Children and Chiropractic
Healthy Children, Happy Parents
Every parent at some time has been awakened
at night by a sick baby crying in misery. He can’t tell
you what’s wrong. He can’t tell you where it hurts.
Nothing makes you feel more helpless. Nothing makes you realize
more quickly that your child’s health is precious. Returning
your child to good health becomes your number one priority.
But the fact is, illness is often easier to prevent that it
is to cure.
Many times, even basically healthy children
are repeatedly affected by illness: colds, flu, ear infections,
allergies, and asthma. Some parents accept this as a routine
part of childhood. However, most often these ailments show
up first in children with weakened immune systems. A strong,
healthy immune system gives your child high resistance to
disease and infection. However, when the immune system is
weakened or compromised, disease and infection are given an
opportunity to flourish.
How the Immune System Affects Health
To work properly, the immune system must communicate
with the brain through neural pathways in the body. When something
interferes with these neural messages, errors occur, and the
immune system can makes mistakes. Allergies and asthma are
examples of a malfunctioning immune system.
The main place where these inferences can occur
is in our neural “superhighway”, the spinal cord.
Then spinal vertebrae become misaligned or are not moving
correctly, they can rub, stretch or twist adjacent nerves
creating what doctors call vertebral subluxation. It can affect
the health and function of virtually every other tissue, organ
and system of the body.
Only a Doctor of Chiropractic has the expertise
to properly evaluate and treat spinal subluxations. The goal
of chiropractic is to find and correct interferences to the
body’s own natural state of good health, not just to
treat symptoms.
What Causes Subluxations In Children?
Spinal subluxations resulting from stresses
on our bodies can occur at any age. Even in babies or very
young children. It may begin with the trauma of birth when
40-50 pounds of pressure is exerted on the infant’s
neck. Powerful contractions squeeze their small bodies while
the baby’s head is forced to rotate though the birth
canal. This results in considerable stress on the neck, spine,
nerves and muscles.
As your child grows, his spine suffers a variety
of jolts, bumps, spills, and twists in normal daily activities.
Learning to walk, falling off a bike or skates, landing wrong
on a trampoline, sports injuries, or a multitude of other
things can add up to abnormal stress on the spine. While this
stress may not cause noticeable symptoms for some time, hidden
structural changes can affect the health of spinal nerves,
and in time, the whole body.
When spinal problems are left untreated, the
body begins to change and adapt, trying to compensate for
the problem. This can mean trouble for your child’s
future health. Fortunately, it is in early childhood when
these underlying problems are most easily detected and corrected.
Because babies and children grow rapidly, their pliant muscles,
ligaments, and bones change quickly too. This may be why they
respond so well to early treatment.
Be Alert For Early Signs Of Spinal Problems
Bad posture and scoliosis, a deforming disease
of the spine, can develop in childhood and adolescence, especially
during periods of rapid growth. Stay alert for signs of spinal
trouble in your child: tilting the head, neck sensitivity,
trouble lying on back, difficulty in breastfeeding, prolonged
crying or irritability, signs of swelling or pain, and in
older children, complaints of headache, backache or pain in
the arms or legs.
Chiropractic Can Help Your Child Be Healthier
Scientific studies evaluating the effects of
chiropractic care on children have indicated some very positive
findings. A study in 1989 compared the patients of 200 pediatricians
with 200 children who had been under the care of chiropractic
doctors. The overall health of the chiropractic children was
superior with fewer ear infections, fewer allergies, less
tonsillitis, and less need for antibiotics.
A study from Denmark shows encouraging evidence
that infants with colic are helped by chiropractic care, even
when more traditional treatments fail. Of 316 babies treated
by 73 chiropractors in 50 different clinics, improvement was
reported in more than 90% of these children. Children with
allergies and asthma often show significant improvement under
chiropractic care also.
A lifetime of good - or ill - health
begins at birth. That’s why most parents prefer to have
their children checked by a Doctor of Chiropractic shortly
after birth and periodically can offer you guidance in the
areas of proper nutrition, rest, and exercise for your child.
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