5 Year Old "Leaking" All the Time in Her Panties

My daughter would have that problem when she was in pre-k and kindergarten also on the rare occassion in 1st grade. She waited until the very last second to go to the bathroom. She just did not want to stop what she was doing. She still does that but no leaking since she can control it more now.

Also, if she is a really deep sleeper at this point, she will not wake up to go to the bathroom at night since the signals are not strong enough yet. One of the key issues with bed-wetters is how deep they sleep or lack of sleep. My son was like this.

My daughter (3.5) just went through a small phase of this. She has been potty trained for over a year including nights with maybe 1-2 accidents since training. It also started right after the time she started pre-k. For her, we concluded the problem was that she does not wipe properly. She is in such a rush to get back to playing, she barely finishes peeing then just takes a quick swipe and pulls her pants back up....so that is where we get the wet panties. Sometimes she probably hasn't even fully emptied her bladder or she just doesn't wipe and it drips. Since then, we have had to make it a point to show her the correct way to wipe and be on her about it for a bit. I instructed her that she should finish peeing, get off the potty and squat down. Then wipe front privates fully while squating and then her butt before throwing the tissue in the potty. This squating slows her down and she does a much better job. It took awhile for her to get it, with us consistently reminding her to squat and wipe. She only gets a leak every now and then since we started this, maybe twice a month. We just re-remind her it is important to wipe well. We remind her that if she doesn't wipe well enough it leads to wet underwear, and sometimes itchy red rash on her privates. Try having her squat and even demonstrate to her so she gets the idea. You can be wearing clothes if you are uncomfortable going in front of her. Good luck!

**EDIT**
Just wanted to add that like some other posters have mentioned you should definitely rule out medical causes first as it can be a UTI or other urinary problem. I did have those things ruled out first by my ped because you never know.

simplest solution, put a panty liner in her undies

I have a 6 year old who still has accidents. She would always wait when she was playing with kids too. I added it all to her allowance schedule. SO it isn't really a penalty but that we address it regularly. It didn't help that her sister has been potty trained and hasn't worn a pull up since she was early 3. I am not sure what causes the accidents and she went quite a while without them and now has been having some accidents again.

We have found that if she goes to bathroom before bed then she typically does not have a night time accident. Talk with your doctor about it. He may have some ideas.

A.,
I agree with Jen...she could have a urinary tract infection. My sister's daughter has had a few of these and she also had a yeast infection too. If that is not the case, you may ask her teacher what her suggestion is for having her use the bathroom more at school. She may just be holding it too long and afraid to go to the bathroom alone for some reason. I think the pantyliners would be uncomfortable for her...but that is just my opinion. I would not think a pediatrician would recommend those either. It may be something to do with being in a wet pull up during the night...it could cause an infection? Have you tried having her pee before she gets into bed and then waking her before you go to bed to have her try to go again?I would try leaving her in her underwear and put down a waterproof pad under her bottom sheet. Good luck and I hope it resolves itself soon.

The other answers seem helpful, but wanted to add 2 thoughts - UTI can cause "leaking" and not everyone has pain symptoms.

Also, talk to her about completely emptying her bladder (also good tip for any adults prone to UTI's, like I am.) Have her lean forward slightly when she urinates, and wait a moment or two after finishing to make sure her bladder is empty.

If you can get in with a pediatric urologist, that may be best.

I had a leaking problem in elementary school. I would go to the bathroom and shortly afterwards, a small amount of urine would leak out. Just a little, not enough to require a change of underwear but is would be damp.

After seeing a urologist, they discovered I had obstructions in my urinary tract which were removed. Because of my young age, I was put under general anesthesia.

It wasn't serious nor was it surgery.....I hope your daughter's diagnosis is something much simplier such as her bladder control is a little delayed but I wanted to share my story b/c it took my doctors a bit of time before they discovered the real problem.

My stepdaughter had this problem when she was six. It came from either rushing too fast to go to the bathroom and not emptying her bladder fully, or from waiting too long to go and a little bit leaked out (usually while she was standing by the potty and was anticipating going.) Once in a while this still happens.

We solved the problem by making her go to the bathroom at scheduled times, and standing there to make sure she didn't rush through.

You could probably talk to the daycare about this problem and they could put her on a potty schedule (we used to do that with some kids when I worked at a daycare). They could also have someone stand there and make sure she slows down and empties her bladder and not rushes through.

You could use a thin pantyliner in her underwear at daycare. If she wets then they could change the pantyliner so she didn't soil her underwear or smell.

It's a very common problem they should be able to help you work through it!

Well to help with the leaking problem, try the panty liners that women use on the light days after their cycle. Then work on getting her out of the pull ups at night. You will have to limit fluids before bedtime and get her up and take her to the bathroom at night so she will get use to getting up and going on her own. She could have the leaking problem because she forgets that she doesn't have on a pull up during the day and waits to long to get to the washroom. I hope this helps.