It seems like every cold, fever, rash, or illness happens at the least convenient time for kids. I remember being that dad who was constantly browsing the aisles of Target on a Sunday night, right before they closed, trying to find the right over-the-counter medication to help my son feel better and get to sleep. In fact, I still remember the aisle number where I too often found myself: A37.
Micah wasn’t even a year old, and the constant sickness cycle had started. The runny nose, congestion, fussiness, and lack of sleep would lead us to an over-the-counter remedy, and like most parents, we tried what we thought was the healthiest, dye-free, somewhat natural-looking one first. When that didn’t work, we would go for the “strong stuff” and finally call the pediatrician first thing Monday morning and get prescribed something “more” to get us out of the struggle.
If you’ve been here, it’s beyond frustrating and defeating, as while medicine could help us at the moment, it couldn’t help us stop the cycle of sickness that led to many sleepless nights, medications, and so many medical bills.
I would love to say I helped find the solution, but truth be told, nothing is more powerful than a mom on a mission. My wife, Crystal, asked in every Facebook group and messaged every friend, and if Instagram and TikTok were a thing 10 years ago, she would’ve taken it over!
After a few messages and comments came back, “Have you tried Chiropractic care?” “my son/daughter got adjusted, and it helped everything….” She knew she had to learn more as she thought, “Aren’t Chiropractors for back pain, neck pain, and headaches?” “Do they even see babies?” “What would care even look like?” “Is it safe?” “How does chiropractic care help my kids?” Like a mom on a mission, she researched, found the absolute best provider, did more research, and finally called to set an appointment. Following that first conversation, a small thought entered her mind: “Could this be the answer we’ve been looking for?”
What is Chiropractic Care?
Many of the most viewed health websites, including WebMD and the Mayo Clinic, define Chiropractic as a “treatment primarily used as a pain relief alternative to muscles, joints, and bones… The goal of the procedure is to improve spinal motion and physical function.” This sounds great if you’re an athlete or have been in an auto accident, but what about the friend who messaged, “Chiropractic helped everything with my kids.” How exactly did a muscle, bone, and joint treatment help a child?
When my wife and I dug a bit deeper (ok, mostly my wife), we discovered the most exciting aspect of chiropractic! Once we learned the real secret sauce is that chiropractic works on the body’s communication and “Air Traffic Control” system, the central and autonomic nervous system… we couldn’t wait to get started! It made perfect sense to us that any stress on the nerves could lead to stress and dysfunction in not just joints and muscles within the body but different organs and other major systems.
Additionally, we learned that, just like in traditional medicine, there were different specialties within chiropractic. While it’s true that many chiropractors focus primarily on back pain and sports injuries, an entire group of experts focus on the nervous system, pediatrics, prenatal, and family care!
When the nervous system is struggling, chiropractors want to look back to find the root cause(s) of the distress and dysfunction, whereas medicine typically seeks to just cover things up with medication.
One of the most significant stressors that few parents are aware of yet for infants and children is birth trauma, and that was certainly the case for our son Micah.
The amount of physical and chemical stress added to the birth process in the modern era is, in our opinion, as PX Docs, the single most significant detriment to the health of our children. It is the single biggest hidden secret in health care, and we’ve got to let more parents know that their child’s cycle of sickness and stress likely started right at the very beginning!
Yes, things like gluten, dairy, and toxins are a detriment to our kid’s health and well-being, but birth trauma is genuinely something that can have lifelong negative consequences if not discovered and properly cared for.
What Makes Neurologically-Focused Pediatric Chiropractors Different?
In order for a family chiropractor to focus on the nervous system, they need to incorporate an incredible piece of technology called the INSiGHT Scan. It’s not enough for a neurologically-focused family chiropractor to just talk about the nervous system; they actually need to measure and track its function as care progresses.
This wildly safe, effective, and accurate technology measures the exact amount of stress, tension, and dysfunction within the nervous system. It provides clear reports to parents and practitioners that help them form an exact customized care plan to take care of it! This stress and tension within the nervous system is called subluxation, and again it is most commonly caused in the very early stages of life by things such as prenatal distress and birth trauma.
Subluxation and its related dysfunction often build up for quite some time without symptoms, which is why our favorite INSiGHT scans to run are on brand-new infants and wellness patients, helping us catch any stress and dysfunction long before it starts to cause trouble!
What Can Chiropractic Care Help With?
Since the autonomic nervous system controls and modulates every single cell, tissue, and organ in the body, the benefits of chiropractic care become incredibly far-reaching! You can best understand the multiple benefits of chiropractic by looking at it through the lens of a condition called dysautonomia.
Honestly, this is perhaps the most confusing part of chiropractic – how can it be so simple?
Most parents are so used to the current medical system, where there is a different specialist and kind of doctor for every system of the body (ENT, GI, neurologist, etc.)…and none of them seem to communicate or coordinate very well together (you know, sort of like subluxation ha ha)!
This is actually what won me over as a dad. Going to so many pediatrician visits and being sent off to see all the medical specialists again and again only left my son with more long-term chronic immune and sleep struggles and left us with more confusion and unanswered questions.
With each antibiotic and inhaler, his immune system got weaker, not stronger. Something had to change. We needed a new direction. And we found that with chiropractic care!
On the first visit with our family chiropractor, we spent tons of time unpacking Micah’s story. He had a difficult emergency C-section birth, wasn’t nursing or pooping well, often arched his back, spit up constantly, and wasn’t happy or easy to settle after feeding. Essentially, he struggled with colic big time.
It turned out that Micah had a significant subluxation in his upper neck region caused by his birth trauma, which significantly impacted his autonomic function and immune system.
While every case and scan is unique, Micah’s stress pattern was so familiar to thousands of other cases in our clinic still today – birth trauma and vagus nerve dysfunction.
With more and more stressors happening so early in development, it is no surprise that symptoms follow. From nursing, sleeping, and pooping challenges in newborns, to ear infections and colic with babies, to sensory and behavioral challenges when children start grade school…all of these can be attributed to The Perfect Storm, which is our term for the seemingly endless cycle of stress on a child’s nervous system that happens far too often these days.
What Are the Benefits of Chiropractic Care?
When families get stuck in this cycle of sickness and stress, it can be overwhelming and challenging to know what to do first. Unfortunately, for many, the question isn’t how chiropractic care can help.
Traditional medicine just offers more referrals to specialists and more medications. Then, when parents get on the internet and join various Facebook Groups looking for help, it can be overwhelming with the litany of recommendations that come from that – diet changes, detoxes, supplements, essential oils, and so on.
This is where the simplicity of chiropractic comes in, and we look at the body as a whole, not just symptom by symptom or system by system. We focus entirely on removing neurological interference and imbalance safely and naturally, without drugs. Once we get that child’s nervous system calmed down, balanced, and regulated once again, it’s no wonder they start experiencing the following:
- Sleeping better
- Having better regularity with their digestive system
- Calming “busy brain” symptoms tied to ADHD and Anxiety
- Being able to calm Sensory Processing storms easier
- Overcoming more complex developmental or cognitive challenges
After just a month into us “trying” chiropractic care, Micah’s symptoms were vastly improved! He started sleeping better; he wasn’t congested, feverish, or struggling with colic. In fact, it helped his immune system so much that he never had another ear infection! It wasn’t that chiropractic was “treating” the direct symptoms; it was simply allowing the body to do naturally what it wanted to do all along – function with ease. Then, continue to grow, develop, and thrive by self-healing and self-regulating!
Experiencing these results allowed Micah to heal and our family to thrive. Crystal and I now have 4 healthy, beautiful boys, and I went from a “skeptical dad” to a Pediatric Chiropractor myself. Chiropractic Care was the answer we had been looking for all along!
So, can chiropractic care help? It sure can, and we hope you find yourself on a similar journey and find a doc that’s right for you!
Find Your Family Chiropractor!
Nothing is more powerful than parents looking for Hope, Answers, and Help for their children! Don’t ever stop doing just that, moms and dads; it’s always worth it. Reach out to us today to get scheduled for your initial visit or to get answer to all of you questions!
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