24 hour urine collection (2015)

Your child’s doctor has asked for a 24-hour urine sample. It is done to check how much of a substance is in your child’s urine over a 24-hour period.  

When you are ready to bring the sample to the lab: 

• Allow extra time at the lab to register.
• Bring the labeled container(s) with child’s name, birth date and the dates and times of collection to one of these labs during these hours:

Milwaukee Campus Lab
Mondays through Thursdays:  7am to 7pm
Fridays: 7am to 5:30pm
Saturdays:  8am to 1pm
Sundays:  9am to 12pm

Appleton LabMondays through Fridays:  7:30am to 4:30pm

How do I collect my child’s urine?

Gather the supplies:

• A disposable urinal or bedpan if your child is not able to use a toilet.
• A 24-hour collection bottle. This bottle comes from the laboratory, clinic or doctor’s office.  If preservatives are needed, they will be put in the bottle before it is given to you.  Keep the bottle away from children.  The preservatives may be dangerous!
• A toilet “hat” if your child uses the toilet.  This is a plastic container that fits under the seat of a toilet. When your child uses the toilet, the hat collects the urine.  You will pour the urine from the hat into the collection bottle.

Follow these steps:
1. Choose a day to do the urine collection.  It should be when your child is home all day, if possible.

2. When your child wakes up in the morning, have your child urinate (pee). Do not collect this urine. Your child’s bladder should be completely emptied. Flush this urine down the toilet.  This is the start time. Write down this time and date on the 24 hour bottle.

• If your are collecting 2 bottles (day and night), this bottle will be labeled "day".

3. The next time your child pees, start collecting the urine.  For the next 24 hours, all urine must be collected every time your child pees, even at night.

• If your child uses the toilet, be sure the hat is in place.  Put the hat on the porcelain part of the toilet.  Lower the toilet seat into place. Have your child pee right into the hat.  Make sure any toilet paper used does not go into the hat. Pour the urine into the 24-hour bottle as soon as you can.
• If your child uses a disposable urinal, the hat is not needed.  Urine can be collected in the urinal.  Pour it into the 24-hour bottle as soon as you can.

• If you are collecting 2 bottles (day and night), have your child pee once more before going to bed and add this to the day bottle.  Use this as the stop time on the bottle and the start time on the night bottle.

• If your child gets up to pee during the night, add this urine to the night bottle.  It is okay if they do  not pee during the night.

• If your child needs to poop (have a bowel movement),  ask your child to pee first and save the urine. If the urine is contaminated with poop, the collection may need to be started over.  If this happens, call your child’s doctor or the laboratory.
• Carefully pour the urine into the 24-hour bottle. If you spill or splash the urine, estimate how much urine was lost. Call your child’s doctor or the laboratory to see if the collection needs to be started over.  Splashing is also a danger since the preservatives may be harmful to the skin and eyes. If anyone gets splashed, wash the skin or flush the eyes with water.  Call your child’s doctor right away.

4. Once urine is poured into the 24-hour bottle, put the bottle in your refrigerator. Do not let the bottle sit out and get warm. This will affect the test results.  The bottle should be taken from the refrigerator only to add more urine.  It is okay to put the bottle into a large plastic bag while it is in the refrigerator to keep it away from food. 

Alert!  If there are preservatives in the 24-hour collection bottle, they are dangerous. A “Mr. Yuk” sticker on the bottle is a reminder that the contents of the bottle are dangerous. Be sure that your child and others in your family know what a “Mr. Yuk” sticker looks like.  Tell them that this means to keep away from the contents of the bottle.

5. The next morning, ask your child to pee one more time. Collect this urine and add it to the bottle. Write down the date and time on the bottle as the end time for the 24-hour collection or the night bottle.

6. Keep the 24-hour bottle refrigerated during the collection and take back to the laboratory as soon as you can when done. 

Special information

• If your child still has accidents or wets the bed (incontinence), please talk with the doctor.  You may have to follow a different process.
• If the urine collection is for creatinine clearance, blood will be drawn sometime within the collection period.  Your child’s height and weight is needed to figure out the results.

It is very important to collect all urine in the collection period.  If your child misses collecting any urine in the 24 hour period, you will need to empty the container and start again another day.  If the container has a preservative, you will need a new container before starting over.