Bath Chiropractic and Wellness
Bath Chiropractic and Wellness
Dr. Nicholas Frankie
How exactly do we adjust children?
How exactly do we adjust children?
You ask, We answer.
Chiropractic adjustments for young children are extremely gentle and use no more pressure than you would apply to bruise a ripe peach. Adjustments are performed using a variety of treatment options including vibration, sustained pressure holds, and drop table to name a few. We also use a variety of treatment positions: sitting, standing, laying or even playing depending on your child's needs and their comfort level. Generally newborns and very young children do not cavitate, meaning they don’t make the “crack” sound adults may be aware of. As children get older more traditional techniques that adults have generally experienced are used, keeping in mind the age and size of the child – keeping the adjustment pressure gentle. As the joints and body develop it is more common that as children age they will start to have adjustments that do cavitate. Most children find the cavitation, when it does occur, funny and will laugh or giggle.
What to Expect
What to Expect
Many more parents are seeking Chiropractic care for their children than ever before. Chiropractic is very important for children because even in the most “natural” of births babies turn, twist and contort themselves to make it through the birth canal causing stress on their spines and the developing nervous system.
The nervous system is important because it sends messages from the brain to the entire body, with spinal misalignments caused by stress on the spine these nerves can become irritated and inflamed, which decreases the ability of these nerves to transmit their messages properly, messages that are important for growth, development and function. Inhibition of these messages may cause issues in childhood or later in life in the adult.
Nervous system irritation can cause many of the issues that newborns deal with including colic, trouble nursing, acid reflux, allergic reactions, and ear infections to name a few. The job of the chiropractor is to correct the spinal misalignment that cause nervous system irritation.
As children grow and learn to sit up, crawl, stand, walk and run these activities can also cause spinal misalignment and they should be checked and corrected to prevent irritation of the nervous system. The same goes for children once they start to ride bikes, skate, participate in sports and go to school. We know that sitting at a desk all day isn’t good for adults so why would sitting in school all day be any different? It’s not. All of these activities can cause misalignments in the spine and should be corrected to aid in proper growth and development. Children who receive regular chiropractic care have less behavioral issues, do better in school and are sick less often than their counterparts.
