Staying hydrated and incontinence

[smnapp]

I have a personal daily goal of 100 oz of water intake. I don’t normally drink anything other than water.

I find that I get distracted during the day with work and life. That usually means I fall behind.

Sometimes I will drink a large glass or bottle of water to catch up during the day. This increases my output within 30-60 minutes. Often requiring a change shortly after.

Other times I will try to catch up in the evening when I am relaxing. This usually results in a extra wet night for me.

I know the health and mental benefits of staying well hydrated. I also know it helps with diaper odors.

Sometimes I just fall behind or loose track all together of the amount of water I am drinking.

Anyone else struggle with is?

 

[SparkyDog]

Staying hydrated can be tough to remember. I drink 2-3 liters per day
Staying hydrated and incontinent seems counterproductive some days but I definitely need my kidneys to work properly.
If you're forgetting you could set reminders on your phone or watch
I typically carry a water bottle around with me.

 

[hbic60]

I also take care to drink 2-3 liters of water per day. At the beginning of my IC I limited my fluid intake to a minimum in order to avoid/reduce my dribbling and urge, which seemed to work well. But very soon I realized which harm is done to your body with doing this and went back to proper hydration level, and accepted that my IC became a real thing. Much more healthier do be well hydrated and accept that you need to wear proper protection!
As mostly working from home office no problem to take care to drink around 3 bottles of mineral water over the day.

 

[mickdl]

I think drinking the right amount at the right time is one of the key factors to cope better with OAB. If you drink to much at once, the body can absorb the water only to a certain degree and the rest is just filtered out by the kidneys and you pee it out. So the first important point is to spread the needed amount of water over the day. The next question is what amout of water is needed. Former times there where a lot of more or less usefull calculations but meanwhile it‘s clear that thinks are not that easy to calculate and calculations are often wrong in a way that they came up with a to high water intake.

The best way to find out how much water you need is to watch your body. Assuming you have no bowel problems and don‘t take vitamine pills or similar it‘s pretty easy: Watch the color of your urine. If it is dark or smell a bit like ammonia you drink most likely not enaugh. If you suffer from obstipation it most likely the same. So if your your urine color is light yellow and doesn‘t smell strong and your stool have a normal constancy you most likely do it right.

It is also a good idea to drink when you are thirsty - but here you have to be carefull. The feeling of thirst is delayed to the bodys need. In other words - if you feel thirst your are mostly already dehydrated. The biggest mistake then is often to drink then half a liter or more. This helps little because - as already mentioned - the body is not able to make use of all the water. For this reason just drink a normal cup of water and after 30 minutes the next.

I think many of us find the difficult, but there are many apps on the marked like waterminder that help to remember you to stay hydrated.

A other point is to have eat the right amount of salt. Often we eat to much salt and this is dangerous in many ways. For the fluid balance of the body this mean that salt make the body to absorb more water. Just a bag of chips makes your body to store depending on your BMI up to a liter more of water. This water have to come out somewhen again and this makes the hole story pretty unpredictable. So reducing the salt consume can also help to cope with OAB

 

[Soggy247]

I struggle with this sometimes. Its a hard mix of changing in awkward and public places vs drinking less. . . The smell can be an issue but i wear plastic pants over my nappies to try and combat that.

 

[Pino]

As someone with Diabetes Insipidus Centralis and POTS it is sometimes really difficult. I still have to wait for the medications.
Silly medical system.

I need to drink at least 5000ml of water a day, or my POTS symptoms get problematic, i dehydrate really fast, adding the neurogenic detrusor over activity (NDO) and DSD you have got the perfect mix for busy day, either drinking, peeing or diaper changing.

And to be clear: The drinking is not the problematic part of it.

 

[PaddedRita]

I do try to keep my fluids intake as normal as I can .
I do hold back my fluids 6 to 7hrs before I call it a day.

 

[CheshireCat]

The drinking is not the problematic part of it.

Drinking is never problematic for me. Cheers!

 

[Zeke]

Staying hydrated has been one of the healthiest things that I’ve done in years. I take pain meds and a couple of other meds regularly and water is essential to enable your kidneys to flush the metabolites of these meds, as well as the waste products from regular cellular activity, from your blood stream. Wearing primarily cloth diapers helps to reduce the eventual cost of staying hydrated, but those times when I do wear disposables I try to use them to their maximum capacity to keep my costs down. Wearing plastic pants over my disposables reduces the risk of leaks when I push them to their limits. The health benefits of staying hydrated are augmented by the reduced odor of your urine which makes a wet diaper far less noticeable to those around you.

 

[NannaAnnabelle]

@SparkyDog has a good idea with the times reminders. I'll have to steal that.

I do try to get my water in and mostly do ok throughout the day. Can't kick the coffee issue in the morning though and that's a major bladder irritant. The rest of the day I do ok output-wise as long as I stay on track. Easy to do some days. Not so easy on others.

 

[smnapp]

Staying hydrated can be tough to remember. I drink 2-3 liters per day
Staying hydrated and incontinent seems counterproductive some days but I definitely need my kidneys to work properly.
If you're forgetting you could set reminders on your phone or watch
I typically carry a water bottle around with me.

I try to have water with me at all times. I find myself in long meetings or wrapped up in projects throughout the day. I get my water in when I have the opportunity.

I think drinking the right amount at the right time is one of the key factors to cope better with OAB. If you drink to much at once, the body can absorb the water only to a certain degree and the rest is just filtered out by the kidneys and you pee it out. So the first important point is to spread the needed amount of water over the day. The next question is what amout of water is needed. Former times there where a lot of more or less usefull calculations but meanwhile it‘s clear that thinks are not that easy to calculate and calculations are often wrong in a way that they came up with a to high water intake.

The best way to find out how much water you need is to watch your body. Assuming you have no bowel problems and don‘t take vitamine pills or similar it‘s pretty easy: Watch the color of your urine. If it is dark or smell a bit like ammonia you drink most likely not enaugh. If you suffer from obstipation it most likely the same. So if your your urine color is light yellow and doesn‘t smell strong and your stool have a normal constancy you most likely do it right.

It is also a good idea to drink when you are thirsty - but here you have to be carefull. The feeling of thirst is delayed to the bodys need. In other words - if you feel thirst your are mostly already dehydrated. The biggest mistake then is often to drink then half a liter or more. This helps little because - as already mentioned - the body is not able to make use of all the water. For this reason just drink a normal cup of water and after 30 minutes the next.

I think many of us find the difficult, but there are many apps on the marked like waterminder that help to remember you to stay hydrated.

A other point is to have eat the right amount of salt. Often we eat to much salt and this is dangerous in many ways. For the fluid balance of the body this mean that salt make the body to absorb more water. Just a bag of chips makes your body to store depending on your BMI up to a liter more of water. This water have to come out somewhen again and this makes the hole story pretty unpredictable. So reducing the salt consume can also help to cope with OAB

I probably do drink too much at once and the excess gets flushed out quickly. I usually minimize my salt intake. I know that really causes me to retain water. I will just have to deal with heavier output later on.

 

[Eclectic]

I was just going to post a new thread about this so I’m glad I found an existing one.

I drink mostly water and struggle with staying hydrated mostly because I get so busy, I just forget. Sometimes I may consciously not drink as much because I know my diaper is going to get full and I’ll have to change soon thereafter.

The frustrating thing is it seems that one minute I’ll think I’m hydrated and then the next minute I’ll realize that I’m actually dehydrated. I am also guilty of drinking too much at one time and not smaller amounts throughout the day. I shoot for around 80 oz per day, but I live in a hot and humid environment and there are many days when I should drink more than that.

I rarely make it to the toilet so the only way I know whether I’m dehydrated or not is the outside color of my diaper. All too often, it’s a darker yellow. Any tips to drink more would be welcome.

 

[berrt]

I drink anywhere between 170-250 oz a day and urinate about 100-150 oz per day. It has been a really hard challenge finding the right level of intake to manage my output while working with the Dr's to find out what is going on (No, I don't have diabetes - have had blood glucose tested many times).

 

[Cammer]

I have been struggling with water intake for a while now. Before I excepted my ic and was in diapers 24/7 I was drinking as little water as I could and as my problems got worse, my water intake was less and less until I started to get headaches, dry mouth and felt lethargic every day. Lately I have been trying to drink more water but I still may only drink a few glass during the weekend and maybe a bottle or two at work. I just can’t seem to remember to drink enough. Idk if I am just stuck in the habit of not drinking water or what.

 

[chamberpot]

I am very awear of hydration. I drink a cup of coffee in the morning along with a glass of cranberry juice, after that it is only water at a steady rate all day long