Chiropractic for Children?
by William B. Bronson, DBA
If you’ve ever wondered if chiropractic is for children, I have a story for you.
The very first feeling I had when my wife said I was going to be a father, was fear. Fear that I wouldn’t be a good dad, couldn’t protect them, or keep them safe and healthy. Those feelings were mixed with excitement and overwhelming joy. As parents, we have no idea what to do, except dig up everything we remember from our childhood as a roadmap for doing the job. For some, it’s guidance on what not to do, and for others, it’s a pattern to follow. Knowing the difference, well…that’s harder in some cases.
Many of us grew up going to the pediatrician when we got sick. But others, like me, had access to chiropractic and natural health options 24/7. Many times, it wasn’t the easy road to take. But my father taught us that the natural approach would make us stronger to “train” our bodies to fight off illness instead of always bailing it out by covering up the symptoms with drugs.
I didn’t like colds, flu, strep throat, sinus infections, ear infections, chicken pox, etc. But my father ushered me through them naturally for the most part. The trigger to see a pediatrician was the severity of the symptoms. So, if I had a high fever and things were getting worse after natural methods, I would go see the pediatrician for antibiotics or other medicines to help. But, if I had a normal fever and symptoms, my father would help me work through them naturally, building my immune system along the way. He said that every symptom was my body dealing with the situation on its own. You see, our bodies were made to maintain themselves… without outside help. But, sometimes, it’s not enough. These days our environment, food, lifestyle, and other factors hurt our body’s ability to fight illness. And the two schools of thought with that are to either use drugs to help or chiropractic to counteract eroding wellness and to bolster the body’s natural defenses and systems. It’s ok to use both, but parents should know that age-old adage of “give a man a fish, and he’ll eat for a day, teach a man to fish, and he’ll eat for a lifetime.” That means to me that if I help my kids fight off illness naturally, they will build a lifetime army and be healthier for it.
Also, these days, parents work; often, both parents work. So, it becomes a battle of timing, scheduling, school, and work, and can become overwhelming. It’s no wonder people navigate towards the quick fix of a prescription instead of looking at the root cause and making changes.
Fortunately, I had experienced a long history with chiropractic when I became a father. My father and his parents were all chiropractors, and one of my first memories was how it helped save my life.
I was four years old, and my family joined some friends in Snowmass, Colorado, for a ski trip. It was to be my first experience snow skiing, and I was so excited…but not just about skiing. I found a huge white fluffy dog (Samoyed) outside our cabin, and we became fast friends. Not long after that, we went to dinner, and I was told I could order whatever I wanted. I chose the most expensive thing I saw…a Filet Mignon! My dad was amazed to see me finish it off with asparagus at four years old.
Later in the condo, upstairs had bunk beds. Not your wimpy old two-story ones, but three-story bunk beds, with another normal bed next to them on the floor. Of course, I wanted the top bunk, so I climbed up and then noticed I left my pillow behind. I asked my friend to hand it to me, but she was so far down that I couldn’t reach it. She was already on her toes, so I stretched down as far as I could to reach it and fell like a rock. My neck hit the corner of the bed on the ground, and I was laying there stunned, and I couldn’t move my head. My neck felt swollen, and I was beginning to feel a lot of pain. At that moment, my dad came in the door downstairs and heard my friend’s yelling, so he ran upstairs to see what had happened. All I remember was my head in his lap as he cradled me on the ground. He was feeling my neck to see if I had broken anything. Then he positioned me on the ground and gave me a chiropractic adjustment and then called downstairs for someone to get ice. I lay there with a bag of ice under my neck and my dad smiling at me. He said I had a close call, and I can still see his grateful eyes as clearly now as I did nearly 49 years ago.
I don’t remember much else from that trip except learning to snow ski and that beautiful white fluffy dog. I’ve had many other accidents since then, where my dad was there to help me. I will always feel lucky he was a chiropractor.
But wait! Aren’t chiropractors just for back pain, neck pain, headaches, etc.? Not even close. Chiropractors can help a wide range of issues.
What is Chiropractic?
Many of the online medical sites, like WebMD, define Chiropractic as a “treatment that is primarily used as a pain relief alternative to muscles, joints, and bones… The goal of the treatment is to improve spinal motion and improve physical function.” Now, while this is a true statement, it’s far from definitive. A growing number of people know from experience that chiropractic treatment can directly or indirectly help just about any situation, even if it’s not the clinically intended outcome. So how does muscle, bone, and joint treatment help children?
Think of it this way. Chiropractic can help restore the normal flow of information and nutrients throughout the body. These messages and nutrients affect everything in your body. So, when you have a subluxation, tension, injury, or other disruption, your body can’t adequately function as intended. Chiropractic treatment affects your body’s “Air Traffic Control” system, called the central and autonomic nervous system. Stress on the nervous system can cause dysfunction in muscles, joints, organs, and other major systems.
Just like in traditional medicine, there are different specialties within the chiropractic profession. Many chiropractors focus on common back pain and sports injuries, but there’s an entire subset of experts who focus on the nervous system, pediatrics, prenatal, and family wellness!
When it’s obvious that the nervous system is struggling, chiropractors look for a root cause. Traditional western medical doctors typically use prescription drugs to treat conditions, and usually, it’s the treatment of symptoms. Antibiotics, aid your body in healing itself, which is the whole focus of chiropractic.
Birth trauma is one of the biggest stressors for an infant and many parents aren’t even aware of it. The physical and chemical stress placed on infants is detrimental to their health, especially if they have trouble recovering from it. So, that becomes one of the biggest hidden secrets of our modern age. A child’s cycle of illnesses and stress could have begun at birth!
What Makes Neurologically-Focused Pediatric Chiropractors Different?
One of the biggest additions to a pediatric chiropractor’s toolkit is the Insight Scanning technology. For a chiropractor to really understand what’s going on in your nervous system, the Insight Scan helps visually display areas of stress that can lead back to a root cause. It allows the doctor to measure and track your body’s function throughout your treatment plan.
The Insight Scan is not an X-ray. It’s a safe, effective, and accurate technology which measures the exact amount of stress, tension, and dysfunction within the nervous system, providing printable reports for patients, parents, and chiropractors that help them decide on the proper treatment plan to correct it.
This stress and tension within the nervous system can be caused by one or more spinal subluxations, which can be caused by prenatal distress, birth, falls, and even sleeping without proper support. Subluxation and related issues can build up over time without noticeable symptoms, which is why the Insight Scans are so useful. They can pick up issues even if you don’t notice problems yet, and can help correct problems before they get worse.
What Can Chiropractic Help?
Since the autonomic nervous system controls every cell, tissue, and organ in your body, the benefits of chiropractic become incredibly broad. You can best understand the benefits of chiropractic by looking at a condition called dysautonomia. Dysautonomia is also called autonomic dysfunction or neuropathy and is relatively common. Your autonomic nervous system (ANS) is responsible for maintaining your body temperature, regulating your breathing, moderating your heart rate, and much more. Think about the things your body handles without you having to consciously make them happen. Those things are regulated by your ANS.
Most parents are very familiar with the typical medical system where everything seems to require a different specialist, and none of them seem to communicate with each other.
If children have issues from birth trauma, nursing issues, bathroom issues, colic, ear aches, mucus build-up, coughing, spitting up, not seeming happy, and can’t sleep well…..going to all of those specialists seems like a nightmare.
Dr. Bronson can run an Insight Scan and look for subluxation that may be a root cause of many issues before you run all over town to different specialists. A subluxation could impact the autonomic function and immune system significantly.
What Are Some Chiropractic Benefits?
Chiropractors look at the body as a whole, not just the symptoms, or even individual systems. Dr. Bronson focuses on finding and removing neurological interference and imbalances safely and naturally, without drugs. Once the child’s nervous system is balanced and calm, their bodies can regulate themselves properly, and many issues may simply go away after beginning chiropractic care. Things children could experience:
- Better sleep
- Better digestive regularity
- Better mental focus
- Happier mood
- Better balance
- Reduced or eliminated latching issues
- Less acid reflux issues
- Less frequent illnesses
It’s not that chiropractic “treats” these issues. It treats the body, helping the body solve issues on its own, the way it should. The goal is to remove blockages that prevent self-healing and self-regulation.
When you and your child meet with Dr. Bronson, you will come away with a plan of action. One that you can feel good about, not resorting to drugs, and helping your child develop in a healthier body. Now that’s something to really feel good about!