Nearly 4 year old ds weeing very frequently - how do I deal with it?

[IwishIwasmoreorganised]

Since Monday my ds1 who will be 4 next month has been weeing much more often than usual - it can be every 5 or 10 minutes at times, then over an hour at other times.

He has been potty trained in the day since he was 26 months, but still wears pull ups at night.

He is perfectly well in himself. I spoke to the Dr on Monday who said that a urine infection was unlikely, the other possible diagnosis was diabetes but he would be very ill in himself if that was the case. A urine sample was sent off and has come back as normal.

DS has admitted that he likes the sound when he has a wee (he's recently started standing up to wee!) but has anyone got any ideas what else could be causing this or how best to deal with it?

Boys can stop themselves weeing prematurely so that the bladder isn't empty. Have you tried asking him to restart after he has stopped but before pants are up IYSWIM?
There are a number of other reasons for producing a lot of wee as opposed to going frequently but little. I would suggest ( as a kidney doctor myself) to collect his wee over a day to find out how much he is producing at the same time a noting how much he is drinking and taking that info back to the GP.

Thanks for that Wobblypig. I will certainly get onto your first bit of advice straight away.

The measurement part I will have to leave until next weekend as we're away this weekend and he will be at school every morning during the week so that will be the first chance I get to do it accurately.

What are some of the other things that could cause this (just out of interest - I'm not off to Google everything and scare myself stupid!)

If there is true high volumes of urine being produced this can be due to :

1. drinking a lot - basic but true

2. Diabetes or other biochemical blood abnromalities such as high calcium levels

3. medications

4. other diseases which affect the ability of the kidney to concentrate the urine

Of interest is he dry at night - if so then he can concentrate urine overnight and so many of the possibilities would be unlikely. Does he have any other medical problems or on any medications?

No he's not really dry at night yet. He still wears pull ups.

He goes to bed at 7pm and before all of this started he would wake about 6.30am with a wet pull up. It often seemed as if it was the urinating that had woken him. Now he's waking about 4.30am to get up for a wee, then waking again at about 7am. Both times the pull ups tend to be dry

He doesn't have any medical problems and he doesn't take any medication

I would think it unlikely that a child who could go from 7-4.30 without a wee had a physical problem causing a lot of wee to be produced. I would look at how much is going in versus out and whether or not he is emptying insufficiently as I suggested.

Thanks you ever so much for your help.

We'll start with trying to get him to fully empty his bladder and see how we go this week with that.

If it's no better, I'll do the in / out volumes next weekend so I can go back to the GP armed with some objective information.

dd1 had this problem but was mainly during the evening and during the night.She was going every 15 mins or so and it drove me mad(heavily pregnant with dd2)The Gp ruled out any infection and eventually suggested that it might be psychological.She was right because as soon as i had dd2 ,dd1 stopped ,she was obviously worried.

What is he drinking? If dd has blackcurrant she wees a lot more than normal, about once every 5-10 mins.

Also sounds odd but is he drinking enough? Slight dehydration can make you wee more frequently.

I think he's drinking plenty.

I do know that fruit shoots make him wee more often so he's not had those for months. During the day he drinks milk (morning, at school and evening (literally a drop before bed)), water or very dilute lemon squash. Nothing about that has changed recently.

I hope that it's just another phase that he's going through and if we don't make too much of it that it'll soon pass but thank you all for your help.

Any news on measuring in and out?

Thanks for asking but it seems to be settling so I don't think I need to do it.

Last weekend when we were on a long journey we would make him hang on for about 20 minutes before we stopped after he said he needed to wee and he could manage to do that comfortably, and when he's really absorbed in doing something he's going the usual time inbetween wees. It's only if he's not all that focused on anything that he goes more often than usual so I'm pretty sure it's just another phase - related to doing stand up wees and all the novelty that goes with it when you're a 4 year old boy!

I'm really grateful for your advice though - thank you.

He wouldn't necesarily be ill if it was diabetes.

I know of a two year old who has just been diagnosed and you would never have guessed.

Does he drink lots too?

I would get another opinion tbh.

Really - no signs at all?

He's doing better but not back to normal completely - you've got me worried now.