Info about Diapers
Bedwetting in Children - Two Unusual Daytime Conditions
Most children who have daytime urinary symptoms also wet the bed, or if they are light sleepers, get up several times during the night to urinate. However, there are two conditions that produce some daytime symptoms without producing bedwetting or frequent nighttime urinating.
• Giggle Incontinence
A condition called giggle incontinence is rare, but I have seen children who have had it. With "giggle incontinence," a child experiences sudden, involuntary emptying of the bladder during a bout of laughter. Children who have this condition are usually preadolescent girls, but sometimes boys, and sometimes young adults. They have no control over it. The cause is still unknown. We know that the condition generally disappears with the passage of time in most but not all cases.
There is no generally accepted treatment, although researchers J. T. Brockelbank and S. R. Meadow of the United Kingdom reported curing two boys with use of the drug propantheline; P. K. Sher reported (in Pediatric Neurology) successful treatment with the drug methylphenidate; and M. G. Arena and a group of Italian researchers reported curing a girl with the use of imipramine (Tofranil).
If your child is experiencing giggle incontinence, reassure her that it will probably go away before she is an adult and that you know she can't help it. She may want to carry a waterproof bag for wet garments, and a change of underwear and other clothing. Sanitary pads and/or adult diapers (such as Depends) worn under clothing may be helpful.
• Extraordinary Daytime Frequency Syndrome
In extraordinary daytime frequency syndrome, which doctors also call pollakiuria, children who have had no urinary difficulties suddenly begin urinating very frequently—some as often as every 5 to 15 minutes. In most cases, the children (who are mostly boys) do not wet their beds and do not need to urinate during the night. Urine cultures and examinations show no infections or other physical problems. The syndrome lasts for only days, weeks, or months (although one reported case continued intermittently for 3V2 years). It stops by itself.
Among other researchers, Jeri Zoubek and colleagues, and Lee W. Bass, who described it in separate issues of the journal Pediatrics, advised against treating this condition with drugs. However, in a letter to the same journal, urologist Arnold H. Colodny suggested that imipramine (Tofranil) could break the cycle or alleviate the symptoms.
The cause of daytime urinary frequency syndrome is unknown. Researchers A. K. Gupta and colleagues, who studied 10 boys who experienced this syndrome, reported in the journal Indian Pediatrics that 7 of the boys developed it after an upper respiratory infection. Bass, who studied 13 children, reported that the condition developed in 10 of the children after they had experienced very significant psychological stressors.
If your child is suffering from this unusual condition and his doctor can find no infection or other physical cause, you need to offer sympathy and reassurance that the condition is temporary. You should explore and discuss with your child any threatening or stressful situations he may be experiencing. And if the need to urinate is so frequent that it is disrupting your child's life, you may want to ask the doctor to try treatment with imipramine. (Remember that you must supervise use of this drug very carefully.)