www.incontinentsupport.org

OK, how many of us reach the recommended amount of water intake, 8 glasses, or a regular daily basis? I for sure do not, although when I am at home I drink much more then when out or at work. I find the way your body works to be an ongoing learning experience, with the level of activity factoring in to how fluid intake is utilized. I find when I do drink water at work, or out in the yard, if I am moving and working, I don't need to go or have any accidents very often, but once I stop the activity all that fluid that my body has been using to function properly now comes out of me in a short amount of time. When I get home from work, I must put out 800 mls-1000 mls within an hour or so (must be all that coffee from work, but I only have 2 cups for the entire day). This can be problematic for me as I often have other appointments or events to do right after work, I try to schedule them a bit later if possible to avoid the output that I know is coming at me sooner then later. I don't mind the nighttime incidents when they occur, I figure at least I have drank something, and I can deal with it at home. Just wondering if anyone else has similar patterns they have noticed? Puffy

Puff,
How's it going? I too notice that when I am out working in the yard or sweating at work or at play that I seldom wet. In fact, the only reason I have to change if I'm doing such activities is because I'm sweating and the diaper is starting to clump and fall apart. I usually have more problems when I'm sedentary such as around the house or out running errands. I find that once I start sweating, my need to urinate goes down significantly. I know when I used to run marathons and triathlons before I became incontinent that I would just wet myself on the run. I wouldn't stop to pee in the middle of a race. Sounds disgusting but I know for a fact that I'm not the only one that did it. Most competitive runners and triathletes do not stop in the middle of a race. They just go. So I don't feel so bad.

I'm very big on drinking water. This time of year I try to drink close to a gal. a day. in the summer it can be as much as two gal a day. Because I do this I think it's one of the reasons I don't deal with rashes like I use to. By drinking lots of water it keeps your urine from becoming so acidic. Also the oder from the wet diaper is almost unnoticeable in my opinion.
........................................Sandy

I used to limit my fluid intake but my Dr. recommended that I should not. I drink a couple cups of coffee every morning, water at work and lots of milk. I also enjoy a few beers or other adult beverages each week but never too much. I do not over drink any fluids in the later evening say an hour or two before going to bed. I agree with Sandy when she mentioned that drinking water seems to cut down on rashes. I believew it also cuts down on urine odor. When I do sweat I also urinate less but since this has been such a cold, wet spring up here I haven't been sweating much. I don't tollerate really hot, humid weather well but then I don't care for the cold, wet weather either. Give me 65 to 75 degrees every day and I'd be happy.

As a "born and raised Minnesotan", I recommend you move to California It might not be 75 degrees every day but we don't get 100 degrees and 100% humidity and we don't get blizzards. I've lived here for almost 40 years and it is very nice.

As far as keeping on topic, I don't drink 8 glasses of water a day, but I probably come close in other liquids. My main liquid intake is black coffee and diet coke. Not many calories in there, mostly flavored (and costly) water, but compared to bottled water, not so much. I don't believe that you must drink only water to get your liquid requirements. I doubt that the body cares much whether it is coffee water or bottled water, water is water.

Sandy,
How do you drink 2 Gal of water a day??? Even when I was in the Marine Corps, working out in the field, I didn't drink 2 Gal a day...Most of my friends and I drank about a Gal. But, I think, 2 could cause you to have hyponatremia. Maybe I'm wrong. But too much water is not good.

Dangoch, I read somewhere recently that it does not need to be 8 glasses of water but liquids such as coffee will also get you there. I also know, and have been told by Dr.s, that diet soda is absolutely NOT good for you and I highly doubt you can find a Dr. out there who recommends drinking anyting diet. Especially for children. I have a daughter who suffered from uncontrollable diahrea (sp?) and had a world reknowned pediactric gastro Dr. at the Mayo Clinic tell us that by no means to ever give diet soda to a child. He told us that it is also not healthy for adults. He explained that the Nutrasweet encapsulates the fluids and does not allow any digestion causing the bowels to basically shoot the fluids out. My daughter spent 8 different weeks in the hospital due to this as she would dehydrate. It was the University Hospitals in Iowa City that had put her on a low-sugar diet because they thought she might be allergic to sugars (although the tests said she wasn't). The Mayo Clinic told us to give her whole milk, sugared soda and to let her eat as much as she wanted. She recovered once we took her off of the low-sugar diet. My fiance drinks diet sodas and her adult children and I have been trying to get her to stop drinking it as they also know it is not good for her. She says that she doesn't want to drink sugared soda and we tell her to drink water.

Don, too much of anything is not good for you including water.

Water is the best thing you can do for your health. More than 80 oz per day (for most adults) can get you to water intoxication. I drink BlueSky cola if I really want a soda. I make my own when I can get the root beer mix that I like. I drink more water than anything else and I have been loosing weight because of it. You can also get water from fresh fruits. Watermelon is a great one for that.

_________________
When life hands you a lemon, make lemonade.

When it's hot outside and the sun is beating on me I can drink water like a fish During a normal day I try to drink around a gal. a day. Granted if I didn't do this I wouldn't have to be as heavily protected. But I feel much more healthier then I use to. Diaper rashes are rare I do still get them during July and August when it's really hot out Lets hope for a cool summer
You all that drink Coffee or worse yet Diet soda Coffee is nasty stuff I had a urologist tell me that in his opinion Coffee should be called Bladder destroyer He said often one common thing that both male and females have that deal with incontinence latter in life is they were often heavy Coffee drinkers in thier younger days
As far as Diet soda don't get me started with that one. There is nothing in diet soda for your body to use. Do you know that many people have found that they lose weight when they quit drinking diet soda I hate to say it but if you have a choice between Coffee or diet soda take the coffee at least there is something in it that your body can work with................................Sandy

I have cut my coffee consumption down to a couple mugs every morning as I know the caffene is not healthy and I'm the nervous sort anyway. Coffee for me in the mornings acts as a laxative. In the warm weather months I spend as much time out on the river in my boat and it can get hot. Ice water is the best thing I know of to quench my thirst when I get hot. I sweat most of it out. I know that fresh fruits are a good source of water and sucrose which is instant energy as it does not require digestion and goes directly to the bloodstream. Unfortunately I cannot eat melons as I am allergic to them. I can eat small amounts of watermelon but honeydew and cantalope will send me to the emergency room. Besides I can't get past the smell of cantalope. My allergist told me that people who are allergic to ragweed (cousin of melons) are also more apt to be allergic to melons.