At Health by Design, we often get the questions from
inquisitive parents, “Why would an infant need chiropractic care?” In order to
answer this question, it is important to understand that chiropractic care is
much more than a treatment for neck pain, back pain and headaches, like so many
still believe.
Chiropractic
care is the care of the nervous system through the spinal column. Yes, it is
great at treating pain, but the benefits don’t end there. The widespread
benefits of receiving chiropractic care are explained by the effect of a spinal
adjustment on the nervous system.
Your nervous
system controls every other system in your body. Think of the spinal
cord as a
highway transmitting signals from your brain to every organ and every
cell at
the speed of 275 mph. Your body then sends feedback to the brain to let
the
brain know what adjustments to make in your heart and breathing rate, if
you need
to digest something, if more energy needs to be produced or hormones
need to fluctuate. This is all happening automatically without
you even knowing it or needing to know.
Your body is
miraculously and intelligently designed. From conception, the nervous system is
the first system to start to develop after just seven hours. The rest of the
systems can’t develop without the brain and spinal cord.
Dr. Ted
Koren, the most widely read chiropractor today, once said, “The journey through
the birthing canal is considered one of the most dangerous journeys we will
ever take.” What Koren was describing refers to the process of what happens to
the infant’s cranial bones and spinal canal in order to be delivered. Did you
ever wonder why an infant’s cranial bones are soft? This is part of the divine
design. The cranial bones are flexible in order to allow the bones to move and
overlap to allow the passage of the skull through the birthing canal.
Additionally, the baby’s head and spine make a drastic turn during delivery.
This can cause injury and misalignment of the cranial bones and spinal column,
as well as the nerve bundle called the brachial plexus in up to 80 percent of
infants.
Here are a
few signs that your infant should be assessed by a chiropractor:
~Vomiting
~Irritability
~Sleeplessness
~Colic
~Nursing on only one side
~Inability to latch onto breast or painful latching
~Torticollis
~Unequal arm mobility or use
Chiropractic
adjustments frequently result in immediate quieting, cessation of crying,
muscular relaxation and sleepiness. In fact in our office, it is common for
babies to fall asleep and have a good bowel
movement directly after an adjustment—sometimes before they even get out of the
door!
Additional benefits of infant adjusting include higher Apgar
scores, increased alertness, successful breastfeeding and latch on both sides,
and sleep for longer duration.
Here are
some additional times that all children should be assessed:
~After the birth process
~When baby starts to hold head up
~When baby sits up
~When baby starts to crawl
~When baby starts to stand
~When baby starts to walk
What we know
is that taking care of the spine and nervous system from birth can be
protective against what commonly later become the chronic diseases and health
challenges in pediatrics, teens and even adulthood.
Beyond
infancy, the ongoing care of your nervous system is equally important. Children
that regularly see chiropractors for care are less likely to experience reflux,
ear infections, food allergies, issues with digestion or regular infections.
They reportedly have less sick care visits to their medical doctors, consume
fewer prescription and over-the-counter medications, and have overall improved
growth and development scores.
Here are
some benefits of pediatric adjusting:
~Better immune system/less infections
~Less bedwetting
~Fewer food allergies
~Less asthma
~Better moods/less discipline or behavioral problems
~Less anxiety
~Higher than average grades and IQ (intelligence quotient)
~Fewer learning disorders, including dyslexia, and less inability to concentrate
~Decreased likelihood of ADD/ADHD (attention-deficit disorder or
attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder)
~Decreased incidence of autism
~Improved endurance and reaction time in sports
~Fewer antibiotics and other
medications
The list goes on and on because taking care of your
nervous system takes care of every other system!
Dr.
Kristy Harvell is the owner of Health by Design, located at 2002 Southside
Service Rd., in Jacksonville. For more information or to make an appointment,
call 904-363-3374 or visit HealthByDesignFL.com.
