Perhaps with the only exception of enuresis there is no urinary disease which is found exclusively in children or which has a course of treatment different from that applicable to adults. Thus we find that the cause and treatment of all other renal conditions in children are the same as for the grown-ups and hence they do not deserve any special mention here. Enuresis could have been inserted as a concomitant of “Sleep”. But in our Materia Medica there is a number of medicines having renal symptoms particularly found in children alone. To enunciate those peculiarities we feel the need of opening a separate chapter where enuresis too will find its proper place. In this chapter we shall deal as well with other common urinary troubles of children but shall simply touch them and shall not go very deep.
As mentioned above bed-wetting is the most common urinary complaint in children and it is more amenable to our potentized drugs than to any other therapy. Thus this is one of the numerous complaints in the treatment of which homoeopathy has an upper hand.
Involuntary micturition of elderly children during sleep is known as enuresis or more commonly as bed-wetting and when it occurs during night it is called nocturnal enuresis. Sometimes this habit continues upto the age of adolescence and in some case, though rare, even adults are its victims. At about the age of three the children become big enough to understand that this is a nasty habit which they should correct, and this is also the age when they acquire a control over the bladder. Continuation of the habit any longer surely needs a proper medical treatment. Punishment or reproach will prove the worst that the parents can do to correct the habit.
Some of the probable causes of enuresis are: – (1) irritation of any kind, it may be reflex irritation from worms or from pungent foods, (2) indurated adenoids, (3) constipation, (4) tight fore-skin, (5) paresis of sphincter and (6) atony of bladder. A stone in the bladder or some nervous diseases may also be at the back of this condition. Some say that if the child sleeps on sides he does not lose the control but lying on the back is not certainly one of its causes. In any case the cause of the disease should be ascertained and given due consideration.
It has been observed that more girls than boys are its victims. In homoeopathic treatment of enuresis no auxiliary measure is necessary although abstention from taking anything liquid after sunset and waking up the child once to empty the bladder one hour after he falls asleep will facilitate thee treatment considerably. While under homoeopathic treatment one should not indulge in pungent, spicy or rich foods, this is general restriction for all patients, no matter what are the names of their complaints, and this restriction is more necessary in the case of enuresis.
Now for the treatment we should consider the constitutional remedies first as this condition is generally nothing but a symptom of some constitutional defect. Sulphur, Calcarea carb. and Tuberculinum are the remedies that almost every constitution requires in the childhood and they happen to be of super excellent benefit or enuresis. They follow well in the order they have been named. The 200th centesimal potency at intervals of a week will modify the constitution of almost every child.
Sulphur kids are warm-blooded with some eruptions on their skin; unhealthy skin. They cannot keep their feet covered during sleep and kicks off the covering. The child is very pleased with his position and possessions. In the absence of a clear-cut indication for any other drug Dr. Jahr recommends this drug in the 30th potency for a week and claims to have obtained success with very few exceptions.
Calcarea carb is the remedy for chilly kids with fair complexion, large head, open fontanelles and big abdomen. At thee first sight they will appear surprisingly healthy with a tendency to obesity, but on close examination you will find it is pseudo-plethora as those are not muscles but fat. These kids lack in childish buoyancy and would stay in any one position for a pretty long time as exertion of any kind exhaust them.
They perspire easily, especially on the head and feet, and more during sleep. Sluggishness runs all through this medicine, these children are slow to move, slow to comprehend, slow in learning to walk and to talk, slow to cut the teeth, slow to have the fontanelles filled up and they have slow formation of bone. They suffer from constipation which is, perhaps, due to their sluggish bowels.
