Where to start.... Hi, I have an 11 year old that had the same problem with his bladder from an early age also, we had all the testing done by his ped. and his bladder and kidneys were just fine. He does have a small bladder and was put on oxybutinin which he had to take two or three times a day and I found he had lots of side effects from that, the worst one being that he was unable to sweat, and he did competitive gymnastics so that was really bad.. I couldn't afford ditropan XL because its really expensive and we were students, so we ended up contacting the company directly and they were able to send samples to the doctor for us.. that was awesome, so my first question is, is he on Ditropan XL or just oxybutinin, and if he is just on oxybutinin have you tried Ditropan XL, it works way better... Next what medical tests have they done? My son, has had VCUG's, CT scans, ultrasounds...blood tests...the poor kid hates the hospital, but the tests were good and it wasn't until he was sent to ped. urologist that we found the problem. His bladder is small and just so slightly tilted, so when he pees, his bladder doesn't completely drain, and then when he least expects it he leaks... poor kid. So they upped his Ditropan XL because it does increase the size of his bladder and he was on it for a really, really long time. The other thing that we did was, hard as it was, we didn't talk about it, other than like a weekly check to see how things are going, we didn't discuss accidents, we just dealt with them. I know how you feel because I dealt with this problem with not one but 2 of my sons and have been for 8 years now. It does get better, it just takes time and patience. There is really no point in frustrating your self and embarrassing him when he really may have no control over the situation. I don;t agree with the pull up idea, it is really demeaning to put him back in them, (except at night, my son wears good nights and has never had an issue with it), but at school, or in public, it would be really self-esteem crushing. I found that once my son was on the right medication and the right dose and we stopped making any deal about it, good or bad, the situation got WAY better, not gone by better. Hang in there, its a hard one to deal with but just know that he won't go to highschool with the problem so be patient.
S. ~ SAHM of 4 sons, aged 11,9,7,and 3. They are a handful and oh so much fun.. I love the excitement of everyday life!