Chiropractors have been caring for children for more than a hundred years. Many common childhood ailments will respond to this safe, natural form of health care. More and more parents are seeking chiropractic care for their children.

Chiropractic is based on the important relationship between the spine and the nervous system. One of the most basic ideas in chiropractic is that dysfunction in the spine can lead to dysfunction within the nervous system - and since the nervous system controls and coordinates all of the systems of the body, spinal dysfunction can have wide-ranging effects on the body's health.

Children encounter many physical stresses during their growing years. The resulting problems in children's spines can occur at almost any point in their development and growth. Many health complaints such as colic, reflux, breastfeeding difficulties, sleep disturbances, allergic reactions, and ear and other chronic infections can often be traced to nervous system irritation caused by spinal misalignments.

Developmental milestones such as birth, sitting upright, crawling, and walking are all activities that are affected by spinal alignment, and are important times for a chiropractic check-up. Additionally, falls, sports injuries, playground bumps, heavy school bags and sitting all day in the classroom are all physical stresses to the growing child's spine and nervous system.

A first visit will start with a thorough history of your child's health and any complaints. This is followed by a complete physical examination of the child's spine. Chiropractors are trained to evaluate pediatric spinal problems and will use gentle, specific techniques during the evaluation.

Spinal adjustments for infants and young children involve very light fingertip pressure to correct spinal misalignments. This is generally all it takes to restore mobility to spinal joints that have become locked and are causing interference to the normal nervous system function. Other techniques involve the use of hand-held instruments, which offer specific and gentle correction.

A child's spine will generally respond much faster than an adult's to chiropractic adjustment, and will often require only a few adjustments to restore normal function. The actual number of adjustments will vary depending on many factors such as the length of time the problem has been present.

For more information, contact Dr. Wendy at haydenhealth@gmail.com.