Chiropractic Care for Infants
- Does your infant act colicky?
- Did they have a traumatic birth?
- Does your infant’s head movement seem restricted?
- Does your toddler get ear, nose, or throat infections frequently?
- Did they suffer injuries such as torticollis?
Dr. Collard has seen amazing results in infants and children suffering from these and many other commonly “dealt with” symptoms. Many have used several series of antibiotics for ear infections without any improvement.
Because young children are so resilient most see results after 1 or 2 visits in our office. The problem usually will be corrected within 3 to 5 chiropractic treatments.
No need to be afraid! The “adjustment” is not the same as what is used on adults. It is a small gentle motion that is done while the parent holds the infant or child.
Chiropractic care for children offers your family a solid foundation for wellness. Throughout pregnancy, birth, and childhood, the chiropractic lifestyle offers choices and benefits for your greater health and well-being.
Otitis media (ear Infections)
As parents, it makes us feel so helpless. Our child is suffering but there seems little that we can do. No wonder reoccurring ear infections (otitis media) account for a huge number of pediatrician visits. The traditional approaches include:
- Antibiotic therapy. This may be effective for acute bacterial infections, but many cases are viral, for which antibiotics are useless.
- Tubes in the ears. Surgical implantation of artificial drainage tubes require the administration of a risky anesthesia and then, they often come out! However, more and more parents are choosing a more thoughtful approach:
- Chiropractic care. A thorough examination to locate, and adjustments to reduce, nerve disturbances that may make the ears prone to infection.
Ear infections aren’t the result of a drug shortage or deformed eustachian tubes! Our bodies have an incredible capacity to fight infection. When that ability is impaired, it means something else is going on.
Nerve Compromise
It surprises many to learn that some of the nerves that control, regulate and monitor the ear begin in the brain stem, continue down the spinal cord and exit out from between the bones of the spinal column.
Changes to the function of the bones in the upper neck can compromise the quality of the nerve signals to and from the brain. Obviously, this can affect the ability of any organ or tissue, in this case your child’s ear, to “defend itself” from infection.
Impaired Drainage
Nerve compromise is often accompanied by abnormal tension to the muscles that support the spine. Besides “protecting” the spine from further compromise, these muscle spasms can exert pressure on nearby lymphatic drainage ducts. This prevents natural drainage, further compounding the problem.
What We Do
Our approach is simple. When parents bring their child for us to check, we look specifically for distortions in the upper spine. If nerve tension is detected, we gently reduce it with safe and natural chiropractic adjustments. This helps restore nervous system integrity. For a child or infant, this usually requires little more than a light touch with our fingertip at just the right place and direction.
Parents love our approach. We explain everything in advance. Our adjusting approach is safe and results are achieved naturally. Give us a call. We’d like to help.
Birth Trauma
If a baby is inconsolable, it’s hard to know if it’s a digestive disturbance. Consider another explanation. Upon examination, we often find spinal distortions in the baby’s upper cervical spine. These babies are probably suffering from head and neck pain. This is especially common if they have had a difficult birth. Shoulder dystocia is another possibility, but both can cause long-term effects.
Shoulder Dystocia
Shoulder Dystocia is very painful to your infant. Dr. Collard can give relief to your infant. This is a correction and realignment of the neck shoulder and back it is gentle and safe.
Breast Feeding
When you try feeding your newborn does he/she cry?
When you lay them down does he/she only turn their head one way?
Will they only nurse on one side?
Even under the most optimal birth experiences, subluxation to the spine can occur. Many are very minor and go unnoticed.
Colic
Your tummy hurts. You have a terrible headache. You can’t sleep and you’re cranky. One more thing: you can’t ask for help because you’re only two weeks old! So you cry. And cry. And cry.
Infant with colic.
Lacking the ability to speak, newborns cry, indicating that something isn’t right.
And your parents feel helpless.
Indigestion?
Infantile colic was first thought to be merely indigestion. The most widely accepted definition of colic today is “unexplainable and uncontrollable crying in babies from 0 to 3 months old, more than 3 hours a day, more than 3 days a week for 3 weeks or more, usually in the afternoon and evening hours.”
A 93% Success Rate
In a South African study by Mercer and Cook, thirty infants diagnosed with colic were randomly divided into two groups. One group received chiropractic care while the other group did not. Within two weeks time, the chiropractic care group saw a complete resolution of symptoms in 93% of the infants.
A 94% Success Rate
A Danish study (Klougart et al., 1989) looked at the effects of chiropractic care with colicky infants. Their published report indicated that 94% of parents saw improvement in their baby’s behavior within two weeks of beginning care.
Not a Cure
But chiropractic isn’t a treatment for colic! If subluxation is present, interfering with the proper function of any part of the body, restoring proper nervous system control allows the body to heal. This can happen regardless of age and regardless of what the symptoms are called.
Find Out More
Consult our office for a no-obligation consultation. Give us a call to set up an appointment 801-569-1141. There is no need for a new mother to feel the sense of helplessness.
Bedwetting
Bedwetting takes a tremendous toll on children. Embarrassment. Alarms. No sleepovers. Plastic mattress covers. Frustration. Unable to fit in. Even diapers.
Up to the age of four or five, most children have poor bladder control at night. But after that, the inability to stay dry at night is a sign of an underlying problem. While chiropractic is not a treatment for bedwetting (nocturnal enuresis), countless children have been helped with safe and natural chiropractic care.
Bladder Physiology
Two key muscles control the emptying of the bladder. Their technical names are the detrusor and trigone muscles. Nerves that exit the spinal column in the lower back and sacrum control these muscles.
During the early years of life, the sacrum has five separate segments. Later, they fuse together to form the triangular-shaped bone that adults have at the base of the spine. If these segments misalign (falling, learning to walk, ride a bike, etc.) they can compromise nerves that are responsible for bladder function.
We look for these sometimes subtle misalignments during our examination. When these misalignments are reduced with safe and natural chiropractic adjustments, nervous system control and regulation of the bladder can be restored.
Will adjustments hurt my baby?
This is a common concern among parents who mistakenly think their child will receive adjustments like the ones they receive. Not only are adjusting techniques modified for each person’s size and unique spinal problem, an infant’s spine rarely has the long-standing muscle tightness seen in adults. This makes the energy needed to adjust a child’s spine considerably less than an adult’s does.
