How long can a child go without peeing

Signs of dehydration in toddlers: Symptoms, causes, and treatment

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How Long Can You Go Without Peeing? Risks, Complications, Concerns

Doctors recommend emptying your bladder regularly, about once every three hours. But we all know there are situations when that’s just not possible.

From long haul truckers to politicians holding the house floor, there are many instances when adults find themselves in situations where they need to hold it in.

While delaying nature’s call for an hour or two won’t pose any threat to your health, it’s possible to harm your body by holding pee for too long, or by making a habit of not relieving yourself often enough.

A healthy bladder can hold about 2 cups of urine before it’s considered full. It takes your body 9 to 10 hours to produce 2 cups of urine. That’s about as long as you can wait and still be in the safe zone without the possibility of damaging your organs.

In the worst of circumstances, your bladder may stretch to hold even more than 2 cups of fluid. But if for some reason you’re not physically able to pee, or if you notice that your child is not peeing, you’re right to be concerned.

This article will address these concerns, as well as answer questions about what happens to your body when you can’t use the bathroom.

Age	Average bladder size	Time to fill bladder
Infant (0–12 months)	1–2 ounces	1 hour
Toddler (1–3 years)	3–5 ounces	2 hours
Child (4–12 years)	7–14 ounces	2–4 hours
Adult	16–24 ounces	8–9 hours (2 ounces per hour)

Your bladder is an expandable organ. The process of emptying your bladder is not unlike a muscle contraction. Two tubes called ureters bring filtered urine down from your kidneys and into your bladder. Once your bladder contains 16–24 ounces of fluid, it’s considered full.

Research tells us that the bladder has a direct line of communication with your brain. Your bladder is full of receptors that tell your brain how full your bladder is.

Basically, there’s an invisible “fill line” in your bladder. When your urine reaches that point, your brain receives a signal that indicates you need to pee. This happens when your bladder is only a quarter of the way full.

When you first feel the urge to pee, your bladder probably has quite some time to go before it’s completely filled up. And when your bladder becomes full, the muscles around it contract to keep urine from leaking out until you’re ready to release it.

Complications and other health problems with your bladder can lead to conditions like incontinence, overactive bladder, and urinary retention. These conditions are more common when you’re over 50 years old.

The dangers of holding your pee are mostly cumulative. Holding in your pee for six hours during that one memorable road trip probably won’t hurt you long-term.

But if you’re constantly ignoring the urge to pee, you may develop complications. In general, you should go when you feel the need to go!

Here are some of the dangers of holding your pee:

If you don’t empty your bladder often enough, or go a couple of days without emptying it all the way, it can result in a urinary tract infection (UTI).
If you hold your pee as a matter of habit, your bladder can start to atrophy. Over time, you may develop incontinence.
When you hold your pee for 10 hours or more, you may develop urinary retention, meaning the muscles in your bladder can’t relax and let you relieve yourself, even when you want to.
In very rare cases, holding your pee can cause your bladder to burst.

Your chances of dying from holding in pee are very, very low. Some doctors might even say it’s nonexistent. In general, your bladder will release involuntarily long before you’re in physical danger.

In rare scenarios, a person may hold their pee for so long that when it’s time to finally release urine, they aren’t able to do it. This can result in a burst bladder. If your bladder were to burst, you would need medical attention immediately. A burst bladder is a life-threatening condition.

When you hold your urine in for days at a time, you’re exposing your body to harmful bacteria that’s meant to be released. This can lead to a UTI, which can escalate to all sorts of complications, including sepsis. Again, this is the exception, not the rule.

Most people can hold their pee occasionally for several hours at a time and be just fine.

Normal urination frequency varies widely from person to person. It also depends on how much fluid you’re drinking each day.

Infants and children have smaller bladders, so they need to empty their bladders more often. Infants typically produce six to eight wet diapers a day, but can urinate much more than that.

Toddlers may seem like they go even more, especially during toilet training, when they may need to empty their bladders 10 or more times.

Once you’re an adult, visiting the bathroom to pee six to seven times per day is considered average. Going as few as 4 times and as many as 10 times is still within the scope of what’s considered normal.

Medications and certain conditions can affect frequency

Certain medications, such as diuretics for high blood pressure, can cause you to need to urinate more frequently. Medical conditions, such as diabetes, pregnancy, and sickle cell anemia, can also result in having to go more often.

Dehydration

If you haven’t been feeling the need to pee in a while, you may be dehydrated. Dehydration happens when your body loses more fluid than it’s taking in. When too much fluid is lost, your body’s function is affected. Symptoms of dehydration can include:

dizziness
infrequent urination
urine that’s brown or dark yellow
dry mouth

Sometimes you may want to relieve yourself, but you have trouble doing so. Certain conditions can affect your ability to pee. These conditions include:

kidney failure
urinary tract infections
enlarged prostate
bladder control problems, such as incontinence, overactive bladder, interstitial cystitis
a blockage that prevents bladder emptying (urinary retention)

If you’re having trouble peeing, you should see a doctor. This is not a symptom you should try to learn to live with.

If your bladder function has been compromised in any way, it could be a symptom of another underlying health problem. Don’t wait a long time to address difficulty peeing. After 36 to 48 hours of symptoms, it’s time to seek a professional diagnosis.

Concerns with young children

It can be harder to know when your child is having difficulty peeing. Especially during the infant or toddler phase, your child can’t communicate with you about what’s going on in their body.

Your pediatrician will probably tell you to count the number of wet diapers your child produces every day. If you’re counting less than 4 wet diapers per day, call your pediatrician.

Pay attention to the color of the urine in your child’s diaper. It should be a clear to light yellow color. Pee that is dark amber or darker could indicate a dehydrated child. Be especially mindful of dehydration for babies and toddlers during the summer months.

Holding in your pee can feel like an emergency. But you’ll be relieved to know that it’s very rare to die of complications from holding in your urine.

As a general rule, empty your bladder whenever the urge strikes. Empty fully every time you go, and try not to rush the process.

There are some medical conditions that can make peeing painful, uncomfortable, or even impossible. If you’re having difficulty peeing, you should see your doctor within a day or two of the onset of symptoms.

Why is it dangerous to endure | Domestos

It is recommended to empty the bladder regularly, about once every three hours. But there are times when this is simply not possible. Find out why it's dangerous to put off going to the bathroom and what the consequences can be.

Author: Gorbunova Anna - pediatrician, infectious disease specialist

Delayed urination for an hour or two does not pose any threat to health. But still, it can harm the body if it happens regularly. nine0003

The bladder is an expandable organ. The process of emptying the bladder is not much different from the contraction of other muscles in our body. The urine filtered by the kidneys is collected in the bladder by two tubes called ureters. The volume of fluid in the bladder of an adult can be about 400-600 ml. The child is 0-12 months old. - 30-60 ml, in children 1-3 years old - 90-150, in children 4-12 years old - 200-400 ml. It takes time to fill it, which depends on age.

For children under one year old, this time is approximately one hour, for children under 3 years old - 2 hours, 6 years old - 3 hours, 12 years old - up to 4 hours, for an adult - 6-8 hours.

Research shows that the bladder is directly connected to your brain, ie. it is full of receptors that tell the brain how full it is. Essentially, there is an invisible "fill line" in the bladder. When urine reaches this point, the brain receives a signal that indicates the need to urinate. This usually happens when the bladder is only a quarter full. Therefore, when we feel the urge to urinate, we still have time before the bladder is completely full. When it fills up, its muscles work to keep urine from “leaking” until the moment is right. nine0003

Holding urine once for several hours is rarely harmful in the long run. The danger of urinary retention has a cumulative effect. That is, if this happens constantly, if a habit is formed to ignore the desire to urinate, then complications may develop.

This complication may be a urinary tract infection. Urine is usually sterile, and normal urine flow usually does not cause bacteria to become infected in the urinary tract. But with urinary retention, the urethra may open slightly and there is the possibility of bacteria penetrating upward into the bladder, causing cystitis, and even into the kidneys, causing pyelonephritis. nine0003

Plus, in some people, high intravesical urine pressure causes the vesicoureteral segment to fail and cause urine to flow back to the kidneys.

This backflow, called reflux, can damage the kidneys.

Likewise, the habit of “be patient” can damage the bladder itself.

If the bladder is stretched too hard, for a long time and regularly, the bladder muscles can become damaged (atrophy) and lose their ability to contract. Subsequently, urinary incontinence may occur. nine0003

With prolonged "patience", for 10 hours or more, on the contrary, urinary retention may develop, due to the fact that the muscles of the bladder cannot relax, even when we want to. In very rare cases, prolonged retention of urine can lead to bladder rupture. The habit of "tolerating", especially if it is formed from early childhood, can extremely adversely affect the development of the urinary organs.

Therefore, it is necessary to empty the bladder whenever this desire arises. In this case, it is necessary to empty it completely and not rush this process. nine0003

An interesting fact here is that in a survey among Russians, Domestos found that 45% of parents say their children try not to go to school toilets. Therefore, it is very important for yourself and your children to form the habit of going to the toilet on time so that undesirable consequences do not occur.

Timely going to the potty in kindergarten usually takes enough time, but with schoolchildren it is more difficult. It is necessary to start training in the use of public toilets and conduct explanatory conversations from early childhood. Public toilets may seem noisy and uncomfortable to small children, but one should try to explain that it is dangerous to “tolerate” in this situation and gradually accustom the child to visiting public toilets, for example, when you go to cafes, children's clubs. Then already at an older age, in school years, a skill will be developed - to control yourself at a break and go to the toilet before the lesson, so as not to endure during the lesson. nine0003

Yes, our public toilets are often unattractive. They are often not cleaned, have worn-out plumbing, cubicle doors often do not close or are completely absent, as in the bathrooms of many schools, they also often lack hygiene products and dryers are broken. Therefore, the feeling of awkwardness and disgust often overpowers the natural need of our children. And this can be understood. After all, it is ideal when you can choose a clean toilet, which, of course, will have a cleaning schedule on the door, soap and toilet paper, towels or a working hand dryer. Then we will have no obstacles to go to the toilet. nine0003

First of all, all public organizations that have public toilets, especially in children's institutions, are supposed to follow the rules for their maintenance. Then nothing will interfere with this important need, and we, and especially our children, will not have to restrain ourselves to our detriment.

That's why the Domestos brand launched the project “You can't stand learning”, where we have to put a comma ourselves. The project focuses on the low level of sanitary maintenance of school bathrooms and how this can affect the health of the child. As part of the project, the brand helped schools by renovating bathrooms, and launched an educational campaign for parents, students and teachers across the country to help them immerse themselves in the problem and encourage them to pay more attention to the topic of hygiene by collecting expert materials on the topic on the website. link. nine0003

how much the child should write

The indicator of the quantity and quality of urination in a child gives the most honest answer to the question about the state of the child's health. Knowing to parents how much a child should write per day is useful in order to track deviations in the baby’s health in time.

Too frequent or infrequent urination may indicate that the child is hypothermic or that the nervous system is disturbed. nine0003

Table of normal urination for children depending on age.

This table was compiled by the Soviet pediatrician Papayan Albert Vazgenovich based on many years of practice and research. From 1974 to 2002 he was the chief pediatric nephrologist in St. Petersburg.

It will help you find out how much your child should write.

Below we present the recommendations of A.V. Papayan on how the process of defecation should take place in order not to damage health

Excessive demand from parents to “piss on the track” can lead to future problems in adulthood, when an accomplished man or woman becomes nervous that they cannot endure more than 30 minutes. Although an adult bladder in a healthy state can store urine for 2-3 hours without consequences. But the habit brought up from childhood disrupts this process.

It is important to add to the above that it is impossible to endure and delay the storage of morning urine! nine0052

Nephrologists also warn about the risk of hemorrhoids and various abnormalities in the pelvic organs. This leads to the habit of sitting on the toilet for more than 10-15 minutes. And the tension in the process of defecation leads to some form of prolapse, i.e. omission or protrusion of part of the tissues of the rectum. Pushing and reading on the toilet is also not allowed!

Do not strain your stomach and play with the force of the jet when urinating.

Pantyhose and underwear, doctors recommend lowering to the very ankles to relax the muscles of the pelvic floor. nine0003
The process of urination should be carried out without any tension in the body. This improves the chances of bladder emptying.

When it comes to assessing the number of times a child urinates, the following factors should be taken into account:

Normally, urine should be light yellow, straw-colored. Too concentrated a saturated color or an almost colorless liquid indicates a delay or frequent urination.

More important is how much fluid the body removes, not how often it does so. nine0088
Be sure to consider other circumstances (state of health, nervous condition, food consumed).

So, if your child, for example, is 2 years old, then it is not at all necessary that he should urinate 12 times, as shown in the table. It is quite normal when the baby walks on a small one 6-8 times a day, but at the same time, he should still excrete about 800 ml of urine.

We believe that this is a very sensitive topic, but every loving and caring mother of our club should know about it. nine0097 Of course, the opinion of doctors is very important for every mother, but every mother should learn to analyze the condition of her child.
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