Acting like she has a bladder/urinary infection

(Mods, I'm putting this in 2-4 rather than Health Issues because the doctor says it's behavioral, not medical.)

Sarah has these recurring episodes where for several days, she will say she has to pee almost constantly. She sits on the potty for 10-15 minutes and produces a few drops. Three times we've had her tested for an infection (and lemme tell ya, getting a 3-year-old to pee in a cup is no picnic), and three times the doctor has said her pee is clean.

His "diagnoses" are (some combination of any or all of the following):
- stress about having an accident (which I doubt -- she has never seemed stressed about it)
- general stress about life, new school year, etc.
- "spazzy bladder" -- i.e., the more she pees, the more she feels like she has to pee
- constipation (which can irritate the urethra)
- attention-seeking (which I also doubt, since that's just not her personality)

And his recommendation was just to not make a big deal of it, let her go pee when she wants to, and wait it out.

Has anyone else had this situation? How did you handle it?

 

I have never dealt with this in my kids, but I was a urology nurse for several years before being a SAHM. I just thought I would say that all of the above things sound reasonable. It sounds like he doesn't know the exact cause of her symptoms but has ruled out a bladder infection. Sometimes the bladder or urethra can become irritated from foods you eat or beverages you drink or even from bubble baths, etc... It is possible that even though she doesn't have an infection, she has irritation and in that case pushing fluids will help. Does she eat alot of acidic foods?

Does she say if it hurts when she pees? Have you noticed foul smelling urine, dark or cloudy urine or any blood in the urine or when she wipes? Any fever? Those are also some signs of infection.

I don't know if she is seeing a urologist. If not, and her symptoms continue I would have her evaluated by a specialist. Also, is the doctor just doing urinalysis or has he sent the urine for a culture? Most of the time the urinalysis will give you an indication if it is an infection. However, sometimes even though the urinalysis may come up clear, a culture might show other things (besides bacteria) like yeast.

Just some things to think about.......

 

Thanks for the advice Laura! I had thought about taking her to a urologist if this keeps up. It sort of seems like overkill, but it's frustrating to have the issue keep recurring with no solution.

The first time, they did culture the urine, but the next two times they just did urinalysis. (And I was dubious that they even had enough of a sample yesterday -- since she could only make a tiny bit and only about half of it went in the cup!)

She says it doesn't hurt to pee, and the pee looks and smells normal to me. She did have a fever yesterday (not the other two times), but the doc said since he didn't see any infection, the fever must have been unrelated. It seems to be gone today.

She is definitely constipated (we feed her a lot of mandarin oranges and fruit, but she's extremely picky so won't each much else) and probably doesn't drink enough fluids. We'll keep working on that too. Thanks!

 

You're Welcome!

Oh and it actually takes very little urine to run a urinalysis. Literally, just 2-3 drops. As long as she can dribble in 2-3 drops in the cup that is all they need.

Also, some of the most common foods that cause bladder irrtation: tomatoes (tomatoe products), citrus fruits and juices, chocolate, spicy foods, aged cheese & processed meats (hot dogs, salami, bologna, ham, etc....)

I hope she gets to feeling better soon!!

 

i have thought that alisha had a uti a couple of times and when i took her in it was nothing - in our case, the first time it really was behavioral, which i realized a few weeks later (drama related to changing child care providers).

in your case, i would actually try to load her up on fluids and see if that helps, both behaviorally and physically. even if it means putting a tiny bit of juice (isn't cranberry supposed to be good for utis?) in her water to get her to drink it or even better can you get her to drink prune juice diluted with water? maybe she also needs to learn the feeling of a full bladder - and if nothing else it will help flush her system which will be good if there is something going on.

good luck!

 

My kids are too young, but a cousin in the family used to do the same thing. I babysat her when she was younger. She used to go to the bathroom all the time, and also barely had anything when she went. It drove the mother nuts. It ended up being a nervous/stressful thing.

I don't know all the details. It apparently stopped I guess. But it did reappear recently. She was found to have a tumor on her brain(no relation to the peeing or anything). She happened to fall and complained of a headache, so they took her to the Dr. They ran tests to rule things out, but they found the tumor-unrelated to the fall. She saw the Neurologist and explained what it was(non cancerous, etc). Well-she was in the room when the Dr explained things-brain surgery possibly, shaving the head, etc. From then on-she was constantly going to the bathroom again. She was nervous. Even the grandmother mentioned it to me. She saw another neurologist who ruled out surgery and everything else-she just can't wrestle or play football!

So after all that-I think it could be stress/nerves. Good luck! I hope you figure it out.

 

Hmm, I guess I'll reconsider the stress possibility. It's just odd because she doesn't seem stressed. She is really enjoying her new preschool classroom, there's nothing going on at home, etc. But who knows what really goes on in the mind of a preschooler....

Anyway, her fever is gone and she did seem better about peeing yesterday -- she did the "I have to go weally bad!" thing a few times, but just went, and that was it. And this morning she had a fairly dry pull-up and did a huge pee in the potty. Maybe she's still traumatized by the brief experiment in staying dry at nap? Or feeling some kind of pressure (though it's not coming from us) to stay dry at night? Anyhow, thanks for the advice!