Dribbling during the day
One of the most common symptoms among young children between the ages of three and eight is a phenomenon called ‘urinary dribbling’. These children have learned how to control their bladder while they are awake, they know that they have to urinate in the toilet and are even able to do so when asked. Even so, they sometime “forget” to go to the bathroom and urinate, and instead wet their pants during daytime.
So why do these children continue to wet during the day?
When we are awake, the cognitive mechanism in the brain controls all the actions we take. The brain is exposed to a huge amount of intracorporal and extracorporeal stimuli, many of which occur at the same time. The brain then analyzes and deciphers which message to send first through the central nervous system, and we respond accordingly.
When the child’s bladder is full, it sends a stimulus to the brain. The stimulus sent from the bladder competes with other stimuli absorbed at the same time in the brain, because of the child’s engagement in other activities at the same time. In other words, when the child is in the middle of a computer game that requires concentration, or watching his favorite show on TV, the brain is “busy” with this activity and does not recognize, pick up and decipher other stimuli, such as the stimulus that is sent from the bladder and signals that it is full and needs to be emptied.
The likelihood that the urinal dribbling will occur during an activity that requires concentration is high, because the stimulus sent from the bladder needs to be absorbed and processed by the brain at the same time as other stimuli, which might have stronger intensity. This condition makes it difficult for the brain to analyze and decipher the stimulus from the bladder, which already got too full to hold all the liquid in.
Day dribbling and bedwetting
There is no direct connection between day dribbling and bedwetting, as the two mechanisms are not related; but the phenomenon can make bedwetting treatment somewhat more difficult.
However, when we target the bedtime problem, using special exercises for strengthening the bladder muscles, the daytime situation may also improve (although that cannot be guaranteed). [Learn more about our bedwetting treatment exercises and the Paula method]
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