When you drink something it goes down into your stomach (your tummy).
From there it goes to your intestines and into your blood.
When your blood gets filtered by your kidneys the water that is no longer needed gets turned into wee and is sent to the bladder. The bladder looks like a small balloon. It is small when it’s empty but it grows in size when it fills up with wee.
When the bladder is full it is time to go for a wee.
From the bladder there is a tube called the urethra which the wee comes out of when you go.
Why we need to wee
Think of your bladder like a sink. When the plug is in you can fill a sink with water from the taps. If you keep pouring water into the sink it will fill up. If you leave the taps on without taking the plug out it will fill up so much it overflows onto the floor.
If you keep filling your bladder it will get full up and will overflow, this means that the wee either goes back up to your kidneys, which can make you ill, or it may force its way down, which will make you wet.
You need to wee many times a day to stop your bladder overflowing.
How much you should wee
Most children wee about 5 to 7 times a day: you should probably be weeing this much too.
Your doctor or nurse will be able to tell you how many times a day to wee with your catheter.
Different problems
A lot of things affect your body’s ability to keep wee in the bladder or to empty the bladder.
Usually if things don’t work the way they should it’s because of you have been ill or you may have been hurt.
It can happen to anyone, kids or grown ups.
Incontinence is a word that means you wee yourself and you can’t help it.
Retention means you aren’t able to do a wee even when you need to.
You might have one of these problems or you might have them both.
For you to be able to do a wee, your bladder and brain need to be able to talk to each other. Without talking to each other the brain doesn’t know that you need a wee, so it can’t tell your bladder to squeeze your wee out. Catheters help you to get your wee out when your bladder and brain are not able to talk to each other.
Sometimes you may get an infection which can make you feel poorly, but your doctor can help and using LoFric catheters should mean this doesn't happen very often.
Different ways to wee
There are different ways of getting to school – some children go on their bikes and some walk to school.
There are different ways to wee. Some people go straight into a toilet, some wee with the help of a catheter, there’s nothing odd about it, it’s just the way some people do it.
What is a catheter?
A catheter is a little tube which you can put into your bladder when you need to do a wee and it will get the wee out for you. The times you need to do your catheter can be fitted around your day, you can do it before and after you go to school as well as during play time and lunch time. Sometimes you might need to be reminded by your teacher or parents but usually you’ll be able to remember by yourself.
