Dysfunctional Voiding Syndrome

[Guest guest]

uses the bathroom a LOT. I think it must have

started around the time we arrived in New

Hampshire. I believe his problems have something to

do with riding in a car nearly all day every day for

about 2 weeks when we moved from TX to NH. We had some breaks when we

stayed

overnight a couple of times but we were in the car a

LOT. I look back and wonder if I contributed to the

problem by not stopping enough, but the fact is, I

need to stop at least every 2 hours myself. Anyway,

last week had something of a meltdown at school

when his teachers limited him to using the bathroom

between classes and not during classes. I knew

wasn't trying to get out of work because this

bathroom behavior was happening at home as much as

at school. So I decided to rule out medical

problems. No glucose problem or infection was

detected so that's great. The doctor asked us a few

questions and said has dysfunctional voiding

syndrome. He said that it's behavioral but that the

connotation of that should not be that he's doing

anything on purpose. His bladder has been trained

in a certain way due to circumstances so that it has

become sort of irritable. The treatment for this is

to allow him to use the bathroom as much as he feel

he needs to, to encourage drinking extra fluids

(concentrated urine causes urgency) and to be

encouraged to urinate every 2 hours to maintain

urine flow. So he should be going when he feels the

need but not allowing more than 2 hours to pass

without going. Keeping him from using the bathroom

is " a bit cruel " according to the doctor. Now we

have to limit him when he's on the bus since the

driver can't stop along the way, but I think the 15

minute ride to school shouldn't be too bad. He

seems to have gotten to where he can tolerate the

ride if he goes right before he leaves the house and

right when he gets to school. The doctor said it

might be a bit difficult to keep up with the " every

2 hours " thing during the school day but that over

christmas break we should be able to maintain it a

lot better. So what this all comes down to is that

really DOES need to use the bathroom a lot

thanks to his bladder being irritable. Just thought

you'd like to know since it could happen to other

kids like ours. The fact that they don't

communicate needs all that well leads me to believe

they might be more susceptible to it than other

kids.

Miriam