Hi Moms,
My 4 year old daughter started to behave weird in the last week. She tries to go pee very often. Sometimes she may go as often as 4 times in an hour, some other time she would forget about it and behave normal for about half a day, but then she would go back to the potty thing. She says that it does not hurt when she pees, she just wants to pee. I took her to a doctor, and the doctor did not find any infections. She said that "sometimes kids just do that". But I am still worried. Did any of you have similar experiences with your children? Please let me know.
Jen.
I took my 4 year old to the doctor 2 times, they checked her for UTI and for diabetes, everything was normal. We resorted to the "wait and see" approach. The symptoms got better in 2 weeks, then came back in full strength 2 weeks later. I took her to the doctor once again, but nothing was wrong. The symptoms subsided in 2 weeks and did not come back so far for more than a month now. I hope that this is it. I try to keep her away from the bubble-bath (this is hard, she loves bubbles) and from additional stress (this is hard too, you can imagine)! This link helped me a lot:
http://pedclerk.bsd.uchicago.edu/pollakiuria.html
I noticed that my daughter will pee, and act like shes done, and 5-10 minutes later has to go again. I have found that she most often does this in an effort to control the situation. If I have suggested that she goes potty and shes mad about it for some reason, like it wasn't HER idea that she goes, she will only go a little. *SIGH* thats a 3 year old for you!
yep, sometimes kids just want to do it. I know, its weird. But if the doc has checked her out, and all seems well, then i wouldnt be too concerned. Continue to ask her here or there if it stings or anything, just to be sure. But i wouldnt be too terribly alarmed.
My 4 yr old boy goes so often his dad is convinced something is wrong. Just started in the last couple of months. He pees way more than he drinks. I first noticed it in public. He wants to go to the bathroom everywhere we go. I thought he was just bored and curious and wanted to see the inside of every bathroom in town. But dad says it's all the time. It doesn't hurt, isn't a strong color or odor, so, I'm not all that concerned. I just switched him away from juice to strictly water - sometimes I dilute with cranberry. I haven't seen any problems, but I'm keeping an eye on it.
We have in the past. My son did that and the doctor happened to check him for strep throat. He was positive for strep. He had no other symptoms - no fever, no sore throat - nothing. Apparently (and I didn't know this before then) strep can settle in the kidneys / urinary tract or stomach and cause issues. He took the round of antibiotics and was good. Just a thought if your daughter hasn't been checked for that. And strep is really going around here.
Diabetes is something else that can make a child pee a lot.
I second trying removing the milk from her diet. A weak bladder is a very common sign of trouble digesting milk. She may even NOT test for lactose intolerance, but she may still be sensitive and this is enough to tip the scale.
If you don't want to do that, keep a food journal and see if there is a pattern with milk (dairy, or any other food substance) and the normal times vs. the potty thing times.
I think I am a walking expert on this now...I went through almost a year living this nightmare with my daughter.
Please believe me, she doesn't "want" to pee, she "has" to pee!
I never really found out what was "wrong" with her. They didnt want to test her for Lactose intolerance because its pretty invasive. We checked for UTIs several times and a couple times there was something and most of the time there wasn't. PLEASE make sure they coulture the sample. the quick in the office test will only show severe infections.
In the end, we took her off milk and gave her soy milk for a while. We left all other dairy in her diet, just changed the milk. She got worlds better. We then switched her to Asodopholis milk and that worked well also. She is now back on regular milk but no more than 6 oz per day. We monitor her dairy intake and make sure she isn't eating too much of it. Also we make sure she gets probiotics every day.
Little girls are very sensitive "down there". they are affected by a lot of what they eat and digest. Even a little irritation can make them feel like they have to pee when they really don't.
I really wish I had had someone tell me all this when I was going through it. I would have been so much more patient with her.
P.S. since we have gone through this, I have had countless other moms come asking for advise for their 4 year old daughter. Check mamapedia, you will see its pretty common!
Best of luck to you and Keep fighting till you find a solution!
My daughter is also 4. She has been potty trained since 2 and everything was normal until last week. She goes pee every 15 to 20 min. She has never been this way. She has never had caffine and she eats very healthy so I don't know what is causing this. Jen, if you have come up with an answer please let me know... maybe it is normal! My name is also Jen.
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Forums have always been so helpful to me. So, when I started having trouble with my 8-year-old son having to go to the bathroom all the time I didn't know what to do when I found no answer that fit our situation. My son started having issues with going to the bathroom about a year ago. He would tell me he had to go, we'd take him, then five minutes later he'd need to go again. My poor boy got the irritated look more than once about this. I tried to be understanding that there was something wrong that I couldn't figure out, but when you have lots of things to do stopping every 5 minutes to pee is annoying. There would be times when it would get better, but often I'd make him go before we left somewhere and ever time we stopped at a store. FINALLY!!!! We know what was wrong. My son woke up and threw up at 2:30am the other night. He had the shakes, and a mild fever. I thought at first maybe he was sick. He said his belly hurt. I pressed along his belly and found that it was more tender over his appendix area. I took him to the ER for safety. I have never ever rushed him to the hospital before, I'm not like that. His appendix was taken out. Even with swelling and everything my son found relief when going to the bathroom!!! He noticed it right away!! While the doctors poohoo'd it and said, 'well maybe' as the urethra was in such close proximity, my son and I both KNOW this was it! So, that means that if it was the appendix, he could have had swelling of the appendix with out an infection. The doctor said it could fill with debris making it swell, then it could push the debris out making it go back to regular size with no infection. I'll bet you this has been the issue all along. I hope this helps people! I didn't find it on the forums and have looked many times.
My first thought was a bladder infection, but your doctor ruled that out. My second thought was diabetes. I know that when people have diabetes but don't know it, they pee a lot. Does Diabetes run in your family? I hope this isn't the case, and that your daughter is just going through a silly phase like so many kids do. Good luck!
my son had this and had a UTI, I assume she had a pee test?, they found protein in my sons and gave him antibiotics - he didn'
t burn when he peed, but he had a generalised pain in his bladder area
Hi Moms,
My 4-year-old daughter also started wanting to pee quitefrequently half a year ago. But I noticed that when she's playing or concentrating on something she doesn't need to go. It's the worst at bed time and makes her very frustrated. We also did culture for her urine but nothing positive so far. I myself have Interstitial Cystitis so I'm worrying if she might have it too...=(
Jess
Wow, I am relieved my son is not the only one he has the very same thing. We took him to the park over the weekend and he had to pee 4-5 times while there..and only small amounts and I noticed since then how frequently he goes and how little comes out..other than this tho he is a very happy healthy boy. Will be interested to find out if you find any answers for this or is it just a funny stage some kids go through =)
If she's thirsty a lot and peeing sufficient amounts, these are signs of diabetes. UTI's usually come with fever, odor, burning, etc. My son went through a phase and then was fine; he would go every few minutes but very small/insignificant amounts and had no other symptoms; eventually he forgot about. Definitely monitor her for any other symptoms and f/u with her doctor.
