Chiropractic for Children

Why do children need Chiropractic care? The nervous system controls and coordinates everything in the body, including development and healing.  The majority of neurological development (65%) occurs during the first 6 months of life; shouldn't we make sure that child's nervous system is working properly? Of course! Pediatric chiropractic care is a powerful way for parents to help their child develop optimally and heal naturally.

The birth process is often the cause of your infant's first misalignment (subluxation). It is estimated that as much as 80 pounds of pressure can be exerted on the newborn’s neck during birth. This would be equivalent to a 200 pound male having 2,000 pounds of pressure exerted on their neck. Without the language to explain, infants announce their spinal misalignments in the only way they know how, by crying. Many babies experience colic, poor sleeping habits, delayed development, lack of appetite, frequent ear infections, inability to feed on one side, or other signs of poor health.

Then, as children grow up and become more adventurous the potential for injury to their spines increases. The repeated falls as children learn to sit up, crawl, walk, run, jump, and play sports, can often cause your child’s spine to become subluxated. However, kids often do not show the ‘typical’ signs or symptoms of being misaligned until later on in life. Sadly, bedwetting, digestive issues, behavior problems and many childhood aches and pains are passed off as ‘growing pains’ or ‘just a phase’. These complaints are often a cry for help from the body that something isn’t right. It is important to correct spinal misalignments and restore nervous system function as soon as possible to correct and prevent future problems.

A main concern in regards to Chiropractic care and children is that the adjustments will be too forceful.  Parents mistakenly think that their child will receive adjustments much like what they receive.  Chiropractic adjustments are modified for each person's needs, size and unique spinal condition.  Children rarely have the long-standing muscle tightness that adults do, making their adjustments much more gentle.  As a comparison, infants and newborns are adjusted with the same amount of pressure as you would use to test the ripeness of a tomato.  

Chiropractic and Spectrum Disorders

Although there is no scientific evidence supporting these results, Chiropractic can help children with spectrum disorders.  Parents will typically report that their kids seem 'out of touch' with their bodies.  And this is true.  A child's nervous system is so out of sync that they literally can't feel themselves in the world. These children often either love being touched or hate being touched, to the point they do not even like the feeling of clothing!

That is where Chiropractic comes into play.  Chiropractic aims to stimulate the children's nervous system.  Essentially, waking their body up!  Allowing them to be more aware of their body in space.  Parents see that after an adjustment their child will calm down or often fall asleep on the drive home.  Their mood improves, functioning at school improves, simple day to day tasks that their children typically struggle with become easier.  Parents also recognize when it is time to bring their child back to the Chiropractor. The child becomes increasingly restless, or starts to revert to the previous state.  

Fortunately, chiropractic has had many positive results through, gentle and effective adjustments, in improving some very common childhood ailments such as: 

• Frequent illnesses
• Torticollis
• Acid reflux
• Constipation
• Growing pains
• Headaches
• Ear infections
• Scoliosis
• Asthma
• Breast/bottle feeding difficulties

Children are our future, let's make sure they get there as healthy as possible! Get started with Dr. Casey at University Pointe Chiropractic Center today to begin improving your kid’s health!

For more questions about Chiropractic care during pregnancy, please contact us and we will be more than happy to answer your questions. Also, feel free to visit the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association website. Here you will find more information about the benefits of Chiropractic for mother's and children.