Paediatric Continence Physiotherapy

Paediatric continence is a specialised area of treating bladder or bowel problems in toddlers, children and teens.  Your child might be experiencing accidents daily or only every once in a while but it is possible to stop this from occurring.  Your child might have had great support from their doctor, specialist or continence nurse specialists but internationally paediatric physios are a key member of the team as continence problems require a holistic whole-body assessment.  We need to consider the complex systems that influence our bladder and bowel health as these are designed to work in equilibrium.

What we look at:

Are their pelvic muscles overactive, too short, not coordinated, or weak?

Are they breathing correctly how is this influencing their gut health and helping them generate the correct pressures needed for successful continence?

How well are is their core and hip muscles helping to prevent accidence?

What is their sitting balance and load transfer like? (yes! this can cause accidents if loading incorrectly)

What are their bladder and bowel habits like?

What does healthy eating and drinking look like and how does it affect their bowel and bladder well-being?

Is their nervous systems heightened, and how is their sensory system influencing their awareness of what’s happening to their body?

At Auckland Children’s Physiotherapy, we offer specialised treatment techniques that your child may not have tried before such as; core strengthening, breathing biomechanics training, TENS to improve sensory awareness, Biofeedback to help train pelvic floor muscles which are important for preventing accidence but also, cupping and abdominal massage to improve bowel motility and balloon expulsion retraining to help children learn to pass a stool if they never have.

 

For more information visit Continence NZ