When parents discover the Modified O’Regan Protocol (M.O.P), it’s usually after they’ve “tried everything” to fix their child’s bedwetting and/or daytime accidents — laxatives, probiotics, medication, alarms, nighttime fluid restriction, overnight wake-ups, fiber, bribes, potty sits, and, of course, years of waiting for the accidents to spontaneously resolve. Compared to those approaches, a daily enema regimen seems so radical, so extreme, so outlandish that parents expect it to stop the accidents immediately, or at least within a month. When that doesn’t happen, many get discouraged. As one mom posted on Facebook: “My son is almost 9, and we have been doing M.O.P. for a good two weeks now.
At what age should bedwetting be treated? The medical community’s boilerplate answer — around age 7 — is profoundly misguided, unsupported by science, and makes life crummy for countless children. Seven is not a magic number! And it’s three years later than I recommend. Yes, I treat bedwetting at age 4. Telling families, “Don’t worry, it’s normal, she’ll outgrow it,” deprives kids of timely treatment, dismisses the distress so many families feel, and allows a fixable condition to worsen. The advice to delay treatment until age 7 or beyond is based on a misunderstanding of what actually causes bedwetting. It’s also the reason I have a huge patient load of tweens and teens with enuresis — 6th-
