Athimbar
My son is a high functioning autistic child and is attending a special needs class for children with delayed learning. He is now 11 years old. Over the years he has had various tics (mannerisms) which come and go. They last for about 4 to 6 months and then somehow he gets over these mannerisms and is without one for a brief period only for another one to start. We normally are not too worried, although we are anxious when a new mannerism starts as he then stands out from the crowd. He stopped bed wetting when he was about 3 to 4 years old. However about 5 years ago he developed this habit of day time wetting. At night he is completely dry. He dribbles in minute quantities. He voids in the toilet periodically whenever he feels the need to. This first day time wettiung episode lasted for about 4 months and stopped. It recurred again one or two years after the first episode and again stopped automatically after 6 months or so. However the latest episode has lasted about 18 months and shows no sign of stopping. We have regularly started getting to wear sanitary pads to contain the problem. Sometimes if he is not too careful with the positioning of the pad a wet patch is visible in his trousers and this has become a social problem now with his peers. We have consulted three urologists and have done all the necessary tests. All of them say that the problem is not physical. The day time wetting is in minute dribbles which over time is sufficient to spread to his pants from his underpants. When asked he says that he is not conscious of the leakage that is occuring. We are not absolutely sure but we feel that these days the leak might also be happening at night as some morning we find his underpanst wet. Previously , in the morning he will be totally dry and the problem will only commence after we is awake. We have shifted recently and perhaps thats also contributing to the increase in the leakage. I am desparate for help. Is there someone else out there with a similar problem. What are the strategies that are open to me? We have tried giving him a lot of fluids and getting him to hold it in for long periods so that he gets to know what if feels. We have tried teaching him contracting his muscle exercises. He is able to stop mid stream at will and hold his urine for as long as we want him to. No dripping what so ever when is is doing this. I'm writing this to your feedback line as once I wrote a short message under a general topic and got no response. Plaese post it appropriately and I will really appreciate some help and guidance in the matter. Yours sincerely S Athimbar