Question

[SaraJ]

How do you know your kid has IC? Thay all go to the bathroom a good bit, but my son goes constantly.... He goes about every anout every thirty minutes which seems to me like an ICer. No complaints about pain, but makes me worry....

[ICNJess]

Sara,

I so wish I could help you here. I was an IC child (though not diagnosed till 2 years ago, I am 22 now) and the biggest marker I can remember, is that I was very hard to potty train, because I had a lot of accidents. All I can say is that you should bring this up with your pediatrician--he or she might want to run some tests to make sure that everything is functioning well (i.e. kidneys, ureters, bladder). I hope someone has got some expertise in this area...I would like to say, though, had I been diagnosed earlier on, I think the more traditional treatments would have worked with me, as my urologist stated that my IC is actually progressive. (He compared two hydros one year apart from each other)

Hugs,
Jess

[desolationangel]

If it persists, I would talk to a doctor, but I hear that a lot of kids go through phases like this but end up just fine in the end.

[ICNDonna]

I agree that you need to discuss your concerns with his doctor. And be very sure you don't make an issue of it with him. If you draw any attention to it, it could make it worse.

Hugs,
Donna

[SaraJ]

He is 4 and a half - is not really potty trained fully - has lots of accidents and says his peepee hurts alot - we alway thought his pull ups were bothering it but he is in underware now and he still is having problems. Would a uro see a child as little as him or just his pediatrician. We don't make a big deal about it with him though.

[kelly McC]

Hello,
There are pediatric uro's you might want to talk to your childs doctor as I dont know if you need a referral or not.. My son would go very often and would cry from the pain. He wet his cloths mostly at school because the teachers would refuse to allow to go so often. He wet the bed. We did take him to his doctor ran some tests looked him over and wrote a note for school to allow him unlimited bathroom access. It lasted a few years and he did out grow. We never made a big deal out of it we just felt bad for him the children at school however were not so kind... I would talk to his doctor cant hurt to check it out. Poor little guy
huggs,
Kelly

[Ginny]

I read somewhere that bedwetting (if this is part of the accidents) could be a milk allergy. It is worth a try to take him off milk for awhile.

Ginny

[mom_in_ma]

There ARE pediatric urologists and they can be wonderful!

We had a heck of a time training my now five year old and he was still having lots of daytime accidents up until the point that he was starting kindergarten. We took him to a ped. urologist at Boston Children's. They ran the typical tests...which I admit are not very fun for a five year old boy. He was awesome though! It turned out that he had a very overactive bladder which was spasming. He would try his best to hold it and just couldn't. Poor thing. In fact, much of the time he wasn't even aware that he'd had an accident.

Anyway....the good part of this story is that we have him on medication (oxybutnin) and he's going great! The doctor said that while not common, it's not uncommon either. And thankfully, he said that most kids outgrow this condition.

Also, there was one time he complained about pain when going pee, but it turned out to be a small bout of cystitis from a viral infection, which apparently is common in kids. Who knew?

Hope this helps! While I'm not a big believer in "fate" or "it was meant to happen," I do sometimes think that my developing I.C. was a way to get me to understand and help my little guy through his problems.

[Sbuck409]

I often wonder the same thing about my daughter. She is alot like me when I was a child and I went to the bathroom a lot more than most kids and she is so much like me. My DR said that I have had IC for a long time they just did not tell me that was what i had till later. But I wonder do I want to put her threw what I have been threw. Let me know what you deside to do.

[mom of icgurl]

With my daughter, we were luckier going to a female uro with experience with IC, than with the pediatric uro. My daughter has classic symptoms, constant pain of glass and boiling water in her bladder, frequency, urgency, she is miserable. When we saw the HEAD ped. uro, he told her she is fine, just needs to be more active. We now drive to another state to see a wonderful uro, who is a female, very nice, understanding, and has made a world of difference for my daughter. She is not in remission yet, but we definately see better days. Make sure you find a doctor you are comfortable with.

[jrowley]

Sara you might want to take a look at this article and discuss it with your doctor.

http://www.ichelp.org/FeatureArticles/AnInDepthLookAtChildrenWithIC.html