Urination is a term that describes the emptying of your bladder, which receives excess fluid and waste materials from your kidneys. Normally, adults can control the number of times they urinate by stopping unwanted or inconvenient bladder contractions. Young children lack this type of bladder control, and as a result they have much less control over urination frequency.
Urination in Adults
As an adult, you can block unwanted bladder contractions by reflexively sending stop messages from your brain to your bladder, according to the University of California, San Francisco. After this message is sent, the bladder typically relaxes and the immediate urge to urinate passes. At a later, appropriate time, you can reinitiate urination by consciously deciding to void his bladder. This decision re-triggers bladder contraction and also results in relaxation of the nearby muscles in the pelvic floor, which also have responsibility for encouraging or discouraging urination.
Urination in Children
Young children don't have the ability to relay inhibiting messages from their brains to their bladders, UCSF reports. In infants, urination happens by reflex when the bladder reaches a certain degree of fullness. As your child grows older, she will gradually gain urination control, beginning with the ability to block urine with the sphincter that connects the bladder to the urine-carrying tube called the urethra. Full bladder control develops at different ages in different children, according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine's Medline Plus. Roughly 93 percent of 5-year-old children have full bladder control, while roughly 97 percent of children gain this ability by the age of 10.
Daytime Frequency
Children typically first learn how to control their urinary frequency during the daytime, Medline Plus reports. However, your child may have difficulty controlling daytime urination for a number of reasons, according to the National Kidney and Urologic Diseases Information Clearinghouse. Potential causes include loss of control of the urethral sphincter; the presence of a urinary tract infection, or UTI; and artificially infrequent urination stemming from your child's conscious attempts to avoid urinating when necessary. In particular, voluntary holding of urine can cause problems in combination with other factors, such as anxiety, constipation, caffeine consumption and small bladder size.
Nighttime Frequency
Nighttime control is typically the last step children master when managing urinary frequency, Medline Plus website notes. The NKUDIC lists factors that can delay or inhibit nighttime control that include relatively slow physical development, anxiety, lack of a hormone that normally slows the rate of urine production during sleep, the presence of a breathing disorder called obstructive sleep apnea and structural problems in your child's bladder or urethra. Your child can also inherit nighttime control problems from you or other close relatives.
Considerations
In most cases, child urinary frequency problems disappear on their own over time, the NKUDIC reports. If your child has ongoing problems, potential remedies include a variety of bladder training strategies and use of medications that calm bladder muscles, increase levels of urine-suppressing hormones or relay appropriate signals between your child's brain and bladder. Consult your child's doctor for advice and guidance on suitable treatment options.
