Do I adjust my own children???

I am a chiropractor and many of my patients ask the question do I adjust my own children, do they like it and why do I adjust them?

Both my children were adjusted in the first hour after birth and yes it was by me even though with my first daughter Zara I had promised that I wouldn’t.  But I couldn’t help it.  She was laying on my chest and I just started naturally feeling her tender new spine and making corrections to misalignments that had probably occurred during birth itself.  With Allegra my second child,  I waited until I was nursing her and she actually had trouble nursing on the right breast because her neck was tight and mis-aligned.  After adjusting her neck, she was able to nurse with no problem.

Children can be adjusted as soon as they are born and we have done this very thing for new babies in our practice.

Both my girls like receiving treatment, Zara will actually walk into the office, lay down on the table and inform me that it is her turn to get adjusted.  She also provides me with treatments sometimes.  Some of my older patients around 4-7 years of age will frequently ask after already getting adjusted to “do it again”.

Most children love to be adjusted.  There are some spectrum disorders and sensory processing kids that do take longer to warm up to receiving a chiropractic treatment.

My standard recommendation in our office is get your kids adjusted 2 times a year- if nothing out of the ordinary occurs.  Examples of why you should bring your child are did they take a tumble wrestling with their sibling? are they learning to walk so they are falling a lot?, etc.  There are lots of great health benefits on the nervous system to getting adjusted but for kid’s with healthy spines 2 times a year can be enough to make sure they grow as healthfully as possible.

I adjust my kids after major tumbles and growth spurts or if the baby is not pooping regularly or every couple of months or so.  I am always checking them because I can’t help it and their tiny spines are beautiful and amazing.

Here is an article on the chiropractic technique appropriateness of Pediatrics:
(how a trained chiropractor will adjust their force and their technique based on the patient size and age to be safe and effective).

http://www.jmptonline.org/article/S0161-4754(16)30108-7/pdf

Adjusting Infants and Children

As  a family practice chiropractor,  I often get asked when is the best time to have your child adjusted.  There are many appropriate milestones in a child’s life when they should be getting an adjustment and I follow this with my own daughter.  Here is a link on our website talking in more medical terms about a child’s adjustment schedule.

http://in-healthclinic.com/chiropractic-for-children/

One of the most important times to get a child adjusted is postpartum about a month after birth; it can be earlier if breast-feeding or colicky issues are present.  The postpartum check-up is important since birth can be a very athletic event on both mom and baby and sometimes muscles and joints will get strained causing minor issues like constipation or reduced nerve function.  Since this is a period in a babies life where rapid growth takes place, you want your little one to be in optimal health.

The youngest baby I have adjusted in my practice was 4 hours old, and he slept through the entire procedure, in which I used only my fingers. And with gentle pressure and craniosacral therapy,  major adjustments can be made to a little ones nervous system to improve body function, neurologic response and overall health.

For my own daughter, I adjusted her immediately as she rested on my chest right after birth, even though I promised myself I wouldn’t; but in that moment holding her I just couldn’t help myself and my finger’s kind of naturally went to work.

Zara receives adjustments periodically, mostly after major falls and I check her monthly.  While most of us don’t have a chiropractor that live with them, we do recommend that you get your little one checked 2 times a year just like you would get your teeth cleaned.

Here is a picture of Zara and Dr. Walker playing on the chiropractic table.