Chiropractic Not For Children?

by Feb 19, 2018Chiropractic Care for Kids, Family Chiropractic Care

One of the most common things we hear when we are out in public is “chiropractic for kids…why? Isn’t it dangerous or unnecessary?”.

Or people come into the clinic and they see pictures of children, pregnant women, and families, and they say “I had no idea kids saw chiropractors.”

By the end of their first visit, however, they know exactly why every child should be checked by a chiropractor!

Check, Don’t Automatically Adjust!

Whenever someone asks if I recommend that their child gets adjusted I state that I always recommend a child gets checked– and then, adjusted if needed. Chiropractors have a variety of methods for checking if a child needs to be adjusted.

Checking the Nervous System

Nervous system in a childThe nervous system, as shown in the picture, consists of the brain, spinal cord and nerves. The entire system is protected by your skull and spine.

(fun facts about the nervous system here!)

This system controls every cell, tissue, organ and muscle in the entire body. Think of it as the master control system or air traffic controller at an airport. It coordinates every function, including the heart, lungs, digestive system and immune system.

It is responsible for the growth and development of every child. As parents, we take our kids to the pediatrician, who check their eyesight, hearing, blood pressure, listen to their heart and lungs, and even check reflexes.

Unfortunately, not enough children get their nervous system checked. The system that controls it all! That is why in our office we start with a neurological evaluation and scans.

Our state-of-the-art technology allows us to scan the entire nervous system in order to determine if it is functioning the way that it should. You can read more about the scans and technology here. 

The common misconception when it comes to kids and chiropractic care is that our goal is to put bones back into place, bones that are not fully ossified or developed.

The goal is not to reshape the spine but rather change the function of their nervous system underneath.

You see, a very small misalignment in the spine (millimeters) can put pressure on the nervous system. This decreases the communication from the brain to the body and will decrease the function of the nervous system as a whole.

Can you imagine an air traffic controller losing communication with all the planes landing and departing at an airport? This decrease in communication can cause issues with sleeping, digestion, immunity, neurodevelopment as well as many others.

We treat all of the symptoms with medications or therapies but we never get rid of the pressure that is being placed on the nervous system!

My Son’s Story

While still in chiropractic school my wife gave birth to my son Braden. The birth went exactly how we had wanted; birth in a birthing center without the use of any medications or drugs. Like many first time births, it was a longer than expected delivery.

My wife was in active labor for 24 hours and there were a few times when we thought we may need help progressing the birth. However, after Braden was finally born, they quickly took a look at him and said he was perfectly healthy.

I looked at my son and he was bleeding from the top his head as well as the side of his head having that cone-like appearance.

They told us that he was trapped in the pelvis for quite some time and was delivered face up or breech (not the normal presentation).

In other words, it was not a smooth labor for him nor my wife.

After my wife and I got to spend some alone time with him they checked all of his vitals, color, breathing, and feeding and they were all perfect. In the back of my mind, I could not shake the feeling that there is no way he is perfectly fine after the tough labor.

For the next few days he was eating, sleeping and pooping like a champ. There were no indications that he was functioning at anything less than 100%. That is, until I scanned my son for the first time when he was just a few days old.

CORE scan of a babyThis was the results of his first scan. Without diving too deep into the interpretation of the scans, the red bar on this scan is SEVERE pressure on my son’s nervous system in the most important place, the brain stem.

His nervous system was functioning far less than 100%. His brain was not communicating with his body at an optimal level.

Utilizing these neurological scans, we were able to pinpoint where the communication was less than 100% and restore it. Many people ask me what were the signs and symptoms he was suffering from. My answer is, he had none. They ask what would he have suffered from. My answer is, I don’t know.

In the end, he never had to suffer because the most important system of his body was scanned at just a few days old.

The communication was restored without the need to twist or crack his neck. I can definitively say that his body and nervous system are now functioning at an optimal level.

Maybe he would have had colic, digestive issues, or even ear infections.

Whatever it would have been, we will never know, because we were able to stop the problems before they started.

This is the reason that we recommend every single child gets CHECKED, not adjusted!

Our mission is to create a community were every child is functioning at 100%, so we have the entire generation that can then pursue their dreams, and change the world.

Blessings,

Dr. Aaron Cain