Certain foods and drinks can increase the frequency and urgency of urination. These are considered bladder irritants.
Common bladder irritants
Some common bladder irritants include:
- coffee
- tea
- caffeine
- carbonated beverages
- citrus
- chocolate
- alcohol
- acidic foods like tomatoes
You don’t need to cut all of these foods from your diet. This is just an invitation to tune into your body to see potential correlations.
If you find your incontinence increasing, it may be helpful for you to keep a bladder log for a few days.
This typically consists of tracking food and drink intake (both in quantity and time of day), activity throughout the day, and the time and quantity of urination.
Quantity of urination can be measured in the number of seconds of your urine stream.
A normal urine stream throughout the day should be between 8-10 seconds. Shorter streams may be an indication of bladder urgency or not fully emptying your bladder. (Remember, we’re not rushing or pushing out pee out around here.)
Even if one or more of these items is identified as a bladder irritant for you, you may have a threshold of consumption before symptoms instead of needing to remove completely.
Ex: You may be able to enjoy an 8oz cup of coffee but 12oz increases your symptoms. That’s feedback. You may then choose to stop at 8oz of coffee or enjoy more knowing you may experience symptoms later on. Both choices are ok.
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