We all know that routine chiropractic care has endless benefits for adults, but what about for infants and children?

The physical adjustment may appear very different from an adult adjustment but the intention still remains the same; to detect and correct nerve pressure within the spinal column. Here are the main reasons parents bring their children to our office.

1. Birth Trauma

Whether your birth experience was a cesarean section or non-medicated vaginal birth, there is pressure put on the infant’s head and neck during the birthing process. Studies have shown that infants can undergo multiple pounds of pressure to the upper neck and 95% percent of infants neck misalignments after the first 5 days of life. To give you some context, it takes no more than the pressure you would put on your eye in order to make a physical adjustment to your infant’s spinal column. We know that children typically do not grow out of these misalignments, they grow into them. This means that the constant pressure on the body’s master control center can inhibit the ability to self regulate. These misalignments can result in trouble breastfeeding, constipation, colic, reflux etc. A simple correction performed by a trained practitioner can correct these common problems.

2. Meeting Milestones

Have you ever heard someone say, “My baby went from sitting to walking so quickly.” These are things I hear in my office quite often. The reality is most parents are unsure of the reasons your child should perform certain movements tasks at certain stages of development. Ages 0-3 are vital years when it comes to your child’s brain development. Activities like crawling, walking, standing and talking all have specific stages in which they need to occur in order to create the building blocks for proper development. We evaluate your child’s nervous system function, assess their spinal structure and primitive reflexes to give us a well rounded understanding of their health and wellbeing.

3. Organ Function

As you now understand, the nervous system is vital to our existence. Not only is it responsible for alerting us with pain but it also sends messages to every cell and organ telling it how and when to function. Each nerve has 9 different functions but only 10 percent of their function induces pain, therefore it is possible to have a dysfunction occurring within the system but feel no pain at all. If the area of the nerve that sends signals to the liver has pressure on it, what do you suspect will happen? Typically a decrease in function of that organ, right? This is one of the three major reasons every child should be checked by a chiropractor. Some examples of this would be babies that have jaundice, constipation or repeated ear infections. All of these issues are our bodies’ way of telling us something is not working properly. If we correct the cause of the organ dysfunction, nerve pressure, the body takes over and begins to regulate again. I cannot tell you how many infants and toddlers we’ve saved from undergoing multiple rounds of antibiotics, tubes in the ears and even surgical procedures by simply correcting the cause of the issue. It is truly remarkable how the human body works.

We cannot avoid the stresses infants are subject to, whether it’s the birthing process or rapidly changing milestones. These stresses affect the nervous system which in turn affect organ function. Early detection will ensure your child has the best chance to develop and function at their highest level.