Chiropractic care for children: treating ADHD, asthma, and nocturnal enuresis

Chiropractic solutions are valuable options for children

When most people envision chiropractic care patients, they generally picture adults. That’s why it’s up to you, the professional, to spread the word that chiropractic offers many advantages for children as well—such as reduced incidences of bedwetting, a drug-free treatment for ADD/ADHD, and improvement in asthma severity.

Reduced incidences of bedwetting

Roughly 15 percent of 5-year-old children suffer from nocturnal enuresis, more commonly known as bedwetting.¹ Not only is this hard on the family as a whole due to increased bedding changes and the expense of mattress covers or replacements, but the child involved may have greater issues with self-esteem and a difficult time establishing relationships with peers as a result.² Fortunately, chiropractic care can often help.

One study published in the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics involved 46 children who were diagnosed with nocturnal enuresis.³ Of these, two-thirds were placed in a treatment group that consisted of “high velocity, short lever adjustments of the spine consistent with the Palmer Package Techniques” with the remaining one-third of the subjects assigned to a control group.

Findings showed that one-quarter of the participants engaging in treatment had reduced their bedwetting incidences by half or more, while there was no change at all in the control group.

Drug-free treatment of ADD/ADHD

In years past, a diagnosis of attention deficit disorder (ADD) or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) meant giving a child a pill. But with more and more kids seemingly falling under these labels and a growing number of parents wanting to find alternative care options, chiropractic can be one solution.

A study published in Explore supports this.⁴ After reviewing four different case studies involving males between the ages of 9 to 13, researchers Alcantara and Davis concluded that there was “supportive evidence” that chiropractic care helped lessen some of the symptoms commonly associated with ADD and ADHD, such as being hyperactive and having behavioral issues.

Improvement in asthma severity

The American Lung Association reports that asthma is one of the top chronic childhood disorders, affecting more than 7 million children.⁵ And any parent that has an asthmatic child can tell you how scary this particular condition is as they watch their little one struggle to breathe, leaving them feeling helpless and frustrated as they search for some way to provide relief.

A study involving 36 asthmatic kids aged 6 to 17 was conducted to see how well they responded to chiropractic treatment.⁶ After just three months of care (20 total visits), the children reported that their asthma severity had reduced and their overall quality of life had increased. More impressively, these same positive effects were still reported one year later, suggesting that chiropractic offers advantageous long-term effects.

Sharing this type of information with your patients can help them understand that chiropractic care for children can be of value.

References

¹ Iannelli, V. “Bedwetting – Bedwetting Statistics.” About Health. http://pediatrics.about.com/od/bedwetting/a/. Updated December 20, 2014. Accessed July 20, 2015.

² National Clinical Guideline Centre. “Nocturnal Enuresis: The Management of Bedwetting in Children and Young People.” http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK62729/. Published 2010. Accessed July 20, 2015.

³ Reed WR et al. Chiropractic management of primary nocturnal enuresis. Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics. 1994;17(9):596-600.

⁴ Alcantara J, Davis J. The chiropractic care of children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: a retrospective case series. Explore (NY). 2010;6(3):173-82.

⁵ “Asthma & Children Fact Sheet.” American Lung Association. http://www.lung.org/lung-disease/asthma/resources/facts-and-figures/asthma-children-fact-sheet.html. Published September 2014. Accessed July 20, 2015.

⁶ Bronfort G et al. Chronic pediatric asthma and chiropractic spinal manipulation: a prospective clinical series and randomized pilot study. Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics. 2001;24(6):369-77.