normal in a 13 year old?

LegacyUser

ok so.. hope this is in the right place, could just do with a bit of advice. feel free to move it elsewhere if it'd be better placed somewhere other than here.

I have a sister who is 13. We were out at a park today running the dog and to cut a long story short, she had a bit of an accident as there were no toilets nearby. This was after a 15 minute saga of looking for a suitably covered area to go but she felt all were too exposed for some reason.
Cue tears etc etc. Tried to comfort her saying these things happen, nobody's fault, none of her friends will find out, all that sort of stuff. Thing is though, I think the child might have a problem. Last year we were on a long drive and she had an accident then as well. Same thing on a skiing holiday a couple of years back. It's like all those little accidents you'd expect of a small child still happen to her.

Spoke to my mother about this (I'm a good bit older) whose attitude was "ah sure all kids have accidents, she's still only a kid", but the girl is 13. I think my mother has lost perspective of how old she is. Being the youngest by a lot, my sister has always been seen as much younger than she is as we all doted on her (my oldest sibling being 31). I'd rather have her brought to a doctor as she was mortified and I don't think it's normal for a child of 13 to still wet themselves (at least not in daytime)

Am I overreacting? IS it normal for kids to still have the odd accident at that age? Could it be that it's normal til maybe 11 and she's just slow to develop (still very small)? I don't want to make a bigger deal out of this than it may be for the sake of her confidence.

Thanks.

Chuchoter

To be honest I'd side with you over your mother on this one, I've never even heard of anyone that age having an accident. I would ask your GP, it could be a kidney or bladder infection or as you say, just slow to develop.

phasers

If it only happens at times when she genuinely can't get to a toilet I wouldnt be too worried.

Das Kitty

I went through a spell of that when I was 12 or 13. I used to have to leave school at 4 and rush for the bus on the other side of town. If the bus was late I wouldn't be able to hold it. Very embarrassing. It was around the time I started getting my period so it could have had something to do with that as well.

I started going to the loo before my last class then and it never happened again.

CrazyRabbit

Doesn't sound like anything medically wrong (Note, I'm not a doctor). Probably she just needs to plan some toilet breaks more often, so she doesn't get to the stage where she is 'bursting'.

Ickle Magoo

She held it for 15min+ and was then too body conscious to drop and pee in the middle of the park - sounds perfectly normal for a 13yr old...in fact if she was in anyway immature or babyish, she'd probably have less of an issue just going wherever.

By all means a doctor should rule out any underlying medical condition but it sounds more like a mixture of bad pre-planning and being body conscious to me ie typical early teen.