Ask the Doctor: Chiropractic Care for Bed-Wetting Child

Question answered by ANTHONY L. ROSNER, PHD, LLD, LLC, who  is the director of research at the International College of Applied Kinesiology and specializes in chiropractics.
 
Q. My 7-year-old daughter still wets the bed. Her pediatrician has said there is no physical cause for it, and the advice of a psychologist hasn’t helped. Could chiropractic treatments provide relief?
 
A. Chiropractic care is one option to explore, since it seems as if you have already done what I would have suggested initially—have your daughter assessed by her doctor first. Most children outgrow bed-wetting on their own in time. Provided there’s no physical ailment causing it, any number of psychological issues could explain why a child of 7 still wets the bed—among them include changes in routine, starting school, or stress.
A disruption in the way her body responds (or doesn’t) to the sensations of a full bladder could also cause the bed-wetting.
    
Physically, bladder function involves voluntary control of the sphincter, but how that control happens is the net result of an array of physiological messages and responses. The
nerves that control the bladder can be traced back to the sacral joints in the spine. When the bladder is full, those nerves send impulses to the spinal cord, which then transmits a message back alerting the brain and body that sooner or later, the bladder needs relief. But other impulses get sent to the brain as well that mediate the when and where aspect of urinating—“Yes, I need to go, but I’ll hold it in until the appropriate time and place.” Any dysfunction in this complex system could contribute to bed-wetting. When it’s caused by impingement of the nerves connecting to the spine, a chiropractic manipulation can be effective.
    
But chiropractic care can also help if bed-wetting stems from anxiety or stress—which are common causes. Research has shown that chiropractic treatment reduces stress and the body’s level of cortisol—a hormone the body secretes when besieged by stress.
    
In studies, the incidence of bedwetting definitely decreases with chiropractic treatment. In one, the bed-wetting frequency dropped from 9.1 nights in two weeks to 7.6 nights in two weeks. Subjects who didn’t get chiropractic treatments showed no improvement. Furthermore, 25 percent of the treatment group displayed a 50 percent or greater reduction in wetbed nights, while the control group reported no change. In short, the improvement after chiropractic treatment was substantially greater than what could have simply been a natural development.