Most children learn to control urination between 2 and 3 years of age, according the National Institutes of Health. Most children that experience incontinence outgrow it as they get older. Children are less likely to experience incontinence after the age of 5 although about 5 percent of 10-year-old children have episodic incontinence, usually at night. Daytime incontinence in an older child, especially while he is participating in exercise or other activities with peers, is embarrassing.
Normal Voiding
Your child begins life with a bladder that is like a balloon that fills up to a specific point, contracts and empties. Over the next few years, your child masters the complex process of voiding, which requires a mature nervous systems and learned behaviors, according to the National Institutes of Health. She learns to recognize when her bladder is full and learns to control the nerves and muscles that allow her to pass urine from her bladder to her urethra for removal from her body.
Daytime Incontinence
Daytime incontinence, also called diurnal incontinence, occurs less frequently in children than nighttime incontinence, according to the National Institutes of Health. Your child might experience a sudden urge to urinate or involuntary and complete emptying of his bladder. He might have urine leakage accompanied by physical symptoms, such as pain or discomfort. Children tend to outgrow daytime incontinence earlier than they outgrow nighttime incontinence.
Medical Causes
Stress incontinence, which involves involuntary urination during exercise or other physical activities, occurs because of weakened pelvic muscles or a malfunctioning urethral sphincter. Stress incontinence can be caused by injury or medications. Overactive bladder results when bladder muscles contract and fail to close off the urethra. The contracting bladder muscle allows leakage of urine. Overactive bladder is often caused by urinary tract infection. If your child has a small bladder or other structural problems, she might experience daytime incontinence while exercising. The pressure caused by constipation can cause incontinence.
Behavioral Causes
Daytime incontinence can result if your child has infrequent voiding, or holds his urine for long times, and fails to completely empty his bladder. Your child might ignore the signal from his body that his bladder is full. He might not want to use a public bathroom or stop a fun activity. An overfilled bladder can leak. Other causes of daytime incontinence are anxiety and drinks, such as those with caffeine, that cause your child's bladder muscles to spasm.
Treatment
The cause of your child's daytime incontinence might require a medical treatment, such as antibiotics for an infection or relief and prevention of constipation. Children with physical abnormalities might need surgery to correct the problem. Your child's doctor might prescribe medication to help with bladder control. Behavioral practices might correct the problem. Frequent emptying of the bladder and drinking fewer liquids, especially before exercise, might solve your child's problem with incontinence. Training and strengthening the pelvic floor muscles through Kegel exercises can correct problems with stress incontinence.
Tips
Your pediatrician can rule out medical causes of your child's daytime incontinence experienced during exercise.
