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Every mom or dad wants their child to grow up healthy, happy, and whole. One great way to safeguard your child’s proper development is by enlisting the aid of a pediatric chiropractor, who can help guide you through your baby or toddler’s growth journey.
There are plenty of common reasons parents might want to take their kiddos to a trained chiropractor’s office. Some of them have to do with possible underlying injuries they are worried their toddler might have experienced, while others are more about preventative care.
For example, the average healthy newborn baby’s spine grows about 50% in the all-important first year after birth, which is equivalent to a six-foot-tall man gaining three feet in the same period. Family and pediatric chiropractors can perform a complete examination and provide effective care to ensure that your baby’s spine is developing properly during that crucial interval.
On a similar note, chiropractors of all stripes can offer health and wellness advice to parents, setting their children up for success when it comes to daily posture, safe exercise, and even knowledge of how diet can impact overall health.
And yes, there are times when concerned parents take their children to the chiropractor’s office to address a specific injury or other common ailments. Babies and toddlers tumble all the time, whether it’s when they’re learning to walk, falling onto their bottoms, or even just rolling around on the floor.
Most of the time, these falls are innocuous. In some instances, however, a baby or toddler’s fall can be more serious, in which case a restorative visit to the chiropractor is in order.
The warning signs that your baby or toddler needs chiropractic care can be varied. For starters, research has found that trauma during birth may have a long-term impact on an infant’s spinal column. Even in less serious cases, a pediatric chiropractor can still evaluate your baby’s body following a traumatic birth process.
You might also want to bring your infant to the chiropractor’s office if he or she is having trouble sleeping. Some preliminary research has found that both the quality and quantity of an infant’s sleep may be improved by chiropractic care received on a regular basis.
Parents should also be on the lookout for any symptoms of poor posture in their kiddos. This includes slouching, a craned head, and crookedness while sitting or standing. Posture can have a major impact on a child’s lifelong health outcomes, including joint dysfunctions later in life, which is why it is a primary focus of chiropractic care.
Finally, colic may also be a warning symptom indicating that your baby needs chiropractic care. In one study, two weeks of regular chiropractic treatment was enough to create a significant decrease in the intensity and duration of most of the studied babies’ colic symptoms.
While most people think of the effectiveness of chiropractic care in terms of its ability as a natural healing art to treat back pain and other subluxation-related conditions, there is far more this field of treatment has to offer its patients, including the youngest of children.
A pediatric chiropractor can treat your infant or toddler for multiple conditions, including not only back and neck pain but also other injuries related to falling or too-rough play. Speaking of pain, chiropractic care for children can also help mitigate your baby’s inevitable growing pains through regular adjustments.
On top of that, chiropractic care can aid your child’s sleep, detect early warning signs of scoliosis, misaligned vertebra, and other spinal conditions, and correct poor posture early on. In some cases, chiropractors may even be able to keep your baby’s immune system functioning properly.
Taken together, these enormous health benefits can have a lasting impact on your child’s emotions and life experience. After all, a baby who can sleep better, experience less unwelcome pain, and maintain a healthy posture is likely to grow up with a happy, contented state of mind.
Plus, building a relationship between your child and a trusted chiropractor now means it will be easier for that medical relationship to continue well into your child’s progression into adolescence and, finally, adulthood!
While chiropractic care contains numerous benefits for your toddler or infant, you may be concerned at the thought of your child undergoing any form of spinal adjustment. In other words, you may be worried about whether or not chiropractic care is safe for your child.
Fortunately, pediatric treatment from a trained chiropractor is perfectly safe. While some chiropractors only perform manual adjustments, other specialists can use an integrator tool. This research-backed device is one of the safest forms of adjustment because it provides gentler adjustments with consistently slight pressure, meaning there won’t be any popping or cracking.
In fact, even chiropractic adjustments done in your baby’s earliest months of life are so gentle that your infant may not even experience any pain. Instead, your child can expect to feel relief following a careful, gentle adjustment.
If you’ve decided to take your young child to the chiropractor, there are some steps you can take to make sure the procedure for the initial adjustment is the best that it can be.
If your child is old enough to understand you, try explaining the purpose of your upcoming doctor’s visit. For example, you can tell your toddler who was injured after a fall that a doctor is going to use a small tool to make his or her back feel better.
You can also walk your child through the sorts of diagnostic imaging scans and tests that a chiropractor might run, as well as what it’s like to lie face-down on a drop table as the doctor returns their spine to a normal position.
Show up early to your child’s appointment so that he or she can get used to the environment of the clinic. The more familiar the environment, the better your odds of having a positive appointment from your kiddo’s perspective.
Finally, you as the parent need to maintain a positive attitude during the session and listen to the chiropractor’s advice regarding posture, nutrition, or anything else relevant to your child’s health and wellness. That way, you can set your child up for success after the appointment through simple lifestyle changes.
If your baby or toddler needs pain relief or even just some help with their natural growth, contact Cornerstone Chiropractic today to schedule an appointment. You can meet with one of our experienced chiropractors who can provide effective, gentle spinal adjustments that can help alleviate your child’s pain and discomfort. We’re here to give your whole family the care you deserve!
The longer we wait to address a problem, the longer it will take to resolve it. The sooner we attend to your health issues, the sooner you will be able to enjoy a happy, healthy, and pain-free life. Please complete this form to begin your healing journey. Or you can call our chiropractic offices at (605) 540-4004.