Babies Need Chiropractic Care Too!

The idea of taking your baby to a chiropractor may seem scary but you should not worry.  Chiropractic care is the largest conservative health care system in the world and by nature it is very gentle and calming and is not invasive to the body.  This means no surgery or medication is needed to heal the body, just gentle and very specific movements done by hand that remove the physical stress from the nervous system.  These gentle movements or chiropractic adjustments have the same amount of pressure that you would use to test the ripeness of a tomato.  Children and babies do not have the same muscle tension and stress on their spine, so they do not need large movements like you may have seen in an adult adjustment.  These adjustments are tailored for babies and are so gentle they often sleep, smile or laugh through the adjustment!

Why chiropractic? 

We know the brain controls the body through the spinal cord and all the little nerve roots exit the spine and innervate all of the organs and muscles in the body.  The spinal cord is so important that it is protected by the spinal bones.  Like a safety pin, when there is a misalignment between these bones, the brain tells the body through the nervous system to shift to abnormal and dysfunctional movement patterns to protect the area and soon the body is functioning at dis-ease.  When we realign the spinal bones, we remove the stress from the spinal nerve root and the brain signals the body to shift back to its normal, functional pattern or to a position of ease. 

So what causes this misalignment of the nervous system?

STRESS.  We break stress down into physical, chemical and emotional stressors.  But my baby is not stressed you say!  But there are many stressors that our children encounter every day.   First we have physical stress such as birth (they are either pushed or pulled out), how the baby sat in utero, breech or transverse presentations, a tongue tie, instrument assisted births, c-sections, as well as tumbles, falls, sports, heavy backpacks and poor posture in older children.  Next, we have chemical stressors such as GMOs and pesticides in food, water and air pollution, chemicals in our air, body and beauty products, cleaning chemicals, as well as, electromagnetic radiation from wi-fi and cell phones.  We have over 900, 000 more chemicals in our world since 1945 and our children’s bodies have to filter out so much more than we did as babies.   Finally, we have emotional stressors on the parents or family that affect the baby such as divorce or parental disagreement, death in the family, loss of job, moving homes, or siblings. 

So what can we do?? 

We remove the stress.  We can counsel parents on ways to live a more organic, chemical free way of life and we can refer you out to counselors and therapists to help deal with your emotional stress.  Chiropractic care removes the physical stress from the body, so the body can heal faster and move back towards functional movement patterns. As we remove the physical stress, the baby gets stronger and can grow towards proper physical, social and emotional milestones. 

So why are developmental milestones so important? 

In a baby, proper developmental movement patterns are very important for brain and body development.  Did you know that 90% of all brain stimulation comes from spinal movements?  For example, if the baby has torticollis or loss of neck movement to the right, they lose body awareness on the right and brain development on the left.  If he does not move his right side of his body, his left brain is not being stimulated and vice versa. So as you can see, chiropractic care is very necessary so babies can reach proper movement and developmental milestones.  If a baby does not reach these milestones in order, that is OK.  We can teach the brain and the nervous system any new movement pattern by moving the baby through physical exercises and restoring movement back into the spine with proper chiropractic adjustments.  

So what does an evaluation and chiropractic adjustment look like? 

You should take your baby to a Certified Pediatric Doctor of Chiropractic, these doctors have completed the 200+ hours of extra education to become proficient in treating infants and children. Go to www.icpa4kids.org to find a certified doctor.  After a thorough history with the parents and a gentle examination, the doctor will explain what they have found and how they hope to help the child.  No “bodywork” or adjustment is given without parental and child permission.  The adjustment may be a series of different body movements or may look like nothing at all, as the doctor feels and gently moves the bones back into their proper alignment.  A lot of infant work is centered on the head and it often feels like a gentle head massage.  As we said before, most children smile during the adjustment!  So now you have the learned the “Why?” and “How?” behind Chiropractic care and we hope that you will bring your child in so we can help them reach their full potential!

Dr. Kay Mooberry Dc, CACCP is the only Certified Pediatric Chiropractor  in the Evergreen foothills community.  She has been working with pregnant mamas and children since 2010 and serving their parents and grandparents since 2006.  Please visit www.evergreenchiropractor.com