Healthier Children & Babies

 

"Chiropractic care for my child? Why? His back doesn't bother him." How often chiropractors have encountered parents who appreciate the importance of regular checkups for their child's teeth, hearing, eyes and ears but draw a blank it comes to a spinal checkup. In fact, a spinal checkup could be one of the most important checkups your child will ever have.

 

Your child's spine is his/her lifeline because running through it is the spinal cord, containing billions of nerve fibers that send messages from the brain to every part of their body.
 

You do everything to ensure your child's health: during pregnancy you eat right; you avoid drugs, cigarettes, and alcohol, (even aspirin has been shown to cause problems in pregnancy); and you take childbirth classes, so you may have a natural, drug-free birth. After the baby arrives, you breastfeed knowing that is the superior of nutrition; you do everything you can to make sure your child is healthy - have you had their spine checked? A chiropractic spinal checkup can help ensure a healthier child and baby, one with higher resistance to disease and a healthier nervous system.

 

Blockage Of Nerves In The Spine

 

If there is blockage of any of the nerves along the spinal cord, any nerve damage at all, then a state of "dis-ease" will develop. Dis-ease (a term that chiropractors and others have long used to scribe a state of disharmony in the body) will cause a generalized weakening of your child's body, lowered resistance to disease, and consequent body malfunction and sickness.

Blockage of nerves in the spinal column is usually caused by tiny fixations and misalignments of the spinal vertebrae that chiropractic calls vertebral subluxations.

 

The First Subluxation

  
 

How can a child's spine lose its natural alignment? Vertebral subluxations have many possible causes. Injuries to a baby's spine can be caused by a difficult delivery, a breech presentation or simply too much stress on the child's body. Health problems early in infancy can sometimes be traced to a difficult delivery.
Immediately after birth, damage can occur if the baby is dangled by the feet! As the famous French obstetrician Frederick Leboyer has written in "Birth Without Violence":
 
"We know very little about our bodies, so little that we forget the importance of the spine… Why, when the vulnerable spine has always been curved, do we insist on holding the newborn upside down and jerking the back straight?"(17)

Sadly, some newborns have unhealthy spines:

The birth process… is potentially a traumatic, crippling event …mechanical stress imposed by obstetrical manipulation - even the application of standard orthodox procedures may prove intolerable to the fetus. The view has been expressed clinically that most signs of neonatal injury observed in the delivery room are neurological…(1)

"With the birth process becoming more and more an intervening procedure. The chiropractic adjustment becomes even more important to the child's future," says Larry Webster, D.C., President of the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association.(2)

 

Childhood is a very "physical" time. Jumping and running, falls and accidents are all part of normal childhood and yet they can cause spinal misalignments and nerve damage. It would be wise for all parents to have their children's spines checked periodically.

 

 
Correction of vertebral subluxations in children's spines, which reduces postural, nerve and other stresses in their bodies, can gave a powerful effect on many aspects of their lives. For decades many parents have noticed positive changes in the physical health, behavior and emotional states of their children following a chiropractic adjustment.(18-20)
 

 

Warning Signs

 

Because your children (and you) may have spinal subluxations and not know it, all children need periodic spinal checkups. There are, however, certain warning signs indicating that the spinal column may be out of alignment:

 

 

  • Chronic fatigue

  • One hip or shoulder higher than the other

  • A foot turned in or out

  • Shoulder blades flared out

  • Joint aches

  • Can't stand still

  • Neck tilt

  • Frequent falling

  • One leg shorter

  • "Noisy bones"

  • Nervousness

 

 

Research
   
In addition to chiropractic research, a medical study determined that approximately 80% of all children have spinal subluxation. Of a random group of 1,250 babies examined 5 days after birth, 211 suffered from vomiting, hyperactivity and sleeplessness - spinal abnormalities were found in 95% of this group. Spinal adjustment "frequently resulted in immediate quieting, cessation of crying, muscular relaxation and sleepiness." The authors noted that an unhealthy spine causes "many clinical features from central motor impairment to lower resistance to infections - especially ear, nose and throat infections."(3)
 
The two medical doctors who authorized the above mentioned study concluded that a chiropractic spinal checkup "…should be obligatory after every difficult birth" and any spinal stress "should be…adjusted…the success of adjustment overshadows every other type (of care)."(4)

In another study, of 1093 newborns checked, 298 had upper cervical subluxations and early signs of scoliosis.(5)

Many studies have given testimony to the power of an infant's natural healing ability when chiropractors released spinal stress. Studies include those with Erb's palsy, in which an arm is limp and undeveloped,(6) unbalanced facial and skull symmetry(7) foot inversion,(8) colic,(9,10,11) torticollis (twisted neck),(12,13) nervousness, and ear, nose and throat infections.(14)

 

When Does A Baby Need A Spinal Checkup?

 

 
  1. After the birth process.
     
  2. When the baby starts to hold his/her head up.
     
  3. When the baby sits up.
     
  4. When the baby starts to crawl.
     
  5. When the baby starts to stand.
     
  6. When the baby starts to walk.(15)
 

 

Conclusion

"Our children deserve to be treated naturally, not with dangerous chemical drugs and unproven surgeries," says Boby Doscher, D.C., Director of Oklahaven Children's Center, which is beginning its fourth decade helping indigent children with physical, neurological and emotional disabilities through drug-free chiropractic care.(16)

Do all you can to give your child the best possible chance to have a healthy life. That includes childbirth without violence, breastfeeding, and avoidance of unnecessary drugs and medical procedures (except in emergencies). You have your child's eyes checked, heart checked, hearing checked - why not their spine?

More and more families are finding that a periodic chiropractic spinal checkup for their children makes a big difference in their health. Why not include periodic chiropractic spinal checkups for you and your family?

 
For information on the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association, call 1-800-670-5437.

http://www.icpa4kids.com/

 

References

 

    1. Towbin, A. Latent spinal cord and brain stem injury in newborn infants. Develop. Med Child Neurol., 1969, 11, pp. 54-68.
       
    2. Webster, L. International Chiropractic Pediatric Association Newsletter. May 1990, p.1.
       
    3. Gutman, G. Blocked atlantal nerve syndrome in babies and infants. Manuelle Medizin, 1987, 25, pp. 5-10 and Gilles et al., Infantile atlantooccipital instability. Am J Dis Child, 1979, 133, pp. 30-37.
       
    4. Ibid.
       
    5. Seifert, J. Die kopfgelenksblockierung des neugeborenen. In K. Lewit & G. Gutmann (Eds), Rehabilitacia (Vol. 8). Prague: Bratislawa, 1975, p. 53.
       
    6. Harris, S.L. & Wood, K.W. Resolution of infantile Erb's palsy utilizing chiropractic treatment. JMPT, 1993, 16, pp. 415-418.
       
    7. Gutmann, G. The atlas fixation syndrome in the baby and infant. Manuelle Medizin, 1987, 25, pp. 5-10.
       
    8. Ellis, W.B. & Ebrall, P.S. The resoultion of chronic inversion and plantarflexion of the foot: A pediatric case study, Chiropractic Technique, 1991, 3 (2).
       
    9. Klougart, N., Nilsson, N., & Jacobsen, J. Infantile colic treated by chiropractors: A prospective study of 316 cases. JMPT, 1989, 12. Pp. 281-288.
       
    10. Nilsson, N. Infantile colic and chiropractic. Eur J Chiro, 1985, 33 pp. 264-265.
       
    11. Pluhar, G.R. & Schobert, P.D. Vertebral subluxation and colic: A case study. J of Chiropractic Research and Clinics Investigation, 1991, 7, pp. 75-76.
       
    12. Biedermann, H. Kinematic imbalances due to suboccipital strain in newborns. J. Manual Medicine, 1992, 6, pp. 151-156.
       
    13. Toto, B.J. Chiropractic correction of congenital muscular torticollis. JMPT, 1993, 16, pp. 556-559.
       
    14. Fryman, V. Relations of disturbances of cranio-sacral mechanisms to symptomatology of the newborn. JAOA, 1966, 65, p. 1059.
       
    15. Talk given by Larry Webster, D.C. at the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association certification program, Module 1. Canada March 11, 1995.
       
    16. International Chiropractic Pediatric Association Newsletter, Sept. 1994.
       
    17. Leboyer, F. Birth without violence. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1984, pp. 21; 28.
       
    18. ive study of the health status of children raised under the health care models of chiropractic and allopathic medicine. Journal of Chiropractic Research, Summer 1989, pp. 101-103.
       
    19. Giesen, J.M., Center, D.B. & Leach, R.A. An evaluation of chiropractic manipulation as a treatment of hyperactivity in children. JMPT, 1989, 12, pp. 353-363.
       
    20. Walton, E. V. Chiropractic effectiveness with emotional, learning and behavioral impairments. International Review of Chiropractic, September 1975, 29, pp. 2-5; 21-22.