The causes of frequent urination in children may be triggered by different conditions, with the main one being an overactive bladder. Have you noticed your child frequently having an urgent and intense urge to urinate? Your child may have just urinated, but will still have a sudden compulsion to pass out urine just minutes after.

Overactive bladder is quite different from bedwetting, though both conditions are common in young children and can affect their daily activities.

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In this article, we extensively discussed the causes of frequent urination, and the possible home remedies and other forms of treatment to eliminate symptoms of frequent urination.

Causes of Frequent Urination in children
The causes of frequent urination in children may be dependent on the age of a child. For children within the 4-5 age bracket, frequent urination may be caused by:

An ailment
change in activities
Failure to use the toilet as at when they should
illness
For other ages, the causes of frequent urination in children may be:

excess intake of fizzy drinks or caffeine
constipation
anxiety
emotional upset
recurrent urinary tract infections
inability to recognize when bladder is full due to nerve damage
abstaining from completely clearing bladder
sleep apnea

The causes of frequent urination in children of other age group may be delay in growth and maturity. This is not always a cause for alarm because the issue of frequent urination normally resolves on its own as the child gets older.

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It is possible for a child to purposely hold their urine, this is very wrong, and you ought to advise your child against this practice. When a child hold back urine instead of emptying bladder on time, it can have long-term consequences such as:

Recurrent urinary tract infection
Kidney damage
Inability to completely empty bladder
Increased urge and frequency to pass out urine
Urinary incontinence
Ensure you consult a doctor immediately if you notice issues of frequent urination in your child.

Symptoms of Frequent Urination in Children
Apart from frequent urge to urinate, there are other symptoms that may help doctors to diagnose a child’s overactive bladder condition. Normally, a child is supposed to use the bathroom at least 4 to 5 times daily. However, children with overactive bladder usually have a contracted bladder which stimulates the frequent urge to urinate, even when the bladder is scarcely full.

Frequent urination in children come with different signs and symptoms such as:

Frequent UTIs
Not passing out urine despite urge
Daytime accidents
Jumping from foot to foot, particularly when they wouldn’t tell you they have urge to urinate.
Leakage of urine when sneezing, coughing, belching, playing, or other forms of activities.

Bedwetting
Bedwetting is another cause for frequent urination in children. The medical term for bedwetting is nocturnal enuresis. Bed-wetting is a nocturnal occurrence that arises when children are unable to control their night-time urination. Simply put, bedwetting is the involuntary passing out of urine during sleep, particularly at night. Enuresis is the medical term for wetting in bed at night, it is also called urinary incontinence.

It is normal for infants and children younger than 4 to experience nocturnal enuresis. However, after age four, most children able to able to achieve some form of control over their bladder even at night.

Bedwetting may be controlled by several factors including:

Bedwetting commonly occurs in male children.
Maturity rate. The rate at which a child develops can affect bedwetting
Emotional health. Eemotional and physical abuse may influence bedwetting.
Chronic illness
Bedwetting Causes
Though bedwetting causes, particularly in adults may signify an underlying medical condition, most children who experience bedwetting have no causal ailment.

Bedwetting causes in children may include:

Inability of child to hold urine for the night.
Inability of the child to wake and use the toilet when bladder is full.
Child produces a large amount of urine during evening and night hours.
The child holds back or retains urine during daytime.
Excess intake of fluids during day and evening hours
Bedwetting is hereditary and runs in families, in most cases. Most bedwetting children have a parent who did, too.

Treating Frequent Urination in Children
Frequent urination in children normally resolves on its own as the child grows older in age and matures. After the age of 5, a child should be able to hold more urine in the bladder and they develop a better response to passing out urine at any time of the day, including the night time.

Also, the issue of frequent urination in children would be checked by the stability of an antidiuretic hormone which is responsible for producing urine.

Medications
A pediatrician may prescribe medications to help your child if frequent urination persists for longer than necessary. A laxative may be prescribed to ease constipation while an antibiotics may be administered to treat any urinary tract infection that is causing the frequent urination.

There are also medications like oxybutynin, to help relax the bladder of children, thereby decreasing the urge to frequently urinate.

Home Remedies for Frequent Urination in Children
Avoid giving your child drinks and food that contains caffeine because it can stimulate the bladder which can cause frequent urination in children.
Avoid punishing a child for bedwetting, instead reward them for every time they wake up dry. It would encourage them to build their control.
Serve bladder-friendly foods and drinks by giving your child foods that are good for the bladder such as diluted squash, pumpkin seeds, and cranberry juice to eliminate the cause of frequent urination in children.

The actual causes of frequent urination in children is not so serious, and it often resolves with time. However, you should consult your doctor if your child is having serious urination problems, particularly for children who are 7 years and older.

It may necessitate an older child undergoing voiding tests, which has to do with taking measurements of the volume of urine left after emptying bladder. Ultrasound may be performed to check the structural condition of the child’s bladder.

Source: https://healthdiary365.com/causes-of-frequent-urination-in-children/