Why To Get Your Child Adjusted

Did you know that there are many parents who choose to have their child adjusted right after birth?  You may be thinking, “Why would you adjust a baby?  They don’t have back or neck pain.”  What if I told you that chiropractic is more about function than pain?  Most adults seek chiropractic care due to pain, but pain is the last symptom.  Usually there is some sort of dysfunction long before there is pain. 

Let’s discuss newborns and the birth process first.  Babies are born 2 ways, vaginally and C-section.  Both ways are very stressful on a baby’s body.  I remember watching a birthing video for the first time and thinking that they pulled the baby’s head off.  I was shocked at how rough it looked on the baby!  The doctor is literally pulling the baby out by the head.  So let’s talk about that for a minute.  If someone pulled you around by your head, do you think it might cause some issues for your spine?  Another thing to ponder is Cerebral Palsy is generally understood to be an ailment sustained during childbirth.  Cerebral Palsy is literally scarring on the spinal cord or brainstem.  The other way babies are born is through C-Section.  The doctor cuts mom open grabs whatever he/she can to get the baby out.  There can be birth trauma with that! 

I have had the pleasure of adjusting babies just after birth.  Believe it or not, they actually have bones misaligned even being just hours hold.  It is wise to at least have the baby checked.  The adjustment for babies is not the same as you would make on older children or adults.  It is very gentle and usually the baby never even realizes anything is happening.  In the time that I’ve been a chiropractor, I have seen many things resolve in babies (after just one adjustment sometimes) including: colic, chronic ear infections, problems with bowel movements, Torticollis, and restlessness.  But how can a misaligned spine affect all those things?  The reason is simple, the nervous system.  Your spine is protection for your spinal cord.  When there is misalignment in the spine, the signal to and from the brain can be affected aberrantly.  When you remove the interference, the nervous system is able to function as it should.  Obviously babies can’t tell you that they hurt, and they may have no pain at all, but they will be fussy or have other functional problems like constipation and colic. 

I had a patient that came to see me for an adjustment and she told me that her newborn baby girl was constipated, but every time her friend that was a massage therapist would rub her low back, she would have a bowel movement that day.  I asked if I could take a look and found that she had a problem in her low back.  I was able to gently put it back in place.  The next time I saw my patient she told me that her daughter pooped 5 times that day.  Yikes!  Fun day for mom, but she was thankful because her daughter felt better and was a lot less cranky.  Just go ahead and admit it, you are cranky when you don’t poop everyday too!  On a separate note, I have had many adult patients that have bowel issues that resolve after adjustment as well. 

I had another mom that was a patient and she was at her wits end because her son had colic for a while.  I told her to bring him in to let me check him.  I made a simple adjustment and he never had colic again.  Babies are constantly being picked up, flipped over, twisted, and handled throughout the day.  They get problems in their spine too!

As children grow they start crawling.  This is an important step in development of the curves in their spine and affects parts of the brain.  Wouldn’t it be a good idea to have them checked out and make sure the signals through the spine are not being impeded by misalignment?  After the crawling stage, we get into the standing and/or walking stage.  Think of how many times a day a child must fall before getting the hang of it.  If you fell 12 times a day, do you think you might need your spine checked?  It might be a good idea.  Don’t get me wrong.  Kids are resilient, and again, many will not tell you there is pain.  But as a parent, you may notice that something is just not quite right. 

Some children experience things like chronic ear infections or asthma.  There are many studies on the effectiveness of chiropractic for those problems.  With chronic ear infections, I find that once I adjust the upper neck the ears are able to drain.  Those top few vertebrae being out of alignment can cause pressure or blockages in the Eustachian tubes.  You might consider getting your children adjusted before getting tubes in their ears.  Besides the fact that anesthesia is dangerous for young children, sometimes the tubes cause more harm than good.  My niece still has a hole in her ear from getting tubes as a child, and I am sad to say after a few surgeries, the hole is still open and she has hearing loss.  She is now an adult and can’t submerge her head in a pool or the ocean without getting an ear infection, which is ironically what the tubes were supposed to help in the first place.  When my daughter is having a lower respiratory episode, I can adjust her ribs and spine and she improves.

Once children enter the pre-pubescent and pubescent years, their bodies are growing and changing so rapidly.  In addition to that, they begin doing ridiculous things.  It’s the, “Hey!  Watch this!” phase of life.  Unfortunately this phase lasts longer for some.  A monthly trip to the chiropractor may be a good idea. 

Scoliosis is something for which most schools use to consistently screen.  I don’t know if that is still the case, but it’s a good idea to get your child checked.  The main reason you want to catch scoliosis while a child is younger is that you can actually make headway on correction while the growth plates are still open.  After the growth plates are closed, there is little to no chance of correction.  No one seems to really understand why scoliosis occurs, but I believe chiropractors have a better handle on it than most.  When your spine is misaligned, you can get muscles pulling left and right to try and bring you back into a more balanced state.  Sometimes you can see compensatory curves out of that.  As a chiropractor, you fix the segments that are problematic and the curves begin to straighten. 

Children and teenagers that compete in sports can see benefits from chiropractic as well… the same as with adults.  I will use an example from my current practice.  I am currently seeing a 12 year old fast-pitch softball player for a travel team.  She is hard-working and very competitive.  She sometimes works her arm too hard and it literally will not perform like she wants it to perform.  I adjust her arm and spine and she is as good as new in no time.  Any misalignment can cause people not to perform like they should, whether playing sports or not. 

There are numerous studies about the benefits of chiropractic on childhood ailments.  I get to see the benefits firsthand every day.  I urge you to get your children checked and adjusted.  It is very safe and there is no downside.  I believe you will be very pleasantly surprised.