It’s normal to think your child is too young to see a chiropractor. You might feel the same way about their first dentist or orthodontist appointment. However, chiropractic care for your child can be more beneficial than you think. They may experience underlying ailments like spinal misalignment from infancy that can affect their physical and mental health in various ways. A chiropractor can help identify and treat underlying conditions that can cause posture problems, earaches, headaches, sleep problems, back and neck pain and stress.
Healthy and regular spinal alignment is also essential for effective nervous system functioning.
Do Chiropractors Treat Kids?
Chiropractors treat everyone from older adults to infants and adolescent kids. Many parents seek chiropractic treatment for their children and 94% of chiropractors treat children as part of their practice worldwide. Many children’s chiropractors focus on their patient’s long-term spinal health and wellness.
Taking your child to a pediatric chiropractor from infancy may offer them various health and wellness benefits. Chiropractic care and services for children are safe and effective, according to a 2016 statement by the American Chiropractic Association. Plus, many parents who take their kids to a chiropractor are often satisfied with the treatment.
What Does Pediatric Chiropractic Care Include?
Chiropractic care is one of the most commonly sought alternative medicine practices for children. Chiropractors treat children according to their specific needs, which they identify after consultation and an extensive examination process. Pediatric chiropractic care consists of various appointments that focus on your child’s long-term spine health.
Chiropractors will evaluate numerous health history habits of a child, like diet, sleep and physical activity, in their initial examination. Your chiropractor will examine your child further and asses their needs with a series of X-rays, if needed. The thorough examination process helps your chiropractor create an effective and customized care plan.
Your child will receive treatment in the proceeding appointments. Treatments will consist of spinal adjustments and assessments, which will help chiropractors create further care recommendations for your child. Pediatric chiropractic spinal adjustments consist of spinal manipulative therapy techniques and focus on improving the functioning of the nervous system. A chiropractor will use various spinal manipulative therapy and mobilization techniques that align with your child’s needs and age.
Should a Child Go to a Chiropractor?
Chiropractic care for children and teenagers has a variety of benefits. Treatments can promote long-term wellness and well-being. Young children and teenagers can go to a chiropractor for various treatments that can help improve their posture, strengthen their immune system and enhance growth, sleep and mental well-being.
Infants may experience pressure on their heads, necks and shoulders during birth, causing spinal misalignment and cord tension. Young children may also experience unintentional bodily injuries from excess falls. Chiropractors can treat the symptoms of spinal misalignment and accidental injuries, improving your child’s overall health.
Teenagers spend a lot of time looking down at their phones, causing symptoms like headaches, neck pain and shoulder discomfort, also known as tech neck, which can lead to multiple posture and alignment issues. Children’s chiropractic care can help treat tech neck symptoms like neck pain, shoulder discomfort, poor posture and alignment.
Increasing awareness of mental health issues may also be why teenagers seek chiropractic treatment. Chiropractic care can identify behavioral health risk factors as chiropractors have clinical training in biological, social and psychological health.
What Symptoms Indicate My Child Should Visit a Chiropractor?
Knowing when to seek chiropractic care for your child may be tricky, as children can display various common symptoms related to nervous system disorders and other medical conditions. Taking your child to a professional chiropractor is one of the best ways to diagnose symptoms that require treatment. You can also look out for various signs before seeking professional chiropractic consultation. Here are a few common symptoms to look out for:
- Complaints about neck or back pain
- Irregular sleep patterns
- Digestive issues
- Compensating when walking or standing
- Slumped forward or uneven shoulders
- Persistent ear infections
- Irregular breathing when asleep
Benefits of Chiropractic Care for Children
Chiropractors can identify the causes of pain and discomfort your child may be experiencing. Pediatric chiropractic care treats the underlying causes and helps promote better health. Children can benefit from pediatric chiropractic care even if they do not have underlying conditions.
Chiropractic care aims to improve the functioning of the nervous system, which controls most physical aspects of your body like speech, movement memory, immune system, sleep and breathing patterns. Here are some benefits of pediatric chiropractic care:
- Promotes a stronger immune system: An adequately aligned spine can help increase the functioning of the immune system promoting better health and wellness.
- Promotes a healthier lifestyle: Chiropractic care focuses on biopsychosocial components of health and can promote better mental and physical health, like better stress management and improved physical activity.
- Improves sleep quality: Spinal misalignment can cause stress on the nervous stem affecting sleep quality. Chiropractic care aligns the spine and reduces nervous system discomfort and stress promoting better sleep.
- Improves irregular breathing: Many kids struggle with breathing when sleeping due to airway blockages causing sleep-disordered breathing. Sleep-disordered breathing has many symptoms and can lead to other medical conditions in children. Chiropractors evaluations can identify causes of disordered breathing and treat them using various chiropractic adjustments and techniques.
- Helps with ADHD/ADD: Various chiropractic treatments can enhance neurological performance and treat ADHD symptoms like hyperactivity.
- Helps treat Colic: Various spinal manipulative techniques in chiropractic care can effectively treat colic symptoms like crying, hiccups and diarrhea.
- Helps treat ear aches: Gentle spinal adjustments can reduce stress on the nervous system, which can cause ear infections and many other ailments.
- Proper nervous system function: Aligning your spine improves the functioning of your nervous system, which can enhance various bodily functions.
- Improves brain development: Chiropractic care can aid brain development by treating various nervous system disorders like slurred speech, severe headaches, lack of coordination or mood changes.
- Aids healing and injury recovery: Chiropractic care focuses on correcting underlying causes of pain and discomfort like subluxations, joint dysfunction and soft tissue injury and can assist in faster injury recovery and improve posture.
Contact Thrive Chiropractic Group for Pediatric Chiropractic Care
As a parent, you want the best for your child. You want your child to laugh, play, learn and grow up to be healthy and happy. Factors like back pain, growing pains, sleep problems and neck pain can affect your toddler or teenager’s ability to learn, play and do the things they love. Chiropractic Care helps identify and treat the underlying ailments that cause your child pain, discomfort and stress.
Thrive Chiropractic Group serves your kids by providing professional pediatric chiropractic care. We create your child’s treatment strategy after careful consultation and examination process. Our treatments are safe and customized to your child’s needs.
Our chiropractors have training in various health components and prioritize your child’s long-term comfort and well-being. We are passionate about providing thorough care and helping your child thrive through lifelong spine care.
Contact us to set up an appointment.
