When people hear that we treat children with Chiropractic in this office they are often surprised.  For many it never occured to them to have their children looked at. 

One reason, is the cultural misconception that children don’t have joint pain, joint dysfunction, or sufficient reason to be treated by a Chiropractor.  This couldn’t be further from the truth.  Kids can hurt just as much as adults.  They fall down more, they get their little bodies into weird positions more often, they are more active.  But it really starts at birth…

Birth-related Neck Trauma

During the birthing process many pounds of pressure are placed on an infant’s spine.  Uterine contractions repeatedly ram the baby’s head against the cervix.  During delivery the doctor pulls on the head and neck to advance the baby, sometimes using forceps or a vacuum extractor.  This can all traumatize their fragile spines.  Then the infant’s head and neck are twisted by the doctor to clear the shoulders from the mother’s pelvis.  Finally, the baby’s head is forcibly flexed to it’s shoulder so they can suction the airway.

All of these things are sometimes necessary to deliver a baby, but the trauma to an infant’s fragile spine can be severe and if left untreated can cause problems almost instantly.  That is why a Chiropractor should be part of your child’s healthcare team.

THEY MIGHT NOT BE ABLE TO TELL YOU, WITH WORDS THAT IS

Kids lack the language ability to tell you when they are in pain.  My two-year old now points to areas that bother him and says “owie.”  It isn’t very often, but he has enough experience with me treating him to know if he points it out, I’m going to take care of it.  How many adults would just say “Oh you’re okay.” 

In the office I notice that when a parent is getting adjusted the child will often make some statement that they have a complaint also.  This statement is often immediately discounted as “monkey-see-monkey-do”  Maybe the child is smarter than the parent and knows that they have something going on and knows that this might be the time to tell someone about it.  The fact the parent needed treatment could be coincidence.

Babies know less about how to communicate.  They will be fussy, won’t sleep for you, won’t eat for you and they will make you suffer every minute that they do.  I don’t know how many parents have come in here and the child is sleeping for 30 minutes at a time.  The parents look like zombies, haven’t had adequate rest in days.  During the history I hear things like “the baby does like to turn it’s head to one side” or “doesn’t like his carseat” or “won’t sleep” or “won’t eat.”

By the time they’ve come into my office I know they’ve tried everything they can think of to fix this problem.  The medical doctor has been able to help them and through a friend they were told “maybe you should take him to a chiropractor.”  It’s a great decision, but think of how much suffering they could have avoided by doing it right off the bat!  Everyone’s knee-jerk response should be to take a struggling child to a Chiropractor, first.  Medicine second.  Not the other way around.

Fussy Baby…Chiropractor!

Baby Won’t Sleep…Chiropractor!

Baby Won’t Eat…Chiropractor!

Baby Doesn’t Like Sitting in Car Seat…Chiropractor!

Baby Won’t Use Arm, Can’t Turn Head, Won’t Crawl…You guessed it.