Probably one of the biggest questions I get when it comes to treating children with Chiropractic is…why? Why would a child need Chiropractic? Most people still think that Chiropractic just treats back or neck pain for adults. What needs to be realized is that Chiropractic can treat so much more and it starts with our early years of development.
To understand how we help children with Chiropractic it is important to understand the very basics of Chiropractic. Here is a brief anatomy lesson.
The brain controls everything in the body. It does that through the nerves. The nerves go to every structure, organ and tissue of the body. When there is a bad connection (pressure on nerves) between the brain and the body, the body and its parts quit functioning appropriately. For example, if there is pressure on the nerves that come out of the upper neck area a child may suffer with bad sinus/allergies, infantile colic, ear infections, tonsillitis, ADD/ADHD, headaches etc…If a child had nerve pressure on the lower back nerves, the child may have back pain, knee pain, wet the bed, constipation/diarrhea and other digestive issues to name a few.
By relieving the pressure on those nerves, the symptoms and conditions could go away if that was the original cause of the problem. There are many causes that contribute to a child’s health problems, but rarely does a parent know the information shared above.
Of course, not all conditions are attributed to pressure on nerves, but if a child has been to other professionals and the condition has not been corrected then it may be worth checking to see if there are pressured nerves coming out of the spine.
The reason the spine is checked is because most of the nerves that come out of the brain exit through the spine and travel to the rest of the body. Most of the time the pressure on the nerves occurs at the place where the nerves exit the spine.
Here is what interests me.
Why would a child have pressure on a nerve? Spinal misalignments often occur during the birth process, especially if it was difficult. Tossing your child in the air or yanking the child by one arm can cause severe whiplash. Falling off a bicycle or the everyday bumps that happen to children can also cause spinal misalignments. Generally, children quickly become accustomed to these problems and move on with daily life.
Signs you can look for are:
Do your children get colds often?
Do they ear aches or sore throats often?
Are they hyperactive?
When they were babies did they have colic or cry a lot for no reason?
Do they complain of back pain, stiff neck or headaches?
Look at your child’s posture:
Is one shoulder higher than the other?
Do their clothes fit unevenly?
Does one foot point out or in?
Just as proper attention to teeth can prevent problems later in life, proper attention to the development of the spinal structure can lead to fewer problems as adults.
Over the years I have looked at tens of thousands of x-rays, and a very common finding among adults is degenerative arthritis in the spine. It takes many years for arthritis to show up in the spine. In almost every case, the degeneration/arthritis can be linked directly to the mishaps of childhood.
Chiropractors are some of the few doctors trained to detect and treat the early stages of spinal degeneration.
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