How much does your bladder hold?

Bp220

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  1. Diaper Lover
I usually wear a diaper for road trips but this time I was unable to. So after a few hours I decided to use Gatorade bottles to relieve myself. After filling one and partially another I estimate it was somewhere around 42oz’s. I’ve never held my bladder to full capacity and used a diaper but I can assume that most diapers wouldn’t be able to handle that much fluid in one burst.
What are your thoughts?


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I haven't tested. It has to vary somewhat as even when I have similar feelings of urgency, the amount is not the same. Under top conditions, I hold enough to wreck most diapers I'm comfortable wearing. Flooding is fun but it's also a higher risk for leaks.
 
I never measured, but the answer for me is pretty assuredly not enough to get by as normal all the time. And definitely not if I’m actually staying hydrated.

I’m pretty sure even my accidents are kind of far from what I could hold under ideal conditions. It’s just like, stuff happens. Urges come no matter how full I am sometimes. And I almost never am able to completely empty it either. And then sneezes here and there.

Whatever I can hold, I probably don’t reach it very often. But probably not enough.
 
This is something I'd like for others to measure. The 42 ounces is amazing to me, as I can only wish for that kind of capacity. I've measured it a few times and I max out at about 8 ounces. I might be able to get up to 12 or 16 if I was in a situation where I really had to hold it but I would be miserable. That's assuming that I'm sitting and my bladder isn't playing jokes on me. If I'm standing up and trying to look at something on a store shelf and I'm around that level, my bladder will start contracting and if I don't start walking I would have an accident. It's been a while since I've measured, so I'll catch it when I'm "bursting" and try again. I usually feel like I need to go by about 4 ounces. Also, I've counted how many times I've had to go in 24 hours and it's around 17 times. Heck, I can fully empty my bladder when wearing Depend Real Fit and while standing I've never had one leak if starting from dry.

I hope some people can take the time to measure...
 
If I have to go real bad, I can fill a 20 oz pop/soda bottle (don't ask how I know)

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When I have to hold it I’m like a camel, don’t know how much but I know I’m above average in bladder storage compared to some of my friends
 
FYI a "fluid ounce" (liquid volume measurement) is very close to a "dry ounce" (weight) for water, so if you have an accurate scale, you can weigh a wet diaper and compare that to the weight of a dry diaper of the same type and subtract to get a fairly close estimate.

Accurate scales are handy to have around the house for many things. I use a food scale to get precision measurements on lighter things, and it works well to measure dry diapers to high precision. I can typically get 2 or 3 diapers on it without it overloading (depending on the diaper of course) and then divide by the count to get an accurate weight. Diapers can vary a bit, a safari for example can be between 8.35 and 8.55 oz, the same as an inspire+incontrol. The plain inspire (or spoiled) is more like 7.3-7.5, but a scale is almost required to tell an inspire apart from an inspire+incontrol due to being visually identical and very close in weight. IIRC that scale goes to 20 ounces, and displays to 1/100oz. I set a tall hard plastic cup on the scale before turning it on / zeroing it, so I can get the item I'm weighing up away from the display so it's not covered. (the top of the scale is only about 5"x5" and the display is directly below it, diapers easily cover the display and rest a bit on it, lightening the reading) The cup is light enough to not take away much of the capacity from the scale, and being hard plastic (not a springy material) it doesn't affect the weight reading.

When I want to get a decent precision measurement of heavier things, I use a small digital fish scale which is accurate to the ounce and has a capacity of 20 pounds. It's good for measuring a bag of diapers, where I can then divide by 10 or 12 or whatever and get a very accurate estimate of the average weight of a diaper. (I also use this if I feel like weighing a wet diaper, some of my sleep-in-weekend morning changes check in over 40oz ;) Don't forget to subtract the dry weight of the diaper for how much you actually wet overnight!) And nowadays, the airlines have made luggage scales almost a necessity, but they tend to range higher and may not display ounces like the fish scale. (but they can be very inexpensive compared to a fish scale)

Entire cases can be weighed on a digital bathroom scale. They'd cover the display of course, so just weigh yourself, then pick up the case and weigh yourself again, and subtract for the difference. With 64 diapers in a case of ABU, that really multiplies up the precision on the per-diaper average. Come to think of it, I just got a new bathroom scale that sends weights to my phone, so technically I don't need to be able to see the display, hmmm....
 
Whoa, 42oz is a LOT or retention! I'm surprised you don't experience overflow incontinence, or have a distended bladder. And yeah, even the best diapers I know of (Betterdry/Crinklz) would not be able to contain that much all at once. Though they can absorb that much without leaking if released gradually throughout the day.

I've had several urogists confirm the average adult bladder holds between 400-600 ml (or about 13-20oz). The last time I had a complete blockage the ER was able to put an emergency suprapubic catheter in, and was able to drain about 650ml (22oz) from me. Before that I was in soooo much pain from the retention I though my kidneys would fail too. I can't even imagine having double that! And now that my retention has been fixed I doubt my bladder can hold more than than 100ml (3 oz) as I usually have a near constant dribble.
 
Bp220 said:
I usually wear a diaper for road trips but this time I was unable to. So after a few hours I decided to use Gatorade bottles to relieve myself. After filling one and partially another I estimate it was somewhere around 42oz’s. I’ve never held my bladder to full capacity and used a diaper but I can assume that most diapers wouldn’t be able to handle that much fluid in one burst.
What are your thoughts?


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42 oz is ~1250ml

Some time ago, I spent a few days in the hospital and among other things had issues with retention while I was there. The nurse scanned my bladder multiple times and had to straight cath me more than once because my bladder was getting too full and they warned that that can be dangerous. I remember the cutoff on that hospital floor where volume triggered needing a catheter drain was about 900ml. I hit that point a couple times while in the hospital and both times was in very extreme pain. I can’t imagine how horrible it would have been at 1250!

I know also from doing urology journals at home prior to getting a diagnosis of OAB, that my bladder typically triggers an urge to go somewhere between 175 and 300ml. The largest voids I had during my journals was 4-500 at the very most. Maybe people with OAB have abnormally small bladder capacity?
 
I often get to a litre at night had more a few times but sometimes want to empty far earlier
 
Im currently at the LOWER capacity of daytime 100mL= 3.381402us fl oz before having to release whats in there , roughly 200mL= 6.762805us fl oz night time. And yes bladder capacity have decreased IMMENSELY this past 2 years :frown:
 
I range from 100-300 ml. Once in a blue moon I wake up with a bladder holding much more, and those days it aches for hours.
 
I wee typically between 1.5 to 1.8 litres a night.
 
I believe I max out at 300MLK, and then I feel like my bladder is about to explode
 
Slomo said:
Whoa, 42oz is a LOT or retention! I'm surprised you don't experience overflow incontinence, or have a distended bladder.

well, that's all night long. maybe 6-8 medium wettings throughout the night.
 
I may be a bit odd, but I am slightly jealous at people with smaller bladder capacities, I have always been able to go a very long time between toilet stops and I have never had kidney or bladder infections. I have measured from time to time and I've never voided less than 750ml (25 fl oz), 1200ml (same at 42 fl oz) seems to be my normal. I can give a Betterdry two and a bit wettings at most before a leak, anything less than a Molicare Slip Maxi leaks on the first wetting for me.
 
My bladder holds between 100 and 200 ml usually before i end up wetting.
 
bambinod said:
well, that's all night long. maybe 6-8 medium wettings throughout the night.

That would still be way too much for overnight (the OP said it was during day roadtrips too though) If someone is taking in the recommended 64oz per 24 hours, then less than a third of that will be built up in a bladder during those overnight 8 or so hours. So even 22oz at the most would be more than typical since our digestive also slows down when we're asleep.
 
about 1000ml when its painfully filled
 
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