Introduction
If you came here to read a bunch of statistics about chiropractic care and associated symptoms or conditions related to babies, adolescent children, teenagers, and so on… This is not the article for you. I do not claim that chiropractic care cures or ails various common conditions that occur through the life of a child because it does not do that. Chiropractic is not a cure for anything, it is a conduit of assistance for the body to regain and maintain control over its innate ability to thrive and adapt to the internal and external conditions put upon it. So, if this makes sense for adults who have already experienced the stress and experience of life and has led them to seek assistance. Why can’t this make sense for children to get that same guidance before they get to adulthood and their bodies threshold of stability becomes overwhelmed day in and day out. Physical, mental, and emotional stress does not discriminate on age, it simply has different perspectives and different effects with timelines in life. While an adult may have mental stress from a job or home life, a 3 month old will have the mental stress of learning to feed and sleep differently while utilizing new found consciousness instead of doing it innately in the womb of their mother. It is too narrow minded to think that age is synonymous with compromise, this is like assuming you don’t need to exercise because you lift things or walk at work.
Misconceptions
So, let’s start with some misconceptions about children being under chiropractic care. The first one being that a child gets adjusted the same as an adult. I had a friend, who has an athletic training background, recently tell me that he doesn't believe children should get adjusted because they shouldn’t get a “grade 5 mobilization” done to them. First things first, adults don't even get “grade 5 mobilizations” done, they get precise, efficiently powered, and unique adjustments. Second, people of different ages and different health histories also receive different adjustments. It is not a one size fits all and children depending on their age, they work their way to more manual adjustment techniques. For a newborn to weight bearing ages, the pressure that is needed is so miniscule that it equals to touching your own eyeball or a ripe tomato without braising it. Now, as the child progresses it truly depends on the chiropractor and their choosing of how to adjust. It can be utilized with an instrument or still gently with hands continually.
The second misconception is that children “don’t need it”. I have heard this plenty of times in clinics I have worked at, with parents stating to the child laying on the table wanting to get adjusted, “you don’t need it yet, you can handle activity”. This stems from a mindset that something only needs to change or happen when it gets to its tipping point, but that often leads to longer recovery times, continual financial responsibility, and overall poor health. As I mentioned before, life does not discriminate against age in regards to negative effects on the body. Let’s look at a newborn, as they develop, they are forming in a confined space for 9 months being completely fed, forming itself, and essentially kept alive by the assistance of the mother. Then, the birthing process happens and did you know that in the United States, roughly 32 % of births are cesarean? With other countries like China being more prominent being 50% and Brazil being 80%? The idea of having a C section is not inherently bad and often life saving, however the idea has its own downfalls that affect the mother and the baby. For the mother, it can cause likely postpartum infection, more blood clots, and slower physical recovery overall. For the baby, some complications would be that it takes the baby away from the microflora of the vagina which helps build up the its immunity, 2-4x more likely to have respiratory distress, delayed breastfeeding initiation, and overall sensory development issues.
On the other hand, let's talk about vaginal delivery, there can also be complications to the baby and mother mutually, and it is more strenuous on the delivery process itself, but with that being said, the body is more designed and attuned to such methods. The mother still has a chance of hemorrhaging but has a faster recovery and less likelihood of postpartum infection. For the infant, this method, depending on how the delivery goes, can be very taxing on the baby's body like if it was breached and had to be turned, dilation was not optimal, or be pulled out manually or by forceps. So, you can already see that the baby has to go through a large amount of obstacles with different methods of delivery that can influence the baby's life right from the start. This is also not to mention the newfound consciousness for themselves, gravity, and ongoing physical demands they go through once they enter this world and live life. That is why it is advocated for letting the little one get checked immediately after this beautifully crafted event to provide immediate confidence and relief to the body after everything it went through. It is never going to be perfect and I don’t claim that getting adjusted will cause the baby to have invincibility either but with getting checked from the start, it allows certainty in that the body is sufficiently supplied with neural durability to take on life as they grow and flourish. This also halts detrimental effects before allowing something to start so small and influence their life dramatically later on.
The third misconception is that Chiropractors aren’t licensed to adjust babies. Regardless of popular belief , all chiropractors have put in extensive doctoral work in gathering knowledge about all the stages of life and the ways it connects to anatomy, physiology, and neurology. Every chiropractor is licensed to adjust children of all ages after graduation and attainment of a license. There are also specialities that chiropractors can obtain to be proficient in care for pregnant moms, little ones and on. If you are hesitant on trying it or have a multitude of questions. I recommend finding one and going to them for care in these stages of life.
Conclusion
So in conclusion, I have truly only scratched the surface of different demands put on a child's life even from the start. Just switch those challenges to different demands as the child gets older growing into adulthood. This is also meant to spread awareness of the passion chiropractors have helping little ones from the start and assisting through a child's life. It should not be scary or anxiety driven. It should be the opposite, freeing and liberating in knowing your little one has been functioning at 100% from the start. Chiropractic care is for proactive healing instead of reactive healing. So, I just say the time to act is not when things become “too hard” to handle, the time to act is at the start. There are no reports of any adverse effects in regards to pediatric chiropractic besides soreness, irritability, and increased crying at the time of the adjustment, which occurs with basically any human being in anything new in life. You should some of the bigger men that come in to get adjusted. The rewards of being neurologically and functionally sound from the beginning greatly outweigh that. If you are skeptical, find a chiropractor that resonates with you and just talk. You don’t even have to do anything at first. I'm sure they would love to just give you information and consultation, which is lost in the healthcare system in general. If you prefer a specialized pediatric chiropractor, find one of those. All I ask is to not close off the life altering opportunity for your child simply because someone who is not a practitioner in our field tells you not to do it. Be open minded and think critically about you and your families health because that way of thought could lead you to what actually makes a difference in your life. Live your best life, Live Primal. ✊