Kids Need Chiropractic Too!

KIDS NEED CHIROPRACTIC TOO!

Do Children Need Chiropractic Care?

To remove barriers, Bellingham's Life Chiropractic offers a completely financially risk-free spinal screening evaluation in order to determine if further examination is required.  When you come in with your youngster you will realize that I will listen, really listen to learn about your child's condition.

Considerable media coverage has been provided over the past two decades for the chiropractic treatment of spinal problems in children.  This coverage has frequently attempted to dramatize chiropractic spinal adjusting for children as being unsafe and unnecessary. Reported cases have bordered upon sensational with untrue “facts” and impressions being conveyed in an apparent endeavor to boost program ratings.  Media coverage of the availability of spinal care for children, rather than dissuading parents from bringing their children to chiropractors, in many cases has actually resulted in more parents seeking chiropractic care for their children.

This article provides some answers to questions asked by many parents about their children’s spinal health.  Just as parents are concerned to take their children to the dentist for regular checkups, so it is, that many parents who are already chiropractic patients themselves are bringing their children to chiropractors to have their spinal function development checked.

The first question relates to the need for children to have regular spinal checks.  Frequently, parents may ask “what could my children have wrong with them so that they would need to see a chiropractor?”  The answer to that question is the trauma of a child’s daily life.  The spine consists of 26 vertebral segments which can be jammed or misaligned causing “minor” spinal problems, which when left untreated, could result in “major” problems down the line.

How Can A Young Infant’s Spine Be Traumatized?

A young spine, with few exceptions, usually perfectly develops by the end of pregnancy.  It’s what happens around the time of birth and in the months thereafter which can sometimes upset the normal functioning of the spine.  Spinal segments can be pushed out of alignment, jammed, or twisted during labor and birth.  The trip through the birth canal to the outside world can produce significant trauma.  Medical research has identified the fact that many problems early in a child’s life can come from birth trauma.

Spinal problems can also occur as a result of the frequent falls suffered by young infants in the first months of life.  A fall from a bed, a sudden stop in an automobile or any significant unsupported movement of the head and neck in an infant can induce excessive movement in the spine causing vertebral subluxations.  At the other end of the spine, the act of learning to walk and the number of “simple” falls encountered in this endeavor can induce trauma to the lower spinal segments and to the large sacro-iliac joints of the pelvis.  Young children learning to walk also fall and hit their heads, apparently innocently.

Pre-teens and teens, through their sports and daredevil activities are bound to incur physical trauma, often quite significant.  I cannot count the number of really talented, developing young athletes I personally have known whose parents refused to take them to the chiropractor for both acute and chronic injuries caused by time-compressed force (athletics/auto collisions), twisting, falling, landing, etc.  Why these parents chose pain-killing drug therapy for an obvious mechanical injury is beyond me.  Anyways, I have watched these injured young athletes lose interest in the sport because of painful injury(ies), fail to develop their skills due to movement and strength imbalances, or further break down an already-compromised body so that it simply cannot perform the requisite acts.  What are the results of these events?  Well, a lost college scholarship (a “free” education), not being drafted, parents and child struggling going into student loan long-term debt to pay for an item that could have been “free.”  I just don’t get that one.

How Can Parents Recognize Childhood Spinal Problems?

Unless a child has an obvious problem, it can be difficult for parents to recognize when a child has spinal difficulties.  It is not always easy for someone other than a chiropractor, highly trained in evaluating the spine, to determine if the child has a problem, just as it is difficult for someone other than a dentist to determine if a child has any cavities.  Both cases take the skills of a trained specialist to perform a thorough evaluation.  Heck, I even send my kids to the dentist because that is an art in which I am not at all trained.  So I don’t even think about trying to fool myself.

However, there are some signs which a parent can see which are an indicator of a child with a spinal problem.  Common indicators of spinal problems my include the child’s head consistently being tilted to one side, restricted head or neck motion to one side, head jutting forward (very common and unhealthy to say the least), disturbed sleeping patterns where the child sleeps for only an hour or two at a time, feeding difficulties in the very young infant, or the infant may have difficulty nursing at the breast on one particular side.

Common childhood disorders can also sometimes indicate a spinal problem.  Persistent earaches, sore throats, colic, headaches, bed-wetting and growing pains are but some of the more common problems for which parents bring their children to the chiropractor.  NOTE: There is very strong literature and documented evidence supporting the beneficial effects of chiropractic treatment for these kinds of unhealthy conditions.

Now, let’s mention the ever-present “backpack.”  All I will say about this is that as far as I am concerned, this is just one of the many factors that will enable the current generation to be the first generation in the history of mankind to have a shorter projected life span than the previous generation.  When I watch the kids struggle with these things I am amazed that they still have functioning spines.

How Are Children’s Spinal Problems "Uncovered?"

The first thing this chiropractor will do is conduct a careful, detailed, and thorough evaluation of your child’s spine in full view of all concerned parties.  The evaluation will include postural observation, range of motion measurements when age appropriate, comparison of left to right spinal and pelvic movement abilities, manual spinal palpation, and any further testing which would be specific to your child.

What Does The Treatment Involve?

In this office, spinal adjustments for infants and children are performed with the ProAdjuster computerized instrument and the handheld Activator instrument.  These gentle instruments produce very light and accurate pressures to restore mobility to spinal joints which have become locked and are causing interference with the normal function of the nervous and muscular systems.

Does It Hurt?

Generally no.  Sometimes it is sore when “hot” tissues are pressed upon.

How Many Treatments Are Required?

Children’s spines are a lot more mobile and usually less injured than adult spines.  Usually fewer sessions are required to reduce pain and restore normal function and strength.  The precise number of sessions will vary dependent upon the length of time that the condition has been present and how many bad habits the body has developed.

What Risks Are Involved In Having My Child’s Spine Adjusted?

The risk of a child suffering an injury from a spinal manipulation is rare.  Chiropractors have been adjusting children’s spines for most of the more than 100 years since chiropractic was first established.  Personally, I have chosen to use instrument adjusting to “cut down” any possible or presumed risk.

OTITIS MEDIA: “MIDDLE EAR" INFECTION

                                     Visit the following address and see for yourself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bd1_ol0BEH4&playnext=1&list=PL0114437D127F2184

Here’s how the story usually goes.  “Jenny”, age 3 years, presents with chronic recurrent otitis media (inner ear infection).  The problem has been a difficult one since the first year of her life.  Frequent ear aches and six trips to the emergency room in just the past 5 months is straining her parents’ patience, not to mention the effect it is having on young Jenny.  Consistent courses of different antibiotics have not been able to arrest the problem, and now tympanostomy tubes are being considered.

At the recommendation of some friends, “Jenny’s” confused and perhaps suspicious parents bring her to the chiropractor.  They are at first hesitant at not knowing what type of treatment chiropractic has to offer for young children.  The doctor takes some time in examining young Jenny and finally explains that the cause of the problem appears to be a malfunction in the lymphatic drainage system, caused by a subluxation in the child’s cervical spine.  They discuss the treatment program and learn that it involves only a gentle adjustment of their daughter’s cervical spine, followed by some light specific manual therapy delivered to the neck.  At Bellingham's Life Chiropractic the ProAdjuster instrument "soft tissue" protocols would also be utilized to take off the pressure and protective splinting within the neck and shoulder muscles.  The parents seem happy with this treatment option, since the antibiotics have not been able to correct the problem and because they would rather not have their daughter undergo surgery for the tubes.

 Now is a good place to explain that chiropractic treatment does not "treat" any sort of condition.  Chiropractic simply removes/decreases movement and function problems from the spine so that circulation and nervous system function develops because of improved function.  In other words, we work with a person who just so happens to have some sort of medically-diagnosed unhealthy condition.

After “Jenny’s” first chiropractic treatment, the problem appears to be improving.  At her follow-up visit two days later, her earache has gone.  One month later there is still no re-occurrence.

“Jenny’s” case is a summary of how an actual case can proceed.  Many children have had seemingly “miracle cures” for chronic recurrent otitis media.  Her problem is all too familiar to parents with young children.  Otitis media is one of the most common infectious diseases in childhood with the incidence being greatest in the age group of 6 to 36 months.  Up to one third of the child population will have six or more episodes before starting school and some can have up to twelve episodes in a year. (1)

The diagnosis of otitis media is based on the finding of an inflamed and bulging tympanic membrane.  The cause of the problem however is not has readily discernable as the clinical findings would appear to be.  Inflammation and effusion in the middle ear may be due to bacterial invasion, but can also be due to viral infection or an allergic reaction. (2)  This helps to explain why antibiotics are not always effective in treating otitis media, since viruses and allergies are unaffected by this form of treatment.

Fluid build-up in the middle ear, from any of these causes, may be responsible for eventual rupture of the tympanic membrane.  Therefore, myringotomy, or surgical insertion of a drainage tube in the affected ear is the next recommended medical procedure if antibiotics don’t work.

The chiropractic treatment of a person with otitis media is based upon the model that restricted lymphatic drainage from the middle ear plays a major part in the establishment of chronic recurrent infections.  Lymphatic drainage from the ear runs by way of the cervical lymph system and depends significantly for its flow on adequate muscle activity.  For example, if the child has had a fall which has caused a “minor” and perhaps painless misalignment in one of the vertebrae in the neck, the irritation caused by that misalignment and consequent movement problem is sufficient to cause the neck muscles to develop a state of increased tension or protective splinting (spasm).  The resulting muscle contraction, especially in the area of the sternocleidomastoid muscle (SCM) can be the cause of restricted lymph drainage from the ear.

Scientific studies of patients with chronic otitis media have been reported in the literature showing significant evidence of reduced lymph drainage from the eustachian tube.  Pulek and Horwitz (1973) proposed obstruction of the eustachian tube lymphatics as being the mechanism for the production of serous otitis media. (3)  Two early studies by Robinson proposed that the pathogenesis of serous otitis media was due to lymphatic obstruction of the nasopharynx.

Since the lymph system is responsible for phagocytes, it is logical to portray that any disruption to normal lymphatic activity could be responsible for a reduction in the body’s defense mechanism against both bacteria and viruses.

The treatment proposed by this model initially requires identification of any areas of fixation or irritation of the facet joints of the cervical spine.  On the involved side, i.e., the side with the ear problem, there will usually be increased tension within the cervical spine and the cervical lymphatic chains anterior and posterior to the SCM will usually feel like a “string of pearls.”  Correction of the spinal problem areas by gentle adjustment, usually of C1-C3 by precise instrumention can reduce the tense cervical musculature, thus permitting restoration of the normal physiology of the lymphatic system.  Ancillary to the adjustment of the cervical spine is a precise light stroking  manual therapy of the SCM on the involved side toward the heart to further assist in restoring normal physiology in this area.

1. Kline, MW., Otitis Media. In Oski, et al. Principle and Practice of Pediatrics. Philadelphia: Lippincot, 1990: 900. 

2. Browning, G.G., Childhood Otalgia: Acute Otitis Media. British Medical Journal, 300:1005, 1990. 

3. Pulek, J.L. and Horwitz, M.J., Diseases of the Eustachian Tube. Otolaryngology, Philadelphis: W.B. Saunders, 1972: 2:75-92.

Summary:
We at Bellingham's Life Chiropractic would be honored and delighted to have a look at your youngster to see if our gentle ProAdjuster instrument methods could help.