Kids
Chiropractic
Are
you tired of constantly being woken up through the
night by the sound of your baby or child crying?
You've fed them, you've changed their nappy, they
don't want their bottle and they still won't stop
crying?
Do you think that there might be something else causing
your child to cry and be unsettled?
If
your child is suffering from excessive crying, colic,
restlessness, attention problems, bed wetting, unhappiness,
excessive vomiting and eating problems then we may
be able to help.
Chiropractic
care for babies and infants is fast becoming one of
the most popular forms of health care for parents
and children. Although still fairly new in the UK,
chiropractic care for children is extremely well known
and recognized in other places around the world such
as the United States, Australia, Canada and Scandinavia,
where the chiropractor is the first place of choice
for babies who are suffering from one of the above
symptoms. Parents in the UK are now starting to realize
how this gentle, non invasive, non medical approach
to their Childs heath care cannot only greatly benefit
the child but also the parents.
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Do
Children have bad backs?
An
extremely common question that many people ask is,
'do babies and children have back problems?' or
'why
do children have back pain when they are so young?'
The answers to these questions are: Yes. Children,
infants and babies do suffer from exactly the same
spinal problems as adults do. The reason why is simple.
They have a spine, ligaments, muscles and a nervous
system as well as being subject to many falls, accidents
and illnesses, exactly the same as adults do.
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New
born babies
You
may say to yourself, my child has never had a fall/accident
or they are only a few days old so do they need chiropractic
care? It is a well known fact that unless you have
a serious car accident or something similar in your
lifetime, then the birthing process is likely to be
the most serious trauma you are ever likely to experience.
The
birth process can be very traumatic to a new born
baby and in particular to their necks and upper parts
of their spine. Due to the use of forceps, suction
devices and simply human force used when delivering
babies, spinal misalignments occur very easily and
can have a profound negative affect on your baby's
nervous system. Chiropractic care ensures your baby
has a healthy functioning nervous system as they grow
up.
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Birth
Trauma
"The
birth process ... is potentially a traumatic, crippling
event.... mechanical stress imposed by obstetrical
manipulation --- even the application of standard
orthodox procedures may prove intolerable to the foetus.
The view has been expressed clinically that most signs
of neonatal injury observed in the delivery room are
neurological...."
Towbin
A., Latent spinal cord and brain stem injury in newborn
infants. Develop. Med. Child Neurol., 1969.
When
you start to take this into consideration it becomes
clearer how important it is to have your babies spine
screened by a Doctor of Chiropractic.
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Conditions
seen by chiropractors in Children
Colic
Colds.............................Excess
crying
Sore throats............................Headaches
Ear infections..........................Bed
wetting
Fevers....................................Ear
infections (ottitis media)
Asthma..................................ADHD
Tonsillitis................................Allergie
Infections................................Growing
pains
Stomach-aches.......................Falls
Sleeping problems
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Chiropractic
and Pregnancy
For
a healthy birth
Pregnancy is a natural process for all women. The
expecting mother should feel as little discomfort
during her pregnancy as possible. During pregnancy
the mother will release a series of hormones into
the body enabling the body to deal with the growing
baby. Many of these hormones act on the soft connective
tissues including muscles, ligaments and skin allowing
these structures to become more lax and, in doing
so, allowing the baby to grow.
The
problem that can ensue in many pregnant ladies is
that all the muscles and ligaments are affected in
the body by the hormones which is not always a good
thing to happen. The reason why this is not a good
thing to happen is because the main stabilizing structures
of the spine are the muscles and ligaments and when
these become more lax due to hormonal changes there
is less stability in the spine and more chance of
spinal injury.
Also,
it is important to remember that the expecting mother
will also notice that there is a large increase in
the curve of her lumbar spine (low back). The reason
this occurs is in order to compensate for the increased
weight at the front of the body. Also, in order to
maintain the body's centre of gravity the mother naturally
arches her low back more. In doing so, an increased
pressure is placed on the discs, nerves and muscles
in the low back and thus creating low back pain.
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Structural
changes during pregnancy
The
birth canal
The
birth canal is made up of the 2 identical pelvic bones.
The 2 pelvic bones make 3 distinctive joints that
articulate with each other to form the pelvis as one.
As in any joint in the human body, these joints are
designed to move when the body needs them to.
As
the growing baby gets bigger, it puts an increased
amount of stress on these three joints, the end result
most commonly being misalignment of the sacroiliac
joints (seen either side of
the spine in the diagram).
This
misalignment results in two possible outcomes. Firstly,
the joints affected have large amounts of pain receptors
(nociceptors) situated in and around them and so any
misalignment of these joints can cause a large amount
of low back, buttock and groin pain. Secondly, misalignment
of these joints will also change the shape of the
normally smooth circular birth canal and, in doing
so, decreasing the overall size of it. The end result
is that the new born baby who has already got a very
small opening to move through during birth has an
even smaller birth canal. This can potentially cause
more stress for mother and baby during the birth process
as more force may be needed by the obstetrician to
deliver the baby.
How
can chiropractic help?
Firstly,
your Chiropractor will carefully analyze your spine
and pelvis to find out exactly which joint is responsible
for any misalignments. Your Chiropractor will then
specifically and gently correct any misalignments
reducing your pain and also allowing the pelvis to
be in its optimum position to allow your baby to comfortably
manoeuvre into the vertex position. Research has shown
that, due to a correctly aligned pelvis and an optimal
birth canal size, pregnant woman who are under chiropractic
care during their pregnancy experience less discomfort
during delivery and can expect up to a 39% reduction
in labour time.
