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Home › Articles › Breastfeeding › Breastfeeding and Enuresis

Breastfeeding and Enuresis

Can Nursing Prevent Childhood Bedwetting?

By Teri Brown

Pages:  1  2  3  

Dr. Carol Steltenkamp, associate professor of pediatrics for the University of Kentucky's Kentucky Children's Hospital, believes it may be due to improved neurodevelopment. "Essentially, what the authors suggest in their results and conclusions is that clinical evidence strongly suggests that many cases of nocturnal enuresis result from delayed neurodevelopment," she says. "Multiple previously-published studies align improved neurodevelopment with breastfeeding. Neurodevelopmental maturation is essential to prevent the development of nocturnal enuresis." However, Dr. Steltenkamp is quick to point out that the study does not prove this; it merely says that a connection could exist.

What's Ahead
Dr. Barone agrees, the issue needs more study before a conclusion can be reached concerning the connection between breastfeeding and a decrease in childhood nocturnal bedwetting. "This was a pilot study to see if this is something that needs to be examined in more detail," he says. "We have recently submitted a grant to the National Institutes of Health requesting funding to answer this question definitively. If we receive that funding, we will be able to answer the question for sure. The definitive study will take five years to complete once the funding is received."

Though the study shows some possible links between breastfeeding and a decrease in nocturnal enuresis in children, some mothers aren't convinced. "I breastfed all of my children past three months, and two of them wet the bed into first grade (one still does), however infrequently," says Jennifer McDougall, mother of four from Alberta, Canada. "It's a mystery to me why kids wet the bed, but I think there are many factors including personality, how deep they sleep, diet and drink and birth order."


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