You will see some chiropractors offering specific services for the treatment of bedwetting. Many times, people turn to chiropractic help for bedwetting after other options haven’t worked as hoped.
Opinions are often split over whether chiropractic treatments, for any area of health, are beneficial. Some people swear by it, while others remain skeptical. The medical profession itself can also generate heated argument on the matter.
All that aside though, all we want to know is: is there any proof or evidence that chiropractic can be an effective bedwetting solution? If not a cure, then a help?
I’ve dug deep on this topic and spent many hours researching various expert opinions and, studies. Hopefully this will save you considerable time as you embark on your own research about whether or not chiropractic could be useful for your bedwetting situation.
The more we can find out, the better position we are going to be in to make a decision about what course of action to take for your child’s bedwetting issue after the age of 5 or later, particularly if you are struggling with other methods as they get older and the problem is still persisting without you getting the sense that they are growing out of it naturally – as many children end up doing (some at a later age than others).
Like many natural therapy options such as homeopathy, chiropractic for bedwetting is generally considered to be a complementary intervention treatment – in other words, people tend to try it alongside other more traditional methods like bedwetting alarms.
As always, my first of call is to research any scientific studies or trials that have taken place, which are always the best way to find out if a particular method has potential for success.
There are very few studies done on chiro for nocturnal enuresis. One undertaken on a group of 4-15 year olds, published in 1991 in the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics (which is actually a chiropractic industry publication), found that chiropractic treatment showed considerably less positive outcomes than other common bedwetting treatment types.
But what if you still want to look into chiropractic as a possible treatment option?
It’s wise to be aware of how the industry looks at nocturnal enuresis, and how that might differ from the way medical doctors analyze and explain the condition.
You’ll often read chiropractic explanations about why bedwetting occurs in young children, and it may differ to what you’ll read from medical experts. Chiropractors are usually very much focused on an area most people are completely unfamiliar with, called primitive reflexes.
What is bedwetting chiropractic adjustment?
This is a service that you might see some chiropractors offering.
A chiropractor is not going to (at least they shouldn’t) claim to be able to “cure” a bedwetting problem. Most of them will however claim that they can reduce the incidence of nocturnal enuresis if it’s happening due to a misalignment of the spine – proving this is the case is another matter and should only ever be undertaken by a medical professional.
Is there any scientific proof that bedwetting can be caused by a spinal misalignment? And if so, how many people does this actually affect? Unfortunately, most of the literature that exists in this area is indeed written by chiropractors themselves. The vast majority of medical literature on the other hand, does not mention spinal issues as a potential cause of enuresis. So take that as you will.