Incontinence is the key symptom of most pathological conditions of the lower urinary tract and bowel of children. While the involuntary loss of urine is a burden for the child and the reason that the child is brought to the doctor, the incontinence may be an indicator of an even more serious disorder with difficulty, for some reason, to empty the bladder. While incontinence may make the child’s life a misery, it is not in itself a threat to life. A bladder emptying that is not complete, on the other hand, may in the long run give rise to kidney damage and severe impairment of the child’s general health and life expectations. For the adult population, this important area in medicine has been thoroughly covered by the International Continence Society, ICS, for many years. In contrast to most medical societies, ICS is not the forum for a certain speciality such as urology or nephrology; instead, ICS is a problem oriented association gathering persons of different professions interested in normal and disordered function of the lower urinary tract.

ICCS, International Children’s Continence Society, has been cast in the same mould as the ICS, gratefully acknowledging the pioneer work done by the older organization. Now the time has come for children to benefit from the joint efforts of general pediatricians, pediatric urologists, pediatric nephrologists, child psychiatrists, general practitioners, nurses, urotherapists, physiotherapists, medical technicians and physicists, basic research workers, and all others active in the field of pediatric continence disorders.