed age 8, she is now 21. Firstly you need to work out if it is stress incontinence or giggle incontinence as they are very different things. Stress incontinence will happen when coughing, laughing, jumping on a trampoline etc. and is (usually) caused by a weakness in the muscles/sphincter that hold the bladder shut. Giggle incontinence however, is nothing to do muscle control, it is actually a neurological condition that cause a cataplexy of the sphincter when laughing - it opens completely resulting in a total unstoppable voiding of the bladder. The former can be helped by exercises and physically training the muscles - the latter is not helped in any way by this. Of course I suppose it is possible to have both types, but that would be really unfortunate! You can get an idea as to which it is if you ask your daughter to try and stop the flow mid-pee when doing a normal pee on the toilet, if she struggles with this it could be stress incontinence, if she has no trouble doing this but when the incontinence strikes has no power to control the flow until the bladder is completely emptied suggests giggle incontinence - especially if coughing, jumping etc. causes no leakage. Giggle incontinence is not properly understood by many healthcare professionals, but I found a Consultant in London who took my daughter on. The prescription is the same as for narcolepsy (and ADHD!) and she took Concerta, she was under this consultant until 16 and would take Concerta to help her get through school - which as I am sure you know too well, is really really tough for a child with this condition (she laughs a lot - so 4-6 incidents a day were not uncommon). My daughter did not like how she felt on Concerta - but it did cut the wetting down dramatically to maybe 2-3 times a week. I can only assume it knocks the mental high response to things down a few notches - basically it stops one finding things so funny and that in turn stops the neurological effect happening. She no longer takes Concerta, and still has accidents when having a proper laugh... but it is sadly true that as we get older... there are fewer reasons to laugh so profoundly, so the problem diminishes. All of her friends and boyfriends have known about it and I'm really proud of how she has handled it, it has not defined her. I really hope this helps, if you would like to PM me for details of the consultant she saw I will be happy to help. Good luck, and you and your daughter will get through this, all the best.