www.incontinentsupport.org

I still drink beverages with caffeine and alcohol. I've tried abstaining from them and found that abstinence reduced my symptoms slightly but didn't eliminate the need to wear a diaper 24/7. So I just drink the beverages that I enjoy (alcohol in moderation) and change my diaper when I need to. Enjoying the things that I like is more important to me than possibly needing one less diaper per day.

I also still drink coffee in the morning and hard liquor at night (never enough to get drunk though). I know both increase the amount of peeing I do, which in turn makes my urges occur more often.

I haven't let that stop me from enjoying my life more though, and still just change when needed like I would otherwise (even if that is a little more often).

interesting responses. I pretty much expected this. Sometimes you gotta do a little living and as I get older I find the best parts of life come from the little things.

I want to feel like I'm really doing everything I can to help myself but I have to draw the line somewhere.


Typing this as I'm slugging down a large iced coffee from Dunkin

Just like others have said, a decrease isn't worth it, unless it eliminates the problem completely, and it doesn't.

I used to do all kinds of things to reduce my bedwetting, but I could only get it down to about 1 in 3 nights, but I still needed to wear diapers every night, and my quality of life suffered. Now I drink whatever I like, as close to bed time as I like, and just diaper up.

At this time, that's the least impact on my life.

Coffee is such a part of my life, I can't imagine going without. Actually, I've tried to, and the headaches made it No Fun. Sodas for me are diet only- too much sugar for my diet. I like an occasional glass of wine at dinner, or a craft beer. Much more than that really impacts my IC.

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- Tom

i dont drink alcohol but coffee. oh god do i love coffee. per my post before i discovered it was certain coffees that i was making at home that caused my bowel problems. switched brands and all is good. i like an occaisional red bull or mt dew but dont drink too many sodas. just dont care for the fizzies.

I am a heavy coffee and tea drinker, but I switched to decaf. Eliminating the caffeine definitely helped to reduce my urge incontinence.

My advice to anyone eliminating caffeine: don't eliminate it all at once. I tried that, and almost immediately I had head-splitting "caffeine withdrawal" headaches that I couldn't knock down. After consulting with my primary-care doctor, I learned that it works best to transition away from caffeine gradually. To start, I made up a container that was 50% regular and 50% decaf coffee. If I recall correctly, I was drinking Yuban at the time. It works best if they are the same brand so that the regular and decaf versions taste the same, otherwise the mix might be unpalatable. Over a month, I increased the proportion of decaf and decreased the regular until I was drinking 100% decaf. With the tea, I alternated cups between regular tea bags and decaf (Tetley for both), gradually increasing the number of cups of decaf. Not only did I not have to endure any more headaches during the switch, I was able to "use up" the remaining regular coffee and tea in my pantry.

I stay away from soda and anything else containing high-fructose corn syrup, as the corn syrup makes me retain water and gain weight almost immediately upon consumption. And, once I start losing that water weight, my urge incontinence increases until it's gone.

I drink alcohol only at social occasions. I have found that two or more two glasses of red wine trigger more urges. Beer, white wine, and bubbly didn't seem to have much of an effect.

Had my doctor telling me the same thing, reduce or at best eliminate coffee all together would ease the problem, but not eliminate it, so why borther?
Though I have managed to reduce the coffee intake to one mug in the morning, and one at mid day, water for the rest.

I always had a healthy relationship to alcohol - a bottle or two of red wine once it's weekend, but no more than that.

Basically I told my doctor, that I had no intention of eliminating my consumption of either coffee and alcohol, since the level was low - and the effect on my bladder even if I did eliminate coffee, wouldn't make my bladder acting normal anyway, it simply wasn't worth it.

I still want to live my life as I used to, and I have taken some actions on how to deal with my situation....aka protection, to which I'm accepting.

I definitely know some foods/drinks are bladder irritants. But like many stated, I still want to live a normal life. I do watch my intake of coffee/alcohol a bit, so that my bladders doesn't go completely out of control.

Funny, and want to know from others, with regards to coffee I noticed that the kind of beans have a huge impact. The coffee at my previous work made my bladder more overactive than usual, so limiting was strictly necessary. At my current work, coffee has some impact, but not that much as I experienced.

Absolutely. Any dark roast will make it worse for me, as will any maxwellhouse, folgers, or revile (military) blend. I've been buying the strarucks blond roast beans and making my coffee from them. I can drink 3-4 large cups of it before my bladder will start feeling irritated (later on any ways).