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The Continence Foundation of Australia recently hosted an online webinar Live fearlessly: the continence products you’ll wish you knew about sooner. Catch up on the full webinar on YouTube for more clinical advice and lived experience.

 

Janie Thompson is a Nurse Continence Specialist and leads the National Continence Helpline 1800 33 00 66. She explained to webinar attendees why the fit of your continence pad matters to stop leakage.

“The firmer the fit, or the snugger the fit, of a continence pad, the better it works. If it’s nice and high and firm against the body, it absorbs quickly and you reduce the risk of leakage,” Janie said.

Make sure you have a good-fitting pair of underpants so that the continence pad is right up against the body. Special mesh pants can also be used to keep pads from slipping. Some continence products have adhesive (sticky) strips so that the pad doesn’t slip and is kept in place in underwear or mesh pants.

‘Channelling’ a new pad is another way to get a better fit. Janie demonstrated how to unpack and get an all-in-one pad ready for use.

“Often these are packed very tight or vacuum packed, so when you get them out to use they’re actually very squashed down.

“It’s often important to actually fold the pad in half and give it a little tug, just to help get the leak guards to come up. The leak or side guards here are an extra design feature to help stop leakage out the sides.”

“You can also see that it’s curling up a lot better just by doing that.”

Continence pads are designed so that you don’t leak

“They’re generally made of pulp plus super absorbent polymers, so special little grains,” Janie said.

“It’s the super absorbent polymers that do the bulk of the work. They can hold quite a lot of urine. They’re the main working force within a pad.”
 

Have more questions about continence products?

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