Don’t mess with toilet access
29 August 2011
Recent publicity regarding school toilet use has ignited strong feelings in the wider community and provided the Continence Foundation of Australia with an opportunity to highlight the need for good habits early.
Young children - guided by teachers, parents and caregivers - form attitudes to bladder and bowel health that can last a lifetime, so this is a prime time to get it right. Setting healthy habits early is important because incontinence (unwanted leakage from bladder or bowel) and related issues such as constipation and toilet urgency and frequency, have the potential to severely impact upon our quality of life – emotionally, socially, financially. Yet, this health condition remains stigmatised, often unaddressed, misunderstood and avoided.
The proper use of school toilets has long been an issue. Children may dread them for a variety of reasons but the bottom line is that being able to use the toilet when you need to is a basic human right. Holding on when your bladder is begging to be emptied is unpleasant, affects concentration, distracts from activities, and can be devastating for a child if there is an “accident” in front of classmates. Cutting back on fluids in order to avoid having to use the toilet also has its own negative effects, and children who delay using their bowel when they need to can experience bowel dysfunction problems.
Bladder and bowel functions shouldn’t be considered as interfering with other “more important” activities. Not everyone will magically and consistently need to empty their bladder or bowel at exactly the same times across the day. Differing “inputs” of food, fluids, exercise, family dynamics and inherited characteristics all work together to make us unique individuals with differing “outputs”.
All of us - particularly children - are sensitive to cultural programming via negative messages around going to the toilet. It shouldn’t be that way.
View the Continence Foundation of Australia official media release here.
