Bathroom issues

In the last few weeks my son has started going to the bathroom every 20 minutes or so. He isn't drinking any additional water than he normally does, but is constantly in the bathroom peeing. Once in bed for the night, he goes the whole night with no accidents and if we tell him to wait during the day, he does with no accidents but will whine about it. My daycare provider brought this up prior to the holidays, but we hadn't noticed it in the evening too much. Well, over the holidays we definitely noticed it. I was starting to worry that he might have a bladder infection, but he says it doesn't hurt when he goes to the bathroom. My MIL had these home test strips for bladder infections and tested his urine and it was negative for an infection. He has been potty trained for over 2 years, so I know it isn't some new fascnination with the potty, but am starting to worry there is something else medically wrong. Any ideas on why he might be doing this? Thanks.

 

When in doubt, go to the doctor pronto. It could be something like some hidden caffeine in his food, or diabetes or any of a gazillion other things. Good luck!!

 

I just dealt with the exact same thing about a month ago. I too thought my DS had a bladder infection. He kept saying he had to pee and when he went to the bathroom only a little came out, and 10 minutes later he had to pee again. Took him in for bloodwork and a urine sample. All was negative . During his examine, she did notice irritation around the head of his penis. She said it's common with boys because if they don't wipe, urine is still on it and can cause it to become raw and inflamed. She prescribed an ointment that I applied twice a day for a week.


Sadly we had to rule out other things just in case, but I was glad it was a quick fix and a minor problem.

 

I don't know anything about boys, but one of my DDs did something very similar around that age, and it was caused partly by constipation, partly by anxiety. It turned into a vicious cycle because she constantly worried that she had to pee -- but at least for girls, the more often you try to pee, the more you feel like you have to pee, because trying to pee can irritate the urethra.

Clearing up the constipation helped a ton -- the poop was pressing on her urethra. (Again, I don't know if boys are built this way... ardon: ) Other than that, we just have to reassure her that she's NOT going to have an accident.

Not wiping is also an issue for girls -- it causes irritation which then causes a sense of urgency at having to pee.

But still good to rule out any other issues. I'd have the doctor check for a possible infection.

 

I agree w/ bex... I'd call the pedi.

 

We just dealt with this too with DS. It was crazy! He was going up to 8 times/hour some days. We had all the tests for infection run and they were all negative. Had an u/s of bladder/kidneys and they looked normal. Went to the urologist and he said that there is a narrowing of the urethra (somewhat common in circ'd boys that potty train late) but he doesn't think that is what is causing it.

Finally it was concluded that it is a sensory processing issue. We used some meds to calm the bladder, coached him to slow down and take his time and tried to not make too big of a deal of it (very hard considering). It has improved.

They say this can be brought on by trauma, allergies and/or illness. DS had a traumatic event immediately preceding this presenting.

GL! I hope it's nothing serious.