Preventing incontinence

Everyone deserves to live with confidence and dignity. These five simple everyday habits can help reduce the risk of incontinence and improve health and wellbeing.

Habit 1: Keep moving

Aim for 30 minutes of movement each day, doing what you enjoy when it suits you. Whether it’s gardening, walking, dancing or playing with the children or grandchildren, every bit counts.

Exercise helps your bowel to move food and waste through your body and can help prevent constipation.

Habit 2: Eat well

Eat a variety of whole grains, fruits, vegetables, legumes (beans), nuts and seeds. Every day, try to eat:

• 2 pieces of fruit
• 5 serves (small handfuls) of vegetables
• 5 serves (small handfuls) of wholegrain cereals and breads.

These foods have lots of fibre which helps your bowel to keep faeces (poo) soft and easy to pass.

Tip: When you eat lots of fibre, make sure you also drink lots of water.

Habit 3: Drink enough fluids

Drink enough fluids so you don’t feel thirsty. Talk to your doctor about how much fluid is right for you. Water is best to drink, but fluids also include juice, milk and soup.

• Spread your drinks evenly throughout the day
• Drink more fluids (preferably water) if the weather is hot or if you are exercising.
• Cut down on alcohol, fizzy drinks and caffeinated drinks (such as coffee or cola) as they can upset the bladder.

Tip: While it may seem helpful to drink less when managing bladder issues, drinking enough water can help to manage leaking of urine (wee). Drinking enough fluids helps to stop the faeces (poo) becoming hard. It also avoids the urine (wee) being too concentrated which can sometimes irritate the bladder and cause leaks.

Habit 4: Look after your pelvic floor

Do pelvic floor exercises 3 times a day. These muscles can be trained anytime, anywhere – by people of any age, gender or fitness level.

Making sure to stay at a healthy body weight for your age and gender is also important for pelvic floor health, as carrying extra weight can increase the work the pelvic floor muscles have to do.

Find out about pelvic floor exercises.

Habit 5: Practice good toilet habits

For your bowels (doing a poo), go to the toilet when you feel the urge (need) to go. For many people this is first thing in the morning or after a meal. Holding on can cause constipation.

For your bladder, it’s okay to hang on for a little while. Going to the toilet ‘just in case’ can train your bladder to empty urine (wee) too often, leading to accidental leaking before reaching the toilet.

Simple changes such as posture (how you sit), timing and routine can make toileting better. Follow these tips:

• when you sit on the toilet, place your knees a little higher than your hips and rest your forearms on your thighs (see picture). This will make it easier to pass faeces (poo)
• bulge out your abdomen (tummy), relax your anus (back passage) and let go. Don’t hold your breath or strain
• when you have finished firmly draw up your back passage by squeezing your pelvic floor muscles
• always wipe from front to back to keep germs away from the bladder. This will help prevent infection.

By making the decision to engage in these five healthy habits every day – moving your body, eating a fibre-rich diet, drinking enough fluids, pelvic floor exercises, and good toilet practices – people of all ages can take active steps to reduce the risk of incontinence and feel more confident in their health.

If you have questions or experience issues, talk to a nurse continence specialist, pelvic health physiotherapist or GP (doctor) for advice.

This content has been reviewed by sub­ject mat­ter experts in line with Continence Health Australia’s established process. Read about our clinical content review protocol.