If your child is struggling with daytime wetting, we have physical therapy treatment that can help.
At Purple Mountain PT we provide physical therapy treatment for pediatric urinary incontinence (diurnal enuresis and nocturnal enuresis).
Parents, we understand you may feel frustrated or uncertain about why your child keeps wetting their pants and what you can do to support them. Our doctors of physical therapy are pediatric bladder and bowel physical therapy specialists. Our physical therapists are trained in the unique bladder and bowel developmental needs of children, and the therapy that kids receive for bedwetting, or any bladder & bowel condition, is specific to pediatric needs. If interested in learning more about our physical therapy for kids who have bladder or bowel control challenges, contact us here.
Our physical therapy treatment for kids who have diurnal enuresis and bedwetting can improve self-esteem, social engagement and alleviate household stress.
One of our greatest joys is when a child returns to PT with a broad smile and exclamation of their busy social life! It truly is a gift for us to witness, because we understand that bladder and bowel control issues, including bedwetting, often inhibit a child’s social interaction and may increase their anxiety. With bedwetting, children and sometimes parents, also, experience embarrassment or social avoidance of overnight outings.
At what age is wetting the bed or daytime wetting considered a problem?
Daytime loss of urine (also called diurnal enuresis, daytime wetting or daytime urine accidents) occurs in 3-4% of children between the ages of 4 and 12. It is twice as common in girls than boys.
Most children develop control of their bladder when sleeping between ages two and five. 16-20% of children upto age six experience bedwetting (also called nocturnal enuresis). At age 6, we would expect that children should be able to control their urine when sleeping. If your child is struggling with bedwetting or daytime bladder and bowel issues, our pediatric physical therapy program is here to help. We work with children of all ages, helping them to learn effective bladder and bowel control. If interested in learning more about our physical therapy for kids who have bladder or bowel control challenges, contact us here.
Achieving bladder and bowel control is a complicated neuromotor task! Don’t get angry with your child who keeps wetting their pants!
Most parents recognize how amazing it is when your infant learns to roll over and then advances to crawling and walking. The crawling stage is actually very important for their future bowel and bladder control, because it helps their core strength and their pelvis alignment. When children potty train, the neuromotor control that is happening is abundant! There is so much that goes into holding urine and stool and an equal amount of coordination and motor planning is needed for a child to recognize the sensation of needing to urinate or pass a bowel movement. Once they feel the urge, they need to stop what they are doing (which might be a fun activity!) and go to the toilet. When in the bathroom, their ability to control their pelvic floor muscles comes into play. Commonly, our patients push their urine or stool out. Or they may have urinary stream that stops and starts. Or they might not actually finish urinating or passing the stool. If your child keeps wetting their pants, we will help uncover the things contributing to this. To learn more contact us at 616-516-4334 or contact us here.
We will help identify the mal-adaptive habits or methods your child uses to urinate and defecate.
We work with you and your child to find the underlying causes of daytime or nighttime incontinence (nocturnal enuresis). Our treatment methods are designed to help your child to learn what is normal frequency of peeing and defecating. We also help your child learn what the urge to urinate or defecate feels like. We encourage your child to listen to their body and use the toilet when they experience an urge. Parents tell us that all of our physical therapy for bladder and bowel control is so helpful to have another adult talking to their child, re-enforcing what has often been said by the parent. Parents get tired of saying to their child “Do you need to go the bathroom?” or “Please, go to the bathroom, you haven’t gone in hours.” And it is common that the child’s response is “I don’t need to go.” That’s frustrating for parents. We help take the frustration out of the circumstance; let us support your child towards understanding their body and gaining bladder and bowel control. If interested in learning more about our physical therapy for kids who have bladder or bowel control challenges, contact us here.
The International Children’s Continence Society recommends treatment for bedwetting for any child 6 years old or older:
“Treatment is not only justified but mandatory.” – ICCS Standardization document 2010
What if my child is a pre-teen or older, can physical therapy help bedwetting for these ages? Yes we can!
We work with any person under the age of 18 who experiences bedwetting. Even though this is a private matter inside your home, the truth is that there are countless adolescents and teens who struggle with bedwetting. We recommend getting treatment at an earlier age, simply because it can help ease anxiety and household stress and promote your child’s social skills when bowel and bladder control has been achieved. However, if your child is “older”, have no fear, we commonly help adolescents and teens who have bedwetting. To learn more about our physical therapy to help your child’s bedwetting, contact us here.
What does bladder and bowel physical therapy do for incontinence (diurnal enuresis) or bedwetting?
We begin with an evaluation that fully analyzes bladder and bowel function, both daytime and nighttime, developmental levels and motor control. We provide a variety of therapeutic interventions to help your child learn to not keep wetting their pants.
We know it is frustrating for both you and your child when your child keeps wetting their pants. Our PT will uncover things that are contributing to this happening. We may ask you a variety of questions regarding your child’s bladder and bowel function. These could include
- Toilet habits and behaviors, in particular does your child hold their urine too long, avoid bowel movements, or not empty completely?
- Ball-park quantification of daytime urinary stream
- Ballpark quantification of nighttime urine loss
- Urinary flow characteristics
- Urinary urge
- Sleep quality, movements, habits, bedtime. Arousal during sleep.
- Urinary frequency during daytime
- Dietary habits, timing of foods, fiber, fluid intake and types of food and drink
- Bowel habits including frequency, timing, sensation of the need to void, straining, pain, bloating or other.
- Abdominal bloating, pain or cramping
- The efforts you have made that have failed to achieve sleeping through the night without loss of urine
- Urinary tract infection history.
- Developmental milestones for motor and speech.
- Urinary urge and your child’s reaction to urge
- Bowel movement urge and your child’s reaction to urge
- Toileting postures
- Your child’s physical activities and sports
- Any pertinent medical history. This could include anything, including: learning disabilities, congenital anorectal malformation, diabetes, spina bifida, down syndrome, autism, any developmental delay, anxiety, ADHD or any other condition.
If interested in learning more about our physical therapy for kids who have bladder or bowel control challenges, contact us here.
Our goal is to fully support you and your child and provide developmentally appropriate care. As such, our families tell us that the PT for their child’s bladder and bowel control challenges has been therapeutic, empowering and uplifting.
Your child’s physical therapy will be comprehensive and fully work to address daytime and nighttime bladder and bowel issues.
Quite often families come to us and are not aware of any daytime bladder issues and report their child has daily bowel movements. However, upon further inquiry we often find that children do, indeed, have non-optimal bladder and bowel daytime function. If we want to alleviate bedwetting, we must optimize daytime bladder and bowel function. If interested in learning more about our physical therapy for kids who have bladder or bowel control challenges, contact us here.
We use a variety of methods to improve your child’s bladder and bowel control. These include:
- Biofeedback to help your child learn to release and tighten the bladder and bowel control muscles.
- Core strengthening for any child who has low tone, weak core or lower strength
- Breathing exercises
- Training to improve your child’s awareness of what an urge to urinate and defecate feels like. Improving their sensory understanding of their body is crucial. Children often are completely unaware of the need to void.
- Toileting practice, teaching them proper posture, breathing, release of their pelvic floor muscles and relaxation during both a bowel movement and urination.
- Dietary recommendations to facilitate complete bowel movements daily, without straining.
- Constipation remedies including dietary suggestions, manual therapy and exercises to facilitate complete defecation.
- Partnering with your pediatrician and advising you on protocols to facilitate a bowel clean-out. Often children who have bedwetting or daytime wetting their pants issues, have constipation.
- Coaching your child in toileting habits, sleep habits and healthy bladder and bowel habits.
- Gentle manual therapy methods (external only) to facilitate intestinal motility, awareness of their body and relief of muscular guarding.
Pediatric physical therapy for a child who keeps wetting their pants or experiences bedwetting must always assess and treat constipation!
When a child experiences urinary incontinence, whether daytime or when sleeping, quite often constipation is present. The nerves for the rectum and bladder are near each other, so if the rectum is full of stool, this can throw off bladder function. Additionally, a full rectum may physically push the bladder, contributing to bladder spasms and unexpected loss of urine, during the day or with bedwetting. To learn more about our physical therapy for kids who have bladder or bowel control challenges, contact us here.
Physical therapy to help any child who is wetting their pants or experiencing bedwetting is provided in a safe, private treatment space in an uplifting environment that is developmentally appropriate. Parents are always included!
At Purple Mountain PT, our treatment rooms are designed for our patients to experience a therapeutic setting. We work with you to create a partnership with you and your child that facilitates true progress with their bladder and bowel challenges. Because this is our life’s work, we are sensitive to the embarrassment that children may face and, as such, we use discrete and appropriate methods throughout your care so your child actually wants to come to PT. Our approach is positive, encouraging and therapeutic. We celebrate your child’s success and intentionally motivate your child to achieve the goals we create together. We love working with pre-teens and teens and find that they connect with our physical therapists because we are athletes, students and engage them in conversation on topics they enjoy, such as their sports or musical theater or band. If interested in learning more about the work with do with kids of all ages, contact us here.
Biofeedback and pelvic floor muscle training are helpful components of treatment for a child who experiences enuresis or nocturnal enuresis.
The pelvic floor muscles, in coordination with breathing and the abdominals, are responsible for both storing/holding urine and stool and letting it go in the toilet. Some children don’t yet know how to effectively control these muscles. They may have learned mal-adaptive habits such as holding their urine too long, avoiding defecating, not using a public toilet or not drinking enough water. Sometimes the pelvic floor muscles get confused and need to be retrained. Our physical therapy for pediatric bladder and bowel control will help your child learn how to better understand and control these important muscles. To learn more, contact us here.
Why Does My Child Keep Wetting Their Pants? If you are wondering this, your PT can help guide behavior & habit modifications to facilitate urinary and fecal control!
Often we find that our patients simply don’t like to use the toilet. They may avoid it all together or simply choose to use the toilet rarely. They may, in fact, not even feel the urge to urinate or perceive the need to pass a bowel movement. Often the kids legitimately did not realize they wet or soiled themselves. Parents may grow frustrated by this, but there is no benefit to getting angry with your child. Indeed, the lack of control is legitimately beyond their awareness. A child with this lack of awareness and, even a child who has awareness, but still wetting their pants sometimes, often benefits from behavioral modifications. We coach your child, using motivational techniques and education, to make better choices and to learn how to better take care of their body. We will teach your child optimal toileting posture and methods to pass urine and stool. Hint, they should not be rushing or pushing their pee or poop out! Our expertise and training helps identify these underlying habits and coaches you and your child so that bladder and bowel habits are optimized. Here is a link to a booklet about pediatric bedwetting that may be helpful for families to use at home. If interested in learning more about our physical therapy for kids who have bladder or bowel control challenges, contact us here.
To stop bedwetting and daytime wetting, positivity helps! Our physical therapy works to stop bedwetting, to improve daytime continence and to boost self esteem!
One key to our success with helping you uncover the reasons your child keeps wetting their pants is that we comprehensively treat your child and identify numerous items that may be contributing to their challenges with bladder and bowel control.
We reward your child and help them to feel motivated to have success! We love to see a child proud of themselves and report success!
Purple Mountain Physical Therapy provides developmentally appropriate physical therapy for pediatric bladder and bowel control issues. We work with all ages and offer treatment that empowers kids to feel proud of their achievement. Because we are pelvic health physical therapists who also treat adults, we understand that bladder and bowel issues are prevalent across the lifespan. It is our hope that if we can support kids towards better pelvic health, some of them will not develop adult issues with their bladder and bowel function. Our doctors of physical therapy promise to give you our best! To learn more about our physical therapy to help your child’s challenges with bladder and bowel function, call 616-516-4334 or contact us here.
Peace,
Dr. Maureen O’Keefe, DPT and the Purple Mountain Physical Therapy Team are specialists in treating pelvic health, bladder and bowel conditions and TMJ disorders. We consider this work and honor and enjoy seeing kids thrive and gain self confidence as they master bladder and bowel control!
You also may be interested in these articles we’ve written about pediatric bladder and bowel issues, just click on them to read:
Pediatric Bladder Physical Therapist Near Grand Rapids, Michigan
Why Does My Ten Year Old Wet The Bed?
How Much Bedwetting is Normal?
Physical Therapy Can Stop Bedwetting!
And information about some of our adult physical therapy services, just click to read:
What Can Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy Help With?
When Do I Need Pelvic Floor PT?
Exercise in Pregnancy: A Physical Therapists Perspective
Why Does My C-Section Scar Hurt Years Later?
Tailbone pain and How Pelvic Floor PT Can Help You! Plus Some Self-Care Tips!
Vaginismus and Dyspareunia Treatment in Grand Rapids
Physical Therapy after Prostatectomy
Pelvic PT for Testicular Pain (Orchialgia) in Grand Rapids
TMJ Disorder Treatment in Grand Rapids
Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and Bladder Problems. What’s Going On?
