Bladder Training

[BrumMum1]

Does anyone have any experience of Bladder Training for small children?

I've heard about a technique that involves 5 drinks of 200mls that are drunk 90 mins apart (with a trip to the toilet).

Anyone heard of this or tried it? Does it have to be as rigid as 90 minute intervals?

Thanks

[ERIC-Charity Partner]

Hello there :). If you are asking about a child who is under the age of 5 years then 200ml per cup is quite a lot - it might overfill their bladder! Generally you want to aim for 120/150mls for a 2 year old, 175ml for a 5 year old.

Drinking is a key exercise for the bladder as it gets it to stretch to fill, so in a way good drinking can be thought of as bladder training. But its also important to make sure the drinks are spread evenly through the day, so the stretch to fill action is repeated through the day. You want to aim for 6-8 cups of drinks spread evenly through the day, and if your child needs bladder help you want to go for the full 8 cups - that might look like 2 before starting nursery, another 4 spread evenly through the morning and early afternoon, and then another 2 in the last part of the afternoon and early evening.

The other part of bladder training is relaxed wees in the squat position - this gets the bladder to squeeze to empty . So basically if you are bladder training you are going for good drinking to get the bladder to stretch to fill, and then a nice relaxed wee to help the bladder fully squeeze to empty. The bladder will thank you for it!

If you want to hear more about drinking and relaxed wees we have a really good nurse podcast episode here: eric.org.uk/episode-8-dayti...

You might also want to check out eric.org.uk/pdf-drinking-re... which comes with some tips about drinking.

@ERIC

[BrumMum1 in reply to ERIC-Charity]

thank you so much.

I'm also wondering if her consumption of cosmocol each morning is also pushing her bladder too far? I know it doesnt count as liquid intake for the day, but I wonder if drinking 300mls of cosmocol will actually help?

We'll see.

I'll try reducing the amount she's drinking to 175mls and see what happens. She'll be 6 in November so she's actually an "older" 5-year-old girl.

Thank you

[ERIC-Charity Partner in reply to BrumMum1]

I see! You may actually need to change focus a little bit. Cosmacol suggests constipation, which is a condition that can easily squash the bladder and lead to wee problems. Constipation actually needs to be treated with a clear-out of all the old poo in the bowel called 'disimpaction' - 300ml of Cosmacol is not enough to disimpact! We have lots of resources explaining why constipation causes wee problems and also how to safely disimpact:

eric.org.uk/advice-for-chil...

eric.org.uk/episode-6-disim...

Once you have the poos fully sorted, then you can move onto really finessing the drinking (and as discussed 175ml per cup for a 5 year old would be perfect).

If you ever want to chat more, give us a call on the Helpline!

@Kate, ERIC Helpline

[BrumMum1 in reply to ERIC-Charity]

thanks Kate.

My daughter went through the full disimpaction process mid august (fiona was incredibly helpful on your helpline).

The urinary incontinence never stopped.

It started pre-disimpaction and its never gone.

We know the urinary incontinence was triggered by constipation and now shes disimpacted (and has been for 4 weeks) she's still wetting herself.

We'll try to crack on with the liquids and the intervals of drinking hoping that it will give her bowel the opportunity to heal and function properly.