Children's continence service

We see children who are experiencing problems with their bowels and bladder, to assess their problems and to give them some advice on ways to help. We see a range of children/young people, some for whom this is their only healthcare need and others who have a range of complex needs.

When you come to see us in clinic we will begin by asking questions about the problem. Please try not to get embarrassed, as we are always talking about wee and poo.

You may find that we ask you to complete further work at home. We try to make it simple and age appropriate but it is important that you try to complete this.

If you have any questions you want to ask, it might be helpful to write them down before your appointment. We will do our best to answer these at your appointment.

All things discussed in clinic are confidential and will not be shared with anyone else unless you give permission – the only exception to this is if we are worried  that your child/young person is in danger. However in most cases we will discuss this with you.

Alfreton Primary Care Centre

Church Street, Alfreton DE55 7AH

Telephone: 01246 515100 (option 2)

Email: DCHST.childrenscontinenceteam@nhs.net

Product order line: 0800 030 4466 (please note you will require your child’s ID number and date of birth)

Most children/young people will be seen initially in one of our clinics. The clinics are held at the following locations:

Alfreton Primary Care Centre

Church Street, Alfreton DE55 7AH

Telephone: 01773 546841

Ripley Hospital

Sandham Lane, Ripley DE5 3HE

Telephone: 01773 743456

Heanor Memorial Health Centre

Ilkeston Road, Heanor DE75 7EA

Telephone: 01773 599410

Ilkeston Community Hospital

Heanor Road, Ilkeston, DE7 8LN 

Telephone: 0115 930 5522

Long Eaton Health Centre

Midlands Street, Long Eaton, NG10 1RY

Telephone: 0115 855400

Swadlincote Health Centre

Civic Way, Swadlincote, DE11 0AE

Telephone: 01283 818000

Repton Heath Centre 

Askew Grove, Repton, DE65 6SH

Telephone: 01283 707170

St Oswalds Hospital

22 Clifton Road, Ashbourne, DE6 1DR

Telephone: 01335 230000

Hannage Brook Medical Centre

Hannage Way, Wirksworth, Matlock, DE4 4JG

Telephone: 01629 822434

The initial appointment will last approximately one hour. At the end of the appointment a plan of care will be agreed with the child/young person, parent/guardian and nurse.

If we feel that other people need to be involved to help you we may agree to see you at school or at home.

We have provided advice below on lifestyle changes to promote continence. We can also provide equipment such as enuresis alarms or washable or disposable continence products for disabled children/young people who are not able to be continent.

We will work with you and your GP/Paediatrician around appropriate medication.

Referrals

Children’s continence referrals are accepted from health professionals. All referrals will be sent to our central point of access site in Chesterfield.

Firstly, let us reassure you that continence issues in children are extremely common. Whether they are struggling during the day, during the night or both, we have lots of help and advice to support you and your little one. View our continence guides and leaflets.

We have provided lots of fun activities to do with your child around continence issues including resources that may help them on their toileting adventure in the 'I am a child' and 'useful information and links' sections.

ERIC

ERIC is a national charity for children and young people with continence needs. The website contains information such as self-help guides, case studies and fun activities for your little ones. These help promote toilet training and advice for children and their families on how to work towards healthy bowels and bladders.

If you have tried the self-help advice above and have had no success please contact your health visitor, school nurse or GP for more support and advice.

Please note that from July 2020 we are using a new product delivery system. The number can be found on our main page and your child's ID and date of birth are needed to use the automated line. Products may take from three to 10 days to be delivered.

Many of the referrals into the service are due to basic healthy bowel and bladder advice not being followed - for example due to poor fluid intake.

We encourage all professionals to ask families to follow the advice in the continence leaflets and signpost them to the information on this page (particularly 'I am a parent' and 'I am a child') before referring into our service.

You can also check you are making an appropriate referral by downloading and completing our Continence Level 1 Checklist.

Please ask your families to complete a bladder and bowel diary to send with the referral.

If all the advice in stage one has been followed and there are still continence issues, you can download and complete the referral form and email it to crhft.DerbyshirechildrenscontinenceL2@nhs.net

For SystmOne users, please complete the referral form electronically through the system.

It's really important to remember that lots of children have wet accidents whether in the day or in bed at night. There are many things that can be done to help these accidents go away.

There are lots of fun activities to try to help you with your toileting adventure.

Poo and wee are fun to talk about. If you or a grown-up at home have a tablet or smart phone, you can download the Pooland App which has a video about 'sending Poo home'.

• Poo goes to Pooland - app for Android
• Poo goes to Pooland - app for Apple iPhone

Going to the toilet gives us lots of jobs to do and sometimes we can get in a bit of a muddle. We have found that picture routines help us to remember all the steps we have to do when visiting the toilet.  

Here are a some guidance and advice pictures to download. 

• Boy's toileting sequence
• Girl's toileting sequence

Who would have thought that wiping your bottom could be so tricky? For some this is more difficult than for others. 

For some children no matter how hard they try, reaching their bottom is incredibly difficult. There is a quick test we try to see if this is something that is achievable and you can try it right now.

If you can raise your arm and place it over your head to touch your opposite ear then we feel pretty confident your arm can reach to wipe your bottom.

Here are more picture sequence cards to help you learn all the steps in bottom wiping.

• Girl's toileting sequence
• Boy's toileting sequence

After all your hard work we think you deserve a sticker, use our reward star chart and see how many stars you can collect.

Bowel and Bladder UK - covers all the subjects above. Follow the links within the site to the relevant continence issue.

ERIC is a great organisation that supports children and families with continence issues. It has a helpline and blogs written from families sharing their experiences of their child's continence problems.