The Initial Trauma – Birth Most of the patients who first seek help from Chiropractic care are experiencing back pain of some kind. They come in because of a physical trauma, and can tell us where it hurts.
But what about those people who cannot speak for themselves, the most vulnerable among us? Babies and young children, can do little more than cry, be fitful or have a hard time sleeping. They may be under spinal distress because of the initial trauma that affects us all – birth. Chiropractic can help make sure your child’s body is ready to develop in the best way possible.
Infants can and should be checked We believe all infants can benefit from a check for subluxation in the spine caused by birth. The birthing process creates an initial trauma for many human beings. There are a lot of factors that go into play with being born. If a child has a stressful birth, or a high intervention birth, it can cause that child’s first subluxation. This misalignment of the spine can cause a baby to start life off with nervous system stress. Milestones of development There are certain processes and milestones that all humans have to go through for our brain to develop in the correct way. If those are hit, then everything goes great in our development. For kids those milestones include things like stabilizing your core, walking, laying down learning patterns, reading and writing. Those are all things our brain has to figure out how to do, and then wire our neurology to repeat it. This is an ongoing process as we develop. We lose primitive reflexes, we gain new ones. We gain curves in our spine. Everything we need to thrive and develop is laid down in our childhood. The nervous system is a growing plastic organ that is going to develop for the rest of your life. In those first weeks, months and years, a child is laying a foundation for the way the rest of the body is going to develop. If the foundation is off from day one, it can affect the whole process.
Noticing your child is developing “differently” When our nerves are altered and something is going wrong, our body is going to adapt the best way possible to survive. It’s not going to be the 100% highest efficiency. As parents, we are going to start to notice things aren’t the same with these children. They aren’t able to achieve the same things as the other kids. They are having problems with certain aspects of their life or health. Their neurology may be altered, and their body is trying hard to adapt. The goal of our chiropractic family care is to get in there and check babies as soon as possible after they have been born, so they can have the best spinal alignment and the best connection between the brain and the body as possible. We can check babies, but any child can benefit.
Pediatric Chiropractic training We believe this is really important, with training under Dr. Tony Ebel and Dr. David Jackson who specialize in neurodevelopmental processes and disorders in pediatrics and a membership in the EPIC Pediatrics group and The Natural Wellness Foundation, Dr. Smith has a particular dedication to pediatric chiropractic care. The percentage of chiropractors who have been specially trained for pediatrics is small. There are several reasons for it. Babies can’t talk to you and tell you that their backs hurt. You have to have other ways to analyze and to find out there is a problem. We use the technology. Also, insurance typically doesn’t cover pediatric chiropractic care. However, we know the value of it. We use can use technology to measure the physical effects of what’s happening in babies and young children. With this technology we can see the trauma and see the changes made when it’s corrected.
Lay a good foundation for your child’s development 
If the body’s foundation is off from the start, it will still lay down the neurology in the best way it can adapt. Once it gets to a certain point it’s really, really hard to change, if not impossible. That is why checking children for the initial trauma of a possible subluxation from the birth process is something we consider to be so important