Bladder not emptying in 5 year old.

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I'm hoping for advice/ experienced to reassure me whilst we wait to see the consultant!

DS is 5 and has had a history of bowel & bladder issues since potty training. He's been having a minimum of 3 accidents per week since being out of pull-ups, often many more.

In fact, this "high-point", aged around 3/4, we now believe was achieved by not drinking much, which has caused constipation that is dealt with by increased fluids and a daily maintenance dose of movicol.

He is now wetting many times per day; relatively small quantities, so wet pants but not a puddle. It's incredibly frustrating as he can wet himself 20 minutes after I've seen him do a wee. At school he tends to keep quiet about it where he can get away with it so is often sore & smelly.

When he turned 5, a few months ago, he clicked over into NICE guidelines for a referral & we've got a great, though slightly eccentric, consultant who had us do a drink & bladder diary. She noticed that he was doing tiny wees and going to the loo very often & referred for a scan.

We had the scan & I didn't get much from the sonographer, except that he went in with a full bladder (as requested) and she let him go to the loo half-way through. He "emptied his bladder" and when he went back in he still had 100ml of urine. She estimated that he'd had about 140ml before he went to the loo. She also mentioned that at age 5, bladder capacity is only about 180ml maximum, so it's really no surprise he wets all the time.

Anyone had this/ know what causes it? We have a follow up in a few weeks with the consultant but I'm desperate for information.

So, we're on day 5 (12 Movicols) and I'm surprised at how little poo we've had so far. He's had a couple of runny poos down his legs yesterday, but I was expecting much more in terms of volume. I guess it's still to come?

How can such a small body have so much Movicol & not be all day on the loo?

Consultant is seeing us again this afternoon! She's not happy with the (lack of) pooing and something we've observed about his peeing, either.

For anyone still following: doc is happy with the poo breakthroughs we've had in last 24 hours but it still isn't as much as you'd think. She can feel & observe that the bowels are pretty full, though the poo didn't seem to be hard. As we're now on day 7 she has suggested to drop down to 8 Movicols daily but be prepared to stay on that until "it looks basically the same on the way out as on the way in".

Glad doc is happy, hopefully you'll see some improvements!

Interesting to read this, I've been concerned about my sons inability to toilet train. He is 3 1/2 and I've been trying to toilet train for 9 months. He is great with poos and is very reliable to do that in the toilet but weeing is a nightmare. He does very small wees on the toilet and will often wet himself 20 minutes later. He still has 2-3 accidents a day and doesn't even seem to notice it's happened until I tell him. I have to put him in nappies when we go out and have done the same the last few days over xmas to give myself a break from the washing. He does have a growth disorder which can have developmental issues but I'm wondering if there's something else going on as you've described above as it is just the weeing that's a problem.

Hi @Babaroll sorry I haven't checked this thread for a while. Do you encourage double-voiding?

For anyone interested, we are still on disimpaction! DS has gone back to school today on 12 Movicols per day when it became clear that we were not about to experience a tidal wave of poo. I’ll be picking him up each lunchtime for him to come home and have a good sit on the loo as well as have Movicol & have his water bottle replenished with more Movicol for the afternoon dose.

His paediatrician is somewhat bemused and has referred him to Leicester paediatric surgery (anyone any experience).

She thinks now that there is a lack of muscle tone or lack of nerves serving his bladder/bowel area; the bladder appeared atonic & distended on the scan. The performance of his bowels after now 3.5 weeks of disimpaction (we are getting some poo every day, not very much more than normal & only when he’s sitting on the loo) is not at all normal, especially as she can’t feel any hard lumps causing an impaction. His bowel is completely full rather than impacted.

He’s not considered to be an urgent case because there’s no evidence of an obstruction, but equally the doctor is reluctant to prescribe a stimulant laxative in case there is a partial obstruction and serious damage occurs as a result. She says the surgical team will do all the tests to rule this out (apparently it’s a month waiting time, which isn’t too bad).

I thought of a question for those “in the know” @nocoolnamesleft do you think I should be pushing for a repeat scan to see how far disimpaction is progressing?

Or wait until we see the team at Leicester? No date for that yet, though.

I’m concerned more is in his bowel than when we started. His weight fluctuates quite a lot over the day but I think when we started it was around 25.5kg and last night (admittedly at the end of the day, but after sitting on the loo) he weighed 27.1kg. It’s the first time I’ve seen it go above 26-point-something.

I really don’t want to end up in A&E with an acute situation.