Small children can't wee ‘on demand’ and getting a urine sample can be challenging. There are 2 ways you can do it :
Clean-catch method
Start by offering your child a drink (milk or water ). Most children will wee within one hour.
Have a urine sample container ready.
Remove the nappy and clean the skin around the genital area with soap (Figure 1).
Lay your child on the bed or on your laps
Keep watching until your child does a wee. Be ready to catch a small amount in the container
To encourage your child to wee, you can rub their lower abdomen for a few minutes using cotton soaked in cold water (Figure 2).
Hold the container away from your child’s skin when catching the urine (Figure 3). This is important so that bacteria from your child’s skin don’t contaminate the sample.
Bag specimen
This method uses a special bag to catch the wee in. This bag is stuck to the skin using gentle double-sided tape. In general, this method should not be used when testing for UTIs, as germs from the skin often contaminate the bag and urine.