At least once a week, I have a parent ask me, “Hey Doc, can chiropractic help my child with bedwetting?” The answer is yes! While chiropractic care is not a treatment for bedwetting (nocturnal enuresis), thousands of children have seen improvements or resolution of bedwetting while under regular pediatric chiropractic care.

Up to the age of four of five, most children have poor bladder control at night. However, if the child is not able to stay dry during the night after that point, there may be an underlying problem. Bedwetting can take an emotional toll on these children causing self-esteem and embarrassment issues. This is when parents may want to consider having their child checked by a pediatric chiropractor.

Physiological Problem

There are two muscles that control the emptying of the bladder; the detrusor and trigone muscles. The nerves that innervate these muscles exit the spine in the lower back and tailbone (sacrum) areas.

While in the early years of life, the tailbone has five individual segments. In your 20’s, these individual segments fuse together to form the triangular shaped bone that you have at the base of your spine. If these segments misalign from learning to crawl, walk, or ride a bike, they can place stress onto the nerves that are responsible for bladder control. In this situation, many children experience bedwetting at night.

Chiropractic works to re-align these individual segments and take stress off the nerves that innervate the bladder. When these misalignments are corrected with gentle and safe pediatric adjustments, nervous system control and regulation of the bladder may often be restored!

Chiropractic Research

A study in The Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics followed 46 children with enuresis undergoing chiropractic care over a 10 week period. A quarter of those who received chiropractic care showed a 50% or more reduction in bedwetting frequency, while the control group did not see any reduction in incidences

Will Chiropractic Care Help With Bedwetting?

Many children see a resolution or reduction of bedwedding incidences with regular pediatric chiropractic care. However, since chiropractic care is not a treatment for bedwetting, a thorough examination is necessary to see if the bedwetting is caused by nerve interference from the spine. If your child suffers with bedwetting, please contact our office Blossom Family Chiropractic at 727-498-5643 to see if we can help!