Why Children Need Chiropractic Care: A Guide for Parents
Children and Chiropractic: it’s a thing. An important one, too.
If you’re new to the world of pediatric and perinatal chiropractic, don’t worry. We’ll help you digest it little by little.
It’s common to get confusing looks and comments from people when I talk about babies getting regular chiropractic care on social media. People’s first thoughts:
That can’t be safe.
Babies don’t have back pain.
Do babies get adjusted the same way adults do?
These are legitimate concerns for any parent, and to answer them I’ll begin with the most fundamental and important question: Why do babies and children need chiropractic care?
Let’s dive in.
Being born is hard work– for mom and baby— and while births have the potential to be beautiful and without mental/emotional trauma, we cannot deny the level of physical stress that takes place. Pressures and forces are exerted onto the baby during her journey into the world. A recent study by Viola Frymann stated that 90 percent of newborns suffered the effects of birth trauma: associated strain through the neck and cranial areas following birth. Frymann, an American osteopathic doctor, studied more than 1,500 babies periodically across an eight-year period. She examined all babies within the first five days of birth; in fact, many were checked within the first 24 hours of birth. This study revealed that approximately:
10 percent of the newborn babies had perfect, freely mobile skulls or cranial mechanisms.
10 percent had severe trauma to the head, evident even to untrained observers.
The remaining 80 percent all had some strain patterns in the cranial mechanism.
Left uncorrected, this trauma continues to impact a baby’s spinal growth and development, reducing the healthy function of her nervous system. This can cause many health challenges later in life that could easily have been prevented.
What is Birth Trauma and what causes it?
While each birth is unique, there is always a chance that the baby suffers some sort of strain due to a variety of reasons. Even the most natural births can result in trauma that goes undetected.
The trauma from the birth process remains an underpublicized and therefore significantly under-treated problem.
- G. Gutmann
What can cause birth trauma?
Use of Pitocin to strengthen/induce uterine contractions
Use of forceps or vacuum extraction
Cesarean delivery
Pulling or twisting on the head to deliver the infant’s body
Baby position while in utero (nuchal hand(s), asynclitism)
All the above have the potential to dampen a baby’s reflexes, weaken the immune system, and/or cause low apgar scores, jaundice, and interrupt the bonding process because the natural progression of labor interrupted, and/or the baby is holding onto physical stress.
I’m not saying birth interventions are never necessary.
I’m not saying YOU should not opt for any of these birth interventions.
I’m just saying you should know the impacts if you opt-in.
What does birth trauma physically look like down the line?
Trouble breathing
Reflux/frequent spitting up
Irritability/colic
Difficulty nursing (impaired sucking/swallowing or head positioning)
Balance issues
Sleeping difficulty
Delayed developmental milestones
Nervous-system based chiropractic care is focused solely on removing nerve dysfunction within the spine (which improves brain-body communication) so a new baby can grow, develop, and function to the best of their ability. We as humans were born with an innate ability to heal. Chiropractors minimize the obstructions to that ability.
IMAGINE THIS…
PLAY-DOH.
Essentially, a newborn child is that: a fresh lump of play-doh. Over time, much like the bony structures in a human body, that play-doh will harden. Sure, you might be able to morph it a little here and there, but over time, the general structure of the dough won’t be as malleable as it was during its first years of life. Knowing this, why wouldn’t we want to give our children the best future outcomes by setting them up with solid foundations during childhood?
Regular chiropractic care during childhood helps with removing stress from the spine. The spine houses the spinal cord. The cord connects and communicates to the brain about what’s going on in the body, and in turn, the brain sends messages back down to the body via the spinal cord. This is often referred to as the “safety pin cycle”. Ask your chiropractor about it next time you see them!
Remember: If your baby’s spine develops while out of alignment, the rate at which they function will follow suit.
The first 5 years are essential for brain development in babies, with an extra emphasis on Year 1. The central nervous system (your brain & spinal cord) controls the baby's growth and development. Since infancy is the time of greatest brain development, infancy is the time to ensure the health of the nervous system.
That’s it! It’s that simple.
Now, some other concerns parents normally have:
Is it safe for babies to get adjusted?
Yes. When adjusting a newborn, a skilled chiropractor will only use the amount of pressure that equates to testing the ripeness of a tomato. The child gets checked by hand, then is placed on Mama’s lap or on a pillow, and gentle pressure is applied. It’s simple, safe, and you know it’s working when baby melts in mama’s arms afterward.
Babies don’t have back pain.
You’d be right. They don’t have back pain, per se, but they do feel pain and discomfort. If they didn't, no newborn would ever be fussy or would have the urge to cry for comfort. Cries are cues. Assuming they aren’t hungry, tired, or in need of a diaper change, they may be trying to communicate that they are uncomfortable.
What is the ICPA and why does that matter?
Being the oldest and largest organization of its kind, the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association (ICPA) was founded in 1986 by Dr. Larry Webster to offer doctors of chiropractic and other health care providers the tools that they need to care for pregnant mothers and children. For those DCs whose objective is to specialize in pediatrics, the ICPA offers a 360-hour diplomate program about kids and chiropractic care that goes into great detail emphasizing that (“chiropractically speaking”) kids aren’t just miniature adults. As bones develop, children’s skeletal systems are quite unlike adults, which requires an entire separate and distinct technique that must be utilized to effectively remove neurological interference from their bodies. While it’s not mandatory for pediatric-specialized DCs to take courses (or be certified) through the ICPA, it does give parents peace of mind knowing all ICPA-certified DCs have put in hundreds of extra hours learning about these populations (mothers and their babies).
DO YOU HAVE ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS NOT ANSWERED HERE?
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