Toddler Urinary Problems?

PearlieGirl'sMom

Lately, P has been grabbing at her crotch area. I ask her if it itches and she says "No" and if she has a rash and usually she does not. She is very sensitive to all paper tissue and wipes unless they are "sensitive".

In addition, she does not seem to be empyting her bladder all the way and as soon as she goes, she needs to go again. Yet, she is not complaining that she hurts or hurts when she pees.

 Has anyone else's child experienced this? I do plan on calling the pedi on Monday as it has been getting worse.

 

ilovemygirls

Your DD looks a little young in your sig pic to possibly have this apply, but take a look at this article:

https://www.rocklinpediatrics.com/daytimefrequency.pdf

This was my DD to a T.  It started around 4yrs old & was at its worst for a few months.  It took a LOT of patience & creativity to get her through it.  I brought the article to my pedi & she said this was absolutely what she was experiencing, even though we couldn't really figure out exactly what the 'stressor' was.  I think it was starting preschool, though it didn't start happening until several months after she started & she never showed one ounce outward anxiety about going to preschool.  For the record, we did have her urine tested several times for UTI's, which were always negative.  

My pedi has also told me that sometimes some irritation around the urethra can sometimes mimic UTI in girls.  She recommends putting some A&D ointment on the area when there are any questionable issues.  If it doesn't hurt when she pees, it's likely not a UTI, though it doesn't hurt to rule that out.

PearlieGirl'sMom

Thank you so much for the article! DD is exacly that age (this is an older picture in my profile) and describes what is going on except that she has had some accidents during the day because she is scared to go a second time or a third time.

There has been a lot of tension at home that she is more aware of as well as both her dad and I went back to work after a LONG period of being unemployed. And, she has started a new school.

I had a feeling a lot of it was psychological, but, unfortunately, I have probably been making a bigger deal of it than I should be.

Mc_Newlywed

Here's another thought...  check her for a fused labia.  It's something we've been dealing with on and off since birth and my pediatrician said it's very common in girls until they start creating pre-estrogren (I forget the exact name) sometime around age 6.  

It's been a real problem when dealing w/ toilet issues.  It keeps her from emptying her bladder completely so she then dribbles or has small accidents just minutes after using the toilet.  And it can cause some burning and irritation.  

We've had to treat her several times with estrogen cream to get things back to normal.  And every time she's normal, we have zero potty issues.  No complaints from her and no accidents.  

ilovemygirls

PearlieGirl'sMom:

Thank you so much for the article! DD is exacly that age (this is an older picture in my profile) and describes what is going on except that she has had some accidents during the day because she is scared to go a second time or a third time.

There has been a lot of tension at home that she is more aware of as well as both her dad and I went back to work after a LONG period of being unemployed. And, she has started a new school.

I had a feeling a lot of it was psychological, but, unfortunately, I have probably been making a bigger deal of it than I should be.

Oh, when this first started happening with our DD we handled it horribly.  She does tend to be quite a drama queen, so sometimes we'll not take her as seriously on something, kwim?  The day this started to get bad, we were out shopping & she was asking to go pee every 5 min.  (note, a week or two prior to this her preschool teacher had told me she asked to go pee a ton, we had her tested for UTI then)  So of course we're like "No, you just went"- when I'd take her again she started freaking out & wouldn't get off the potty.  Then that night she went to bed & was up every few minutes to pee.  It was horrible.  I took her to get her urine tested the next day again & it was fine.  I started doing online research & found this article & KNEW this was the problem.  

What I found worked best with her was to reassure her that everything was okay, that her body her was just 'tricking' her thinking it had to pee all the time & we knew she couldn't help it. We used lots of distraction from the issue.  I told her that she didn't need to worry about going potty so much, that mommy & daddy would worry about that for her & we even gave her a time when she could go potty next so it was something that was more definite.

 Nighttime was the hardest.  When she was lying there trying to go to sleep, she'd get up every few minutes.  So I again told her that it was mommy's job to worry about her potty, that she didn't need to because it was tricking her.  We called it doing "minutes".  She'd go pee before bed & I think I started at coming to get hero go again in "2 minutes", then "3 minutes" and so on.  Now, I totally let it go longer than that because I knew she could hold it- the point was letting her relax about it enough to go to sleep.  Once we worked our way up to like 30min, I told her she was doing so good that she got to have "surprise minutes" so she didn't know I was coming in.  Let me tell you, it was labor intensive but it worked!

fwiw, my pedi told me this isn't all that uncommon.  I'd never heard about it, but since I've shared with some people they've said their kids (all girls!) did this to varying degrees.  My DD is almost 7 and this still comes up periodically.  It's not nearly as bad as it was that first time, because we've learned how to handle it with her.  It will crop up for a couple of weeks, then she'll forget about it again.  Good luck- it's an incredibly frustrating thing to deal with!