Poll #13 (March) Results



Question:  What do you think helps daytime wetting?

    88 people voted.  Their ages ranged from 8 to 57.  16 people were 
        age 21 or over,
13 were age 16-20, 37 were age 11-15, 8 were 
       age 6-10, and
14 did not give their age.

  Votes were as follows:

     26 votes for: "Running quickly to the toilet when you suddenly have the feeling that you are going to wet, and then trying to hold it as long as you can (in other words, training your bladder to hold better)." 

     30 votes for: "Stopping and starting when you pee, over and over again (to train your bladder to hold better)."  

      8 votes for: "Avoiding drinks that contain Nutrasweet"

     13 votes for: "Wearing a silent vibration alarm watch that reminds you to pee every two hours." 

     59 votes for: "Wearing diapers during the day, so you won't panic and can make it to the toilet and practice the holding exercises."

      4 votes for: "Taking Ditropan, a medicine that prevents bladder spasms"

      1 vote for: "Nothing helps daytime wetting"

     6 had other ideas on what helps daytime wetting, such as:

Age 11: "being teased by kids, so then you'll have to stop wetting or else you'll be called a baby everytime they see you."

Age 15 "Don't put off going to the bathroom."

Age ?: "wear goodnites."

Age 9: "Wearing diapers all the time."

Age 23: "Make sure you go to the bathroom and empty your bladder whenever you get a chance! Most daytime accidents (aside from those caused by medical conditions) happen simply because kids let their bladders get too full without realizing it and then don't make it to the toilet in time. On weekends at home you could try holding it in as long as possible to stretch your bladder, but at school the best idea is to empty the bladder at every opportunity, even when you don't feel like you need to. If you don't let your bladder get full there's no chance for it to overflow! I don't think wearing diapers during the day is a good idea (again, unless there's a medical condition) because having protection takes away a lot of the incentive to learn to control the bladder during the day."

Age 14: "drinking less all together"


About 1 out of every 3 people voting felt that "Running quickly to the toilet when you suddenly have the feeling that you are going to wet, and then trying to hold it as long as you can" and "Stopping and starting when you pee, over and over again." help daytime wetting. These are exercises to help train your bladder to hold better.  

Normally as your bladder fills, at some point you start to feel the fullness, but you usually don't feel that you have to pee right away.  When your bladder is really full, a "spasm" occurs to tell you that you have to get to the toilet quick.  Daytime wetting is usually caused by bladder spasms that are greater than normal.  The spasm is so great that the child or teen can't resist it, particularly if they wait too long to go to the toilet, and so they wet.  Many kids say they don't feel anything and all of a sudden they are peeing.  Actually they probably can feel the spasm, but it happens so suddenly that they think they don't feel anything.  Also, the spasm may occur for some kids when their bladder is not very full, so that those kids may not have any feeling of fullness before the spasm. 

Daytime wetting improves in many kids as they get older.  This may be because the intensity of spasms gets less with age, or it may be that the child or teen learns to hold their pee in spite of the spasm.  It is possible for a child or teen to learn to resist the spasms and hold their pee until they can make it to the toilet.  Holding for as long as they can when they get to the toilet and stopping and starting when they pee, helps kids learn to resist the spasms.  Wearing a diaper during the day also can help the child or teen not panic, take a deep breath and relax when the spasm occurs, and then go to the toilet and practice the holding and stopping and starting exercises.  Even though some kids say that they do not feel anything before the wetting starts, they actually probably can feel the spasm, but just think that it is part of the wetting.  Therefore if a child or teen really tries to feel the spasm before the wetting starts, then they can start to learn to resist it and make it to the toilet.

A vibrating alarm watch (click here) can be used to remind a child or teen to pee every 2-3 hours.  If their bladder is not allowed to get full, then spasms and accidents are much less likely to happen.  The alarm is silent so no one else can hear it.  

Ditropan is a medicine that doctors may prescribe to decrease bladder spasms.

Nutrasweet, an artificial sweetener, can irritate the bladder and cause bladder spasms, so that it can make daytime wetting worse.   Caffeine drinks (colas, coffee, and tea) may also make daytime wetting worse by irritating the bladder.