Son constantly going to toilet

[nimummyof3]

Hi everyone,
My 7 year old son had a urine infection in June and we thought at the time all his running to the toilet was just a habit but a week or so later we sent urine sample off and it ended up he had had an infection. (felt like very bad parents too for not having got it seen to sooner!) Things seemed to have improved but the running to the toilet started again in August and even his teacher noticed when he went back to school. So we saw doctor and sent off another sample, it came back clear. We tried out best not to make a big deal about it thinking its now turned into a habit and it'll pass but it hasn't! At bedtime he goes 3 or 4 times before he settles for the night and when you are going anywhere he has to go to the toilet and be the last one to leave the house so he knows we're not hanging around for any length of time and he might need to go to toilet again. Not sure what we can do. We try to ignore it hoping it will pass and some days we try to get him to wait before going straight back to the loo but he gets a bit anxious.

I am wondering is it something not being picked up in tests or is it habit now? Has anyone had anything similar? It's going on 6 months now.

Any help welcomed x

I had the same and anxiety about not being able to go just made it worse. Bladder infections make you feel like you're about to wet yourself all the time so naturally when someone say just to wait a bit, you instantly need to go all the more. Just let him go as and when he needs to and don't make a big deal about it when out. The anxiety will decrease a lot if he knows that you will find him somewhere to go as soon as possible if he asks. Once the anxiety about it fades so will the behaviour. I've been there bought the T Shirt.

It really is like an anxiety. I was wondering was he almost caught short a few times when he actually had had the infection and now he's worried about wetting himself. He never actually has though. I know at the time what bothered him most was having to stop playing with his friends to come in to the toilet and then he missed parts of the game. His teacher says he seems to wait until a task and ended and before another one starts to ask to go to the toilet, it's as though he's worried he'd miss something if he had to go in the middle of something. She has been great, she says it's obvious he's not going to get out of doing work, but it's as though he's always thinking about when he can go next.

That probably is exactly it. I would just let him do what he needs to do to to calm his anxiety and it should eventually get less and less as he will soon realise that the level of urge incontinence he was experiencing (that need to go RIGHT NOW feeling) isn't going to recur and he does actually have time now. Stress will just make it worse so I can't see the point in trying to make him wait tbh. Try to avoid saying things like Do you need to go because there isn't a toilet there. He will go before he goes anyway and there is no point putting an issue in his mind before it actually crops up.

I know you are right, I juts need to bite my tongue as I had done before. As long as its nothing physiological to worry about.

Is he by any chance a bit constipated? We had this issue with one of my boys and a couple if doses of Movicol mixed with his breakfast juice sorted it out no problem

No he seems fine that way, although he did say the other day when he was trying to go (no 2) and couldn't that it meant he couldnt pee! He goes at least once a day in that respect so unless he's possibly not going enough?