Moms – Baby Your Bladders

Posted in Uncategorized
by Kelly Boyer Sagert

As a busy mom, you don’t always have the time – or make the time – for yourself. You’ve got to drive the kids to school or day care, manage a household, nurse children who are ill, shop for and prepare meals – and perhaps juggle a fulltime job, besides.

Who has any time for left over herself, much less for her bladder?

If, however, you feel as though you have frequent bladder infections, especially if your cultures don’t show bacteria, it’s extremely important that you make time to discuss this with your doctor.

It’s possible that you have a chronic (and as of yet incurable) condition called Interstitial Cystitis (IC). If so, then the earlier that you have this condition diagnosed and the earlier that you begin treatment, the better off that you will most likely be.

Unfortunately, although increasing numbers of medical personnel are aware of IC, this is not universally true – and so you must advocate for your own bladder health, just as you would for any health conditions that your children have.

Approximately 90% of the estimated one million Americans with IC are women and, although symptoms can start at any age, women are often in their 20s through 40s when diagnosed – most likely coinciding with the years when children are still at home.

If you have IC, you will typically have tiny holes in your bladder’s lining, so your bladder is no longer completely protected from irritating bodily fluids. About 5 to 10 percent of women who have IC also have painful Hunner’s ulcers on their bladders. Typical symptoms of IC include urinary frequency and urgency and pelvic pain.

I don’t mean to scare you. Just as most animals that walk like ducks and sound like ducks are in fact ducks, most conditions that feel like bladder infections are in fact infections that are easily treatable by antibiotics; just not always.

IC is generally managed by a combination of diet, medicines and other treatments, ranging from soothing instillations into the bladder itself to a device that is similar to a pacemaker for the heart.

To protect your bladder, you will most likely need to avoid citrus and other acidic foods; caffeine; carbonation; hot spices; artificial preservatives and flavorings; and alcohol.

One of the most troublesome ingredients is cranberries, something that you might be ingesting if you believe you have a bladder infection. Although cranberries may help fight bacteria in your urinary tract, when you have IC, eating or drinking this fruit is similar to pouring acid on an open wound.

At first, the IC diet can seem overwhelming to follow, but I can say that the three years that I’ve followed this diet have been the years that I’ve eaten the healthiest meals. Plus, there are plenty of delicious foods that are bladder-friendly and the foods that affect some women with IC negatively don’t necessarily affect another woman. Moreover, there is an over-the-counter supplement, Prelief, which removes some acid from food, expanding dietary choices for many with IC.

For more information, see the Interstitial Cystitis Association web site at http://www.ichelp.org/ or the Interstitial Cystitis Network web site at http://www.ic-network.com/. There are multiple support groups on Facebook and I’ve recently learned of another supportive online network found at http://icfriends.ning.com/. You could also email me at kbsagert@aol.com.