Question: My grandson has a problem with bedwetting. My daughter feels like she has tried everything, and is now at a loss. What can we do?

Dr. Wright: If you're a long-time reader, you probably remember seeing references to Dr. James C. Breneman before. He authored what I consider one of the most indispensable books in natural medicine, Basics of Food Allergy. In that book, Dr. Breneman described a study he conducted in 1957 on a group of 65 bedwetters. He found that every single one--100 percent--had complete elimination of the problem by avoiding the specific foods to which they were allergic.

There have also been two other studies supporting Dr. Breneman's findings. These studies both found that food allergy caused bedwetting in the same way that both inhalant and food allergy cause asthma, by inducing muscle spasm. In asthma, spasms cause bronchial muscles to constrict, bringing on wheezing. In bedwetting, spasms chronically constrict the bladder muscles, which actually leads to smaller bladder volume and less ability to hold urine, especially overnight.

One researcher measured bladder volume in bedwetting children by threading a balloon into the bladder and inflating it to measure the volume. After the offending food allergies were eliminated, not only did the bedwetting disappear, but when he measured the bladder volume again, he found that it had increased by as much as 50 percent (and even more in some cases). (Of course, the bladders real volume didn't increase the spasm that had been causing the constriction had just gone away, allowing the bladder to function better and hold more.)

Dr. Breneman found that cow's milk and dairy were the biggest contributors to bedwetting, followed by eggs, corn, chocolate, and pork.

However, nearly any food and nearly any food additive, preservative, or other food chemical can be a cause too, so if eliminating the most common foods isn't helpful enough for your grandchildren, help Mom and Dad find a physician skilled and knowledgeable in nutritional and natural therapies who also is familiar with effective food allergy detection and desensitization.

Check with a physician-member of the American Academy of Environmental Medicine, the American College for Advancement in Medicine, or the International College of Integrative Medicine (all easy to find online using a search engine like Google).

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