# 4 yo has to pee FREQUENTLY! UTI negative



## natalieadw

My sweet DD has been telling me urgently for the past three weeks that she has to pee 3-4 times an hour. At first I brushed it off thinking it was just a stage. Then today I went ahead and took her in and the UTI came back negative. Visually everything looks good, no redness or discharge etc. I've asked her several times if it hurts when she pees and she says no everytime. Even when I try to distract her when she says she has to go, she persists and cries that she REAAALLLLY has to go....then she goes (and its only a teaspoon of pee). She will even get up during naptime and pee as well. Nighttime not so much though, maybe once or twice during the night. So my question to you all is, should I be concerned and get it further checked into or just wait and see???


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## 4evermom

My ds has gone through a few phases of really frequent urination. At this point, I'm not sure if they were some sort of growth/hormonal issue or something anxiety related. I did wonder for a while if it was due to a food allergy because both my brother and father would get urinary frequency when they ate certain grains (wheat for my brother and rice and oatmeal for my father). I took ds off wheat for a month and saw no changes (he didn't usually eat either rice or oats). I think each episode lasted 2 or 3 months and the first was when he was either almost 4 or almost 5. There should be a couple of old threads on here about the topic with others having similar experiences with no clear cause.


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## limette

My 4 year dd is doing this as well. The doctor checked for uti's (I have a history of them) and diabetes. Nothing wrong with her.

Personally I think it's a paranoia thing. She's concerned with the pee falling out. She often has her hand down her pants to hold it in. When she pees (which sometimes is every 10 minutes), nothing happens or very little comes out.

She doesn't do it when she's distracted and she goes all night without peeing (12 hour stretch). Some days she's great others it just gets ridiculous.

I'm just waiting it out.


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## natalieadw

I cannot explain the RELIEF I feel from reading your two posts! I was so worried that it was something serious, and thought she was the only one. Guess I'll play the wait and see game for a while longer







The dr called me back and said she thinks the urethra is irratated and wants to put her on privia or something liket that. Ughhhh


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## One_Girl

I think you should try cutting out any sugary drinks. My dd went through a few periods where she would have frequent accidents when she had juice because it was too sugary for her body. Cutting out the juice stopped the accidents and that may help with frequent peeing also. She may have a cyst somewhere in her pushing on her bladder or she may just need to pee a lot for some reason.


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## natalieadw

Quote:


Originally Posted by *One_Girl* 
I think you should try cutting out any sugary drinks. My dd went through a few periods where she would have frequent accidents when she had juice because it was too sugary for her body. Cutting out the juice stopped the accidents and that may help with frequent peeing also. She may have a cyst somewhere in her pushing on her bladder or she may just need to pee a lot for some reason.

She doesn't drink any juice at all, or sugary drinks for that matter. The Pollakiuria or Extraordinary Urinary Frequency Syndrome's definition fits the situation to a 't', so I'm just going to keep an eye on things for the moment. Hopefully I'll have an update in three months that everything is back to normal!!


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## SaoirseC

I'll second (or third) that it could just be a weird behavioral/paranoia thing. Does she have to pee with such frequency when she's busy playing with friends?

My son was convinced for the longest time that if he drank any water at all, he needed to pee immediately. I tried to convince him that it actually takes a while for the water to reach his penis, but no deal (for him it became a Pavlovian thing, he associated drinking with peeing and thus had to pee any time he drank). However, it may work for your daughter- you could draw a picture of a person, and then show where the water comes into her mouth, down through the esophagus, into the stomach, (not sure where it goes from here), into her bladder (explaining that it's like a place for storage, like a balloon that fills up), and then finally out of her body through her urethra. You might tell her that there's a muscle like a rubber band which closes off her urethra so the pee doesn't come out until she lets it go. Not trying to imply that she thinks she needs to pee as soon as she drinks, but if it's a paranoia thing, this little lesson (told quite a few times, without any pressure to not pee constantly) might help her feel less afraid of holding it for a little while.

My daughter (3 yo) has developed a Pavlovian-sort of thing with peeing. Anytime we go to Target and get to a certain part of the store, she HAS to pee. It has gotten to the point that whenever we go there, we immediately go to the bathroom so that when we come to that part of the store I can remind her "You've already gone, remember?" Anyway, my point is that peeing can have some sort of weird association thing, which is difficult to alter in a gentle way.


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## trebleme

My DD went through this exact same thing when her younger sister was PL'ing (and having accidents, too.) She was so afraid of it happening to her (even though she is 2 years older and no accidents, like, ever) and was so focused on us always asking our younger DD if she had to go, that she was going all. the. time. We took her to our ped who tested for a uti (negative) and suggested that maybe she was not emptying her bladder all the way each time she went, so some was actually being retained. He suggested we have her pee, then turn around on the toilet (facing the back, like riding a horse) and try peeing again to kind of "force" her to empty her bladder fully.

That, and time, seemed to work. Eventually the phase passed.

Hang in there, momma!
Sharon


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## natalieadw

Whew what a morning already! She has probably gone at least twenty to thirty times in the few hours she has been awake. I read this article and it seems to point to an emotional stressor as the cause of the problem. I can't really put my finger on anything HUGE....and to tell you the truth I can't really remember when exactly all of this began. I cannot imagine how much our water bill will be for this month! Wish me luck


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## natalieadw

Oh forgot to add...that its so bad she is having to eat her meals on the toilet cause otherwise she won't eat because she has to go to the bathroom every two minutes. Sometimes she just gets done, pulls up her pants, then says she has to go again....ughhhh!! I feel like crying!!


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## NolaRiordan

MY DS went through a couple episodes of this when he was 4-5 as well. Lasted a few weeks and went away, then came back again after a few months. I do believe it was anxiety related.


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## natalieadw

Oh forgot to add...that its so bad she is having to eat her meals on the toilet cause otherwise she won't eat because she has to go to the bathroom every two minutes. Sometimes she just gets done, pulls up her pants, then says she has to go again....ughhhh!! I feel like crying!!


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## meemee

yup Pollakiuria that is it.

it is pretty common in children. one of those wierd things that not many people know about or doctors for that matter.

and yes it is stress related. its not one particular stress. it is the stress of growing up.

nothing to 'worry' about but deal with it, till your child passes thru this phase.

i really did nothing different but made sure i listened to dd and didnt shame her.

about water bill. does she HAVE to flush teh toilet every time? we dont. we are the 'brown' people.


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## shelley4

is she losing weight? is she lethargic? is she thirsty alot?

could point to type 1 diabetes.. these were the earliest symptoms my son experienced. if she's having any of those symptoms along with the frequent peeing, please get her checked quickly! type 1 diabetes advances quickly..


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## natalieadw

Quote:


Originally Posted by *meemee* 
yup Pollakiuria that is it.

it is pretty common in children. one of those wierd things that not many people know about or doctors for that matter.

and yes it is stress related. its not one particular stress. it is the stress of growing up.

nothing to 'worry' about but deal with it, till your child passes thru this phase.

i really did nothing different but made sure i listened to dd and didnt shame her.

about water bill. does she HAVE to flush teh toilet every time? we dont. we are the 'brown' people.


I know its nothing to worry about, and for the first couple weeks we did give her a bit of a hard time...so I'm sure that didn't help anything. I'm going to just change my train of thought at pretend its completely normal to go every thirty seconds. The thing is she overheard me talking about it, and now she says, "I keep having to go potty mommy. ALL THE TIME!". Chalk that one up on the best mommy in the world board!

Oh and yes she does have to flush everytime, she is OCD about it. She cannot pee into a toilet that isn't flushed









Quote:


Originally Posted by *shelley4* 
is she losing weight? is she lethargic? is she thirsty alot?

could point to type 1 diabetes.. these were the earliest symptoms my son experienced. if she's having any of those symptoms along with the frequent peeing, please get her checked quickly! type 1 diabetes advances quickly..

Nope, weight is status quo, she is still peppy and Mrs. Talks A Lot throughout the day, though her mood for the past couple days has been very whiny and crying due to the peeing. No not thirsty a lot either. I had talked to her dr about that possibly but when they did the uti screening they also screened her for diabetes too.
I need to just chill about it....its hard at the moment cause my 18 month is sleeping like crap and keeping up til 4 am, so my fuse is waaaaaaaaaay shorter than it normally is


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## karemore

Did they send a urine sample to the lab? We have to wait several days here for conclusive test results. The initial test in the Dr office doesn't tell them much.

Has your daughter been constipated? If she isn't pooping regularly, or if she's backed up it effects the bladder. We paid $500 for an ultrasound to find out our daughter was constipated.

She was pooping every day, but it was small amounts, she wasn't getting cleared out. So the pressure on her bladder made it feel like she had to pee all the time. And not emptying her bladder led to infections.

Once we treated the constipation, the UTIs stopped and the frequent urination stopped.

Just another possibility.


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## natalieadw

Quote:


Originally Posted by *karemore* 
Did they send a urine sample to the lab? We have to wait several days here for conclusive test results. The initial test in the Dr office doesn't tell them much.

Has your daughter been constipated? If she isn't pooping regularly, or if she's backed up it effects the bladder. We paid $500 for an ultrasound to find out our daughter was constipated.

She was pooping every day, but it was small amounts, she wasn't getting cleared out. So the pressure on her bladder made it feel like she had to pee all the time. And not emptying her bladder led to infections.

Once we treated the constipation, the UTIs stopped and the frequent urination stopped.

Just another possibility.

Ya know, the urine sample was given in a lab, but I'm not sure if they sent it off. All I know is the urine was absolutely free from any sign of UTI.
No constipation....her bowels are usually regular and plus she's nursing still so that helps too!

It really seems that she has to GO! That she's not just doing it out of anxiety. We were on our way home and in the car...she told me she had to GOOOOO!! I told her she had to wait til we got home (like five minutes) and she looked panicked. She quieted down and was chatting with me, when all of a sudden I see her face scrunched up and she tell me she's going to pee her pants, that she has to now.
Ughh....I just don't know what to do!!! I guess I'll get her checked out again, because she literally (NO exaggeration) has gone 40-50 times today. I can see it in her face when the urge comes, she is not lying about it and is really feeling the urge to pee right then!.


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## meemee

mama my dd was potty trained at 20 months. at the age of 6 we went back to diapers because of her frequent urination. after constantly running my dd prefered to be in her diaper. i think she wore diapers for like a month or so.

not at night though. she did not have this problem during the night.

many times with dd it was a few drops. or maybe at the most a teaspoon.

what are her symptoms? ONLY frequent urination?
for diabetes and UTI there are other symptoms. things like burning during urination for UTI, thirst, soapy urine, for diabetes. with my dd her ONLY symptom was urination.

and it isnt that urination was causing anxiety. it was a symptom of it. my dd i had discovered had anxiety at 3. but knowing her i could understand how anxiety could cause freq. urination. and it was only during the day. NOT at night.

once i found out about P and read about it, i knew that was it!!!


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## southernmama

Okay- different perspective- not to freak you out but take her to a ped. urologist asap. my 4 year old d had exactly the same syptoms and no uti- ped sent us for a bladder x ray (vcug)- not pleasant- but uncovered that she had urinary reflux where her bladder was not emptying all the way of urine and it was reflxing back up the tubes to the kidney. Frequnt urination is the major symptom.

It can be very serious if they get a bladder infection because it is most certainly going to get in their kidneys. The rang of treatment varies as to the severity of the condition- we did pro biotics to prevent an infection for about a year and as her body grew it sealed off the leak and she has been fine. More sever cases can require preventative antibiotics or surgery. good luck- hope you read this!


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## lonegirl

Okay, seriously now I feel like I have to pee.

To me it sounds a bit behavioural....my son does this some days if he is paranoid about hving an accident....I remind him that he just went and to wait a bit and see if he has to go in a little while.


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## drowgybonuda

My older son went throught this phase a few times, now my younger son is doing it. I still treat like a UTI just in case-probiotics and cranberry juice and extract.Also, we have been using Mr. Bubble 50th anniversary in the bath instead of the free and clear and looky looky.


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## momtimes3

My 3 1/2 year old daughter has had this same issue for about 5 weeks now. It started about the time we were packing our house up to move and told her that we were having another baby. It has continued since moving to a new state, taking her out of preschool and away from friends, etc. I have taken here to the dr. twice, both times negative for a UTI and diabetes. After reading a lot of your posts, I did a quick google search for Pollakiuria, and found a great web page: http://pedclerk.bsd.uchicago.edu/pollakiuria.html The symptoms fit my daughter to a T, and while I'm not doctor/psychologist, I'm guessing her frequent uriniation is due to the stress of moving and the arrival of #3. Hopefully a little extra TLC will help her get over this issue! Good luck to all the rest of you!


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