Bedwetting Helped with Chiropractic Care - A Case Study
A case study published on September 22, 2010 in the Journal of Pediatric, Maternal & Family Health, documented the case of a 9 year old boy who was suffering with nocturnal enuresis, better known as bedwetting, and was helped with chiropractic care.
The study reported that nocturnal enuresis (NE), is almost 3 times more prevalent in boys than in girls. The peak ages for this problem are between 4.5 years to 5.5 years of age. Some of the conventional medical approaches for the treatment of NE involve the use of drugs, such as anti-depressants which carry the risk of side effects such as mood changes, nausea, sleep disturbance and even death. Another conventional treatment is the use of a "bedwetting alarm" which is considered the most successful therapeutic approach. However, using a bedwetting alarm can itself be stressful as it wakes the child up when moisture is detected. This method depends on behavior modification and therefore considers NE to be a behavioral issue.
In this case the mother reported that the boy had been a bedwetter his entire childhood and that none of the medical care was effective. The primary MD for the boy did not prescribe medications but recommended withholding water from the boy for 2 hours prior to going to sleep, and then waking him up every few hours for him to urinate. With these approaches being ineffective, the 9 year old boy was eventually resigned to wearing diapers to bed. This created severe self esteem problems for the boy.
After a full chiropractic examination and evaluation, care was initiated with a series of specific adjustments to the spine. The child's mother was also asked to keep a dietary log for her son so as to improve his eating habits which previously consisted of a variety of fast foods.
After 6 weeks, the mother reported that her son had gone 6 days without bedwetting at night. A week later he had not had an incident in almost 2 weeks. This two week dry period represented the longest time in his life that he had experienced without wetting his bed. Four months later the boy was still dry and had not had any incidents of bedwetting.
