Control of Bowels and Bladder
While the chiropractor will have little if anything to do in advising mothers how to train their children to answer the “call of Nature,” yet he should be familiar with methods that are suggested for such training and certainly he should recognize the importance from a hygienic standpoint of such regular habits. It might be stated here that the normal movement of the young infant’s bowels should be at least twice a day.
At a very early age children learn to evacuate the bowels when placed upon a nursery chair. This requires a great deal of patience and regularity on the part of the mother or nurse. Even at the early age of three months the child may be trained to such a degree that the napkin will seldom be soiled from the movements of the bowels. This saves an enormous amount of work and certainly is more pleasant for the child, and much more sanitary. There is, however, another advantage having the young child form this regular habit; it is very probable that a habit formed this early will be followed the entire life, and thus the tendency for the educated mind to neglect this very important innate function will be averted. The best time to place the child upon the nursery chair is immediately following feeding.
Training the child to empty the bladder at stated times is more difficult, although with patient and intelligent effort this may be accomplished. Many children at the age of one year are able to indicate when they desire to empty the bladder. This adds materially to the comfort of the child and certainly makes it very much easier to care for him. Some mothers are able to dispense with the diapers during the day by the time the child is a year old and some even at an earlier age. If there is no special effort put forth to train the child in this respect it will be necessary to keep him in diapers as late as two and a half years. After this age the child should have no difficulty in holding the urine during the night. If there is such difficulty adjustments should be given to correct the cause for the nocturnal enuresis.