Incontinence in a 5 year old????
Ok....Audrey has been potty trained since 2. Nighttime since 3. She's had the occasional UTI (usually when I've made the mistake of giving her a bubble bath...so like 3 times). Otherwise she's been healthy and normal.
So for awhile now she complains "I'm still dripping after I wipe!" I talk to her about sitting on the toilet longer to make sure its all out, trying to make sure she's not rushing through. She claims she does. I have told her to make sure she's really squeezing everything out, she claims she does.
Sometimes she goes BACK to the bathroom right after going to wipe again "because I'm still dripping!!"
No fever, not hurting when she goes and I did an at home UTI test just to rule out UTI. (if she had ANY of those symptoms I'd be more concerned and take her in immediately)
Soooooo----what do you think? I know I need to take her in to the doc, but we are getting slammed today and tomorow with snow, and since this isn't an emergency, I won't be driving to teh docs when the roads are a sheet of ice.
Re: Incontinence in a 5 year old????
Not that I know of. Would I be able to see it if she let me check her vag area out? Would it be obvious? I did check her the other night to make sure she wasn't red with a yeast infection or something of that sort...everything seemed normal...but I was just looking for redness/discharge/whatever, so it was a pretty quick peek.
The reason I ask is b/c both my daughters have had adhesions. It's like the vaginal opening fuses closed from dryness. The pedi gave me cream for it, but it's hormone cream and I'm not comfortable using it. Pretty much, I use aquaphor to just give them a little "cream" to keep it moist. But my older DD is 5 as well and she has told me the exact same thing you wrote. I pretty much chalked it up to the adhesion. It's not 100% closed, but I don't even know what to do. I read that she might have to be sedated and they'll "cut" it. But we're not that bad....meaning she hasn't had a UTI and she is able to urinate.
btw, adhesions correct themselves at puberty when hormones kick in.
I can't really describe it, if your daughter will let you look, basically you need to check out the opening...it should be a decent opening and not a teenie tiny space. The adhesions form from the lower part up. If that helps.
And, I could be completely wrong. It was just a thought.
It's frustrating when a 5 year old girl is explaining that her panties are wet and it happens AFTER she goes to the toilet. I know!
Good luck! Hopefully it's something simple and easy like she's just rushing off the seat or something and hasn't completely finished.
My son had something similar to what encee is talking about. His was called urethral stenosis. Basically, the opening to his urethra was partially closed. It had a big factor in him not being able to PT. He couldn't really get all the pee out in one sitting, and so he would have an accident shortly after going.
The urologist did the procedure in office, basically coating it with numbing cream, waiting for it to take effect and cutting it open. It was pretty traumatic for me, but he got over it quickly.
Maybe see if you can get an appt with a urologist. It seems like something your family dr may not be able to take care of.
GL!
My DD#2 was holding pee & poop---If they do it long enough they loose control. She was 4 & been potty trained for 2yrs--I had no clue she was holding anything until there was a problem..because she was potty trained & I no longer checked/wiped for her. The holding of the pee is called dysfunctional voiding--It does cause incontinence/leakage. Though my DD didn't have much leaking or anything--it manifested in her peeing soon as she went to sleep. They all also have had labial adhesions & never noticed a dripping problem (DD#1 has never had any issues).
Edit: To add, holding makes them loose the proper ability to completely empty their bladder...so leaking can result after peeing already. Also there is issues in knowing/sensing when they have to pee, etc. The protocol is to make them go to the bathroom every 2-ish hours...eventually their bladder gets back to normal but it takes months. I can't remember what else--i'll have to find the sheets from the Doc.
Oh my goodness! I'm so glad I found this post. I have a five year old daughter who complains about this a few times a week. Finally after feeling horrible for her and worrying about a UTI, I took her to the doctor yesterday. Mind you when asked yesterday if she had any problems she indicated that she didn't have any "drips" today. The doctor indicated that she tested negative for a UTI. He felt that she may be holding back her solid voids and this can cause a problem with the voiding in the bladder. He suggested that we make her smoothies with berries and yogurt to help her regulate her system and loosen her up. He also suggested that she takes all the time in the world on her "princess throne" to make sure that she is getting everything out (which I've already tried to tell her). Generally she tries to hurry up and go fast so that she can get back to whatever it is she is doing... I've tried to get her to slow down and take time to get it all out, but she gets sick of sitting in the bathroom alone.
Since her vaginal area is a bit raw from the over wiping, etc... he suggested a triple antibiotic ointment (Neosporin, etc...) to put on the out areas to help the inflammation due to her constant wiping, dripping and wetness. He indicated to have her put this on liberally to the outer area herself, 2-3x a day for up to 3 days. I'm still a little unsure that this stuff will work, but it's comforting (in a very unfortunate way) that there are other parents out there whose children are experiencing these issues. My daughter will tell me, "I'm dripping!" and I can tell that this bothers her tremendously. I don't know what else to do and as a Mom I feel horrible for her! She has never had this problem until recently and I'm just hoping she really is only backed up with fecal matter and that is what is causing her dripping problem. Any other suggestions/help out there? I want to try what he said with the smoothies at night after dinner, etc... but if that doesn't work should I take her to a pediatric urologist for them to do some additional testing?
Thanks ladies for the help and support!