​ 5 Practical Tips for Managing Incontinence During the Summer

Ready for summer? For many, it means more daylight hours, vacations, road trips, and a more active lifestyle. While this is often a time of year to look forward to, all the travel and activities can stir anxiety if you’re living with incontinence. It’s hard to enjoy your day when you’re concerned about having an accident at highly inconvenient times. And the lighter clothing you wear in the summer makes it a challenge to wear incontinence products discreetly. But you can implement these tips to help you enjoy your active months despite bladder leaks.

1. Focus On Diet and Exercise

Maintaining a healthy weight is key to relieving bladder symptoms. As summer approaches, do your best to trim some extra pounds. These put additional pressure on your bladder, increasing frequency, urgency, and leaks.

Try following an eating plan like the Mediterranean Diet or the Anti Inflammatory Diet. Both focus on getting more fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and lean protein. Spring and summer are a great time to adjust your menu and incorporate fresh produce.

Exercise keeps you healthy, manages weight, and improves incontinence symptoms. You might shy away from most exercise because it often intensifies bladder leaks. If this is a concern, you can try low-impact workouts that minimize symptoms and help keep off the pounds.

2. Eat More Fiber

What does fiber have to do with urinary incontinence? Constipation. It triggers incontinence because when your bowels are full, they can push against your bladder. This generates excess pressure and promotes leaks. And this can be a serious inconvenience for your summer plans.

Additionally, constipation can cause straining when you use the bathroom. Over time, this weakens the pelvic floor muscles that support your bladder. These sagging muscles also turn up the pressure, making it more difficult to control urination.

The USDA recommends about 25 grams of fiber daily for women and 38 grams for men. Here are a few simple ways to add more fiber to your diet:

• Eat beans at least three times weekly.
• Snack on fresh fruit or vegetables.
• Replace mayo with fresh avocado on sandwiches.
• Add fruit and chia seeds to oatmeal.
• Use whole grain or chickpea pasta.
• Eat brown or wild rice instead of white.

3. Drink Plenty of Hydrating Fluids

It might seem logical to reduce water intake to avoid bladder leaks. But dehydration aggravates incontinence symptoms, and this can be a major problem during the hot summer months. When you don’t drink enough hydrating fluids, it can irritate your bladder, triggering discomfort and leaks. Dehydration also causes constipation which, as already noted, causes incontinence.

Rather than avoiding water and fluids while engaging in summer activities, it’s best to consistently sip hydrating beverages. Gulping a lot of fluid at once isn’t a good plan. It all hits your bladder at the same time, increasing urgency and challenging bladder control. Instead, keep sipping to stay hydrated while also managing incontinence symptoms.

Another tip: avoid or limit coffee, tea, soda, and alcohol during the summer months. Caffeine and alcohol are diuretics that draw water from your bodily tissues and into your bladder. They naturally increase urination frequency and sometimes urgency. During the summer, this can also contribute to dehydration. None of these factors help manage incontinence.

4. Plan Ahead

No need to avoid road trips or excursions in the summer. A little planning can curb the worry and help you enjoy some adventure. You can plan for road trips by identifying bathroom stops in advance. If you pinpoint rest stops and convenience service stations, you can ensure you’re not stranded without a place to go or change incontinence products. You can also try scheduling bathroom breaks to coincide with the locations you’ve mapped out.

Also, be sure to take a few minutes to determine what incontinence supplies you’ll need for the day. Include an extra set of clothes to be safe. It may take a few minutes of planning, but the peace of mind is worth the time.

5. Choose the Right Incontinence Products

Not all incontinence products are as absorbent, leak-resistant, or discreet as you need them to be. And it’s not always easy to find proper-fitting products that prevent leaks while maintaining comfort.

The final tip for managing incontinence during the summer is to choose the best products for you. The right fit that’s discreet and comfortable with the right absorbency can be key to an enjoyable summer that’s free from the stress of leak concerns.

TYE Medical offers premium incontinence products in a variety of sizes and absorbencies. Our products are designed for optimal discretion and comfort while promising maximum protection. Check out our line of products and get free, discreet shipping on all orders when you shop our online store.