How to help your child overcome bed wetting  

Bed wetting is a common problem for millions of children and pre-teens around the world.  Up to the age of four or five, most children have poor bladder control at night, but the inability for children to stay dry after this age bracket is a sign of an underlying problem.  

Clinically known as "nocturnal enuresis," bed wetting can be as embarrassing as it is annoying, and can take a tremendous toll on children. Whether your child wets the bed every night or only periodically, you are probably concerned about the best way to handle the situation.

Ultimately, until the issue is resolved, your response as a parent to your child's bedwetting is crucial. Your attitude, words and actions need to foster a positive, loving atmosphere that is full of support.  Always remember that your child is not choosing to wet the bed, and usually feels ashamed about the incident.  

While there are many options that you can look into, Chiropractic care for the management of bed wetting is not a well known treatment, even though countless children have been helped by this. Chiropractic care can help your child by removing any irritation that may be affecting the nerves that control their bladder function.  

These nerves exit an area of the spine called the Sacrum. In adults, the sacrum is one large fused bone that is very resistant to injury. However, during childhood, the sacrum is separated into five individual segments. If these segments become misaligned, due to a fall, learning to walk, ride a bike, etc they can compromise the nerves that are responsible for bladder function.  

Chiropractic care looks for these sometimes subtle misalignments, and if these misalignments are compromising the nerves that control bladder function, they can be reduced with safe and natural chiropractic adjustments, nervous system control and regulation of the bladder can be restored.  

In fact, a number of clinical research studies have demonstrated that Chiropractic care can help many children suffering from bedwetting.  For example, one study, published in the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics, examined 171 children who typically wet the bed every single night. Each child was given some Chiropractic care to realign any problems in the spine. 

After the treatment, the average "wet" nights for the entire group shrank from seven to four. And 25 percent of the participants displayed a 50 percent reduction in bed-wetting nights. Another 15 percent were basically cured of their problem after the treatment, being considered "dry" with no nightly accidents. 

A similar study used a control group of bed-wetting children that were not treated with chiropractic care. Of the 46 children in the study, 31 received treatment and this group showed an almost 18 percent reduction in wet nights, while the children in the untreated group showed no improvement at all. 

So while several visits to the chiropractor may not totally solve the problem, they can lessen your child’s nightly bed wetting. Many children see marked improvement after just one or two treatments, but for others the results may be more noticeable after several weeks or months of adjustments. 

Your local Chiropractor would be more than happy to provide you with more information on how they can help your child overcome their bed wetting. For a full list of registered Chiropractors in your area please visit www.chiropractic.ie