Dr Catherine
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Girl
8-15 years

He has flat out refused to speak to the doctor about it, and I don't want to press the issue. He is embarrassed when it happens at school though, so I was wondering if there might be something that I could buy him to hide that he leaked.

Dear Jacob, while I completely understand your sons reluctance to speak to anyone about this and your desire not to push the issue, any form of daytime wetting after the age of 5 years really needs to be investigated by a doctor. Medically, leakage can be the result of (1) stress incontinence, which describes the involuntary loss of urine when coughing or sneezing, (2) urge incontinence, which is the involuntary loss of urine following an overwhelming urge to wee, or (3) overflow incontinence, which refers to the constant dribbling of urine which typically occurs when children urinate frequently but in small amounts. Once you are able to determine the underlying cause this will determine how best to manage the situation. A medical cause will obviously need a medical intervention. In the meantime he could certainly use DryNites to help manage his daytime wetting. He would need to ensure that these are changed regularly to avoid leakage and he would probably want to look at avoiding the use of school urinals where there is the chance of his friends discovering his use of absorbent pants. Kind regards, Dr Cathrine