Bedwetting in children: an allergic reaction

Nutrition Health Review, Summer, 1995

Doubters in the medical profession say there is little evidence that proves enuresis (bedwetting) is a psychiatric problem. For many decades, psychiatrists have been treating the problem with mixed results, says J.C. Breneman, M.D., in his classic treatment of the subject in Basics of Food Allergy (Charles C Thomas Publishers).

Dr. Breneman derives his theory from the works of researchers who observed during the early 20th century that certain people lost control over their urinary functions after the ingestion of certain foods. "They also noted that the removal of these foods from their diets resulted in less bladder irritation and better control of urinary continence.

Unfortunately, Dr. Breneman says, "these reports went largely unnoticed. In 1957, this phenomenon was independently discovered... in the study of sixty-five enuretic patients (who) showed that the removal of certain specific foods from the diet resulted in the complete control of bedwetting."

Bedwetters, Dr. Breneman explains, "have decreased bladder capacities... caused by a relative inability of the bladder to stretch, which is due to swelling of all the layers of the bladder." He refers to the work of John Gerrard, M.D., who successfully researched the theory that the bladder will return to normal when food allergens are removed from the diet. These phenomena, Dr. Breneman says, are best explained by the ebb and flow of allergic edema of the bladder wall.

The specific foods that cause nocturnal enuresis followed almost the same incidence as seen in other disorders that are caused by food allergy.

"Cow's milk was the single largest contributor to the problem. Wheat, egg, corn, chocolate, and pork followed," says Dr. Breneman.