4 year old still wets herself regularly

[ajllan]

Has anyone else had the same experience as us? Our lovely bright 4 year old is about to start school after Easter and still wets herself up to 3 times a day. We have seen a paediatrician who says she has an irritable bladder and than we need to give her lots to drink to make sure the bladder muscles grow bit and strong. He has prescribed Ditropan which seems to be working but which makes her drowsy and not her usual self. I hate the thought of her being drugged like this but also can't bear the thought of the taunting she could experience if she is regularly wetting herself at school.

Has anoyne else has this experience and found a different way round it. A friend has suggested she could wear a pad to school but I'm not sure this would work either.

All suggestions very welcome!

Hi, no experience but did not want your post to go un answered.

All I can say is you have done the right thing to check it out with a doc to see if there is a physical reason, and it sounds like you have got this sorted. altough the drowsiness sounds not good.

Can you speak to him again about the side effects and ask about practical solutions, like can she go to the loo more regularly so lessening the risk of an accident or will this delay her bladder getting stronger?

I would speak to the school too nearer the time and let them know she has this medical condition so maybe she can be excused at regular intervals to go to the loo without drawing attention to her.

I think loads and loads of kids in reception wet themselves in anycase as its a new environment, all different, they time it wrong to get to the loo in time, and get distracted doing other things. So your DD wont be the only one having accidents,if that's any comfort.

Not too sure about the pad idea - can she change it herself? how will she dispose of it?

Hope it works out and that you get some first hand experience replies.

my four year old doesn't wet herself in the day any more, apart from the odd occasion, but she wet fairly frequently at night. it was only when we realised that there was a link between the nights dh gave her a drink of juice at teatime (whereas i would automatically give milk or water) that we twigged that she was somehow being irritated by the diluting juice. i don't know if that helps any but you could see about cutting out anything other than milk or water and see if that will help her irritability iykwim?

Hi all - thanks very much for your replies - have not used Mumsnet before so did not realise you had responded!

Have spojen to the school and they were really helpful. Also thanks very much for the tip re the juice - she drinks lots of diluted orange juice so this may well be having an effect and I had not thought about it at all! So will definitely stop that.

And have not really done much to ensure she is indepedent so we can improva that too.

Really appreciate your comments - don't feel quite so alone now!