The idea of a chiropractor providing care for a baby may be confusing. You might be wondering why a baby would even need chiropractic care in the first place. If you get past that answer, you may then worry about if it will hurt the baby. With just a few minutes of your time I would like to share why a chiropractic checkup is crucial for infants, how it is done, and ease your mind on any dangers.
First let’s answer the question as to why you would take a seemingly healthy baby to the chiropractor for a spinal checkup. The answer is simple. A child’s spine is made and developing before they are even born. Additionally, there is a lot of development and continuous growth of an infant’s spine from birth until the age of one. From the moment of birth, we want to start protecting it.
Even under normal conditions, the birth process is often the very first cause of spinal stress. A common delivery practice involves the doctor assisting the delivery by rotating or lifting the baby’s head to receive the shoulder. This can put a lot of stress on the cervical spine (neck). A German physician, Dr. Godfrey Gutmann, conducted a study of over 1,000 newborns shortly after birth. His research showed that over 80% of the infants had suffered stress or trauma to their spine, which resulted in vertebral subluxations. These are small misalignments of bones of the spine. Most of the time these go undiagnosed.
The reasons most of these spinal subluxations go undiagnosed at this early age is due to the lack of symptoms. If they are undiagnosed, they also go uncorrected. Unlike other health issues, spinal subluxations don’t just self correct. They need to be correctly and gently addressed by a chiropractor.
Proof of damage to uncorrected spinal problems has been documented as early as 10 years old. At the 89th Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA), Francis W. Smith, M.D. reported that nearly 10 percent of 154 children studied had degenerative abnormalities (bulging or tearing) to at least one of their discs. In the study, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies were done on 10-year-olds. At the meeting Dr. Smith stated, “We found degenerative changes in the spine much earlier than we ever would have suspected. This study revises our thoughts on when we should begin preventative back care. Proactive steps should begin early in life, even before puberty.” Even more important, none of the 10-year-olds studied had ever suffered from back or leg pain. Let me repeat, the 10-year-olds with spinal disc bulging or tearing had not had any back pain symptoms. Spinal care based on pain is just like only seeing your dentist once you begin to have a toothache. The damage is already done.
To demonstrate even more need for spinal care throughout your lifetime, the spinal damage continues to worsen with age. Another research study found that without any pain or symptoms 37% of 20-year-olds had disc degeneration. With further review 80% of 50-year-olds and 96% of 80-year-olds in the study had disc degeneration even in the absence of pain.
When you want to give your child the best start in life with all the benefits of a drugless holistic approach to healthcare, chiropractic care should be a vital part of your child’s regimen. The birthing process, car seats, learning to crawl, learning to sit up, and learning to walk all can create spinal problems. In addition, the spine grows exponentially during the first year of life and both the neck and low back curves are established during this time. The earlier we detect and correct a problem the less likely it will develop into a more serious chronic problem later in life.
Now let’s talk about how a spinal checkup happens for an infant. It’s gentle and in many cases the infants sleep right through it.
When checking an infant’s spine, I am looking for balance on each side of the body, proper alignment of each segment, and good motion within the joints and soft tissues. An infant’s spine is very delicate during the first months of life so only gentle slight pressure is used to motion the joints and to make an adjustment. This is performed by hand or sometimes with a light adjusting instrument called an Activator.
Chiropractic care is one of the safest forms of children’s healthcare available. Chiropractors have been providing safe and effective care for children for more than 125 years. If it weren’t safe and effective, parents would have stopped seeking chiropractic care for their little children years ago. You would have heard about it all over the news and there would be an outcry for parents to not take their child to the chiropractor. It’s simply not that way. In fact, many of my healthcare and medical colleagues around town refer their pediatric patients to our office.
Chiropractic is safe, gentle, and very effective for infants and children. Many times, I have checked newborns within hours of their birth. A 1992 survey showed that the most common childhood conditions benefiting from chiropractic care were: earaches, neck pain, back pain, headaches, upper respiratory, acid reflux, colic, allergies, asthma, enuresis, ADD, ADHD, torticollis, insomnia, growing pains, and restlessness. It’s also important that you know that chiropractors don’t treat symptoms, conditions, or diseases. Chiropractors detect and correct spinal misalignments that put unwanted stress on the nervous system and the body which can cause health problems. With better function, symptoms and conditions improve.
When seeking out a chiropractor for your infant, you do not need a referral from their pediatrician. I would advise you to choose a chiropractor that practices family chiropractic, prenatal, and pediatric care.
A chiropractor does not replace your child’s pediatrician just like they don’t replace their dentist or optometrist. If you want the very best for your child don’t forget to put a chiropractor on their healthcare team. For over 125 years chiropractic has shown to be safe and effective for little ones.
-by Dr. Brandon Crouch
About the Author: Dr. Brandon Crouch has been a KY board licensed chiropractor with Crouch Family Chiropractic for 20 years with a large population of his practice being pediatric patients. Dr. Crouch is an advocate for being proactive when it comes to your health and encourages people to make healthy informed decisions. For more information or questions you can contact him online at: www.crouchfamilychiro.com or find him on facebook at: www.facebook.com/CrouchFamilyChiropractic.
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