Paediatric Continence
We are a small friendly paediatric continence team comprising nurses and nursery nurses. We support children up to 19 years of age experiencing delayed toilet training, daytime wetting, treatment-resistant night time wetting and chronic constipation and/or faecal soiling, and their families.
Once your child is referred into our service, we will contact you and provide you with a baseline bladder and bowel chart. This must be returned to our service within 28 days before an initial appointment (at home or in a clinic) is offered.
Our usual clinics across Berkshire are at West Berkshire Community Hospital, Upton Hospital Slough, St Marks Hospital Maidenhead, Bracknell and Wokingham, and White Knights campus Reading.
Your first appointment will be an hour long. We complete a full continence assessment guided by ERIC (the Children’s Bladder and Bowel Charity). We also create an individualised care plan for your child to promote their optimum potential for independence in continence and suitability for toilet training.
We then provide you with an evidenced-based action plan, which might comprise bladder training, regular toileting and toilet positioning, plus advice and guidance on the use of medication to control symptoms.
You’ll be given regular follow-up and support through telephone calls or face to face contact. We also work closely with your child’s school if applicable, and provide schools with a continence treatment plan.
Children with additional needs will be assessed as to their suitability to toilet train in the first instance.
Please be aware only one parent or carer can accompany children or young people to their appointment . We politely remind parent’s and carers that they will need to wear a mask or visor during the appointment. Staff will wear full PPE throughout the appointment and there is cleaning and disinfection of the area and equipment in between appointments.
Toilet training workshops
Some children struggle more than others when learning to use the toilet. This can be for a variety of reasons. We understand how very stressful this is for parents.
We offer free workshops for families in Berkshire covering:
- Toilet training – trouble shooting the difficulties you are experiencing
- How to help your child have a healthy bladder and bowel
- Specific information for families with a child or young person with additional needs
It also provides you with the opportunity for you to ask those difficult questions about toilet training in a safe space. Workshops could be face to face or online.
To book, for parents/carers only: use this link to fill in this form and we will email you the details of our upcoming workshops.
Prior to referral
Children and young people should receive level 1 continence input by healthcare professionals in primary care such as a health visitor, school nurse or community nurse, GP or paediatrician for a minimum of 3 months. This may include advice and support on constipation, toilet training problems or bedwetting (nocturnal enuresis), to promote continence and help in the prevention of treatable conditions such as constipation.
Referrals
As a specialist continence service, referrals are accepted for complex bladder and bowel problems, idiopathic constipation, day and night time wetting, and children with additional needs whose toileting has been delayed and unresponsive to level 1 input and toilet training at home.
A referral will be made to a Consultant Paediatrician/Consultant Paediatric Urologist if red flags are present for medical review.
If you are a professional and wish to make a referral please complete the Paediatric Continence referral form and return it to integratedhub@berkshire.nhs.uk
If you are a parent/carer
Children and Young People can be referred by a healthcare professional involved in their care, for example School Nurse, Health Visitor, GP or Paediatrician. If you are a parent/carer, please speak to one of these people about making a referral.
