Babies
Chiropractic and Pediatrics
The purpose of chiropractic in children is so that they may grow into adults at an optimal level of development mentally, socially and physically and so that they can be at their highest level of health and well being. Early assessment allows our team of gentle chiropractors to stay on top of problems before they develop into potentially worse issues.
Children are not little adults and therefore can’t be treated as such. When we adjust a child it is very different to adjusting an adult. We use a much lighter pressure, such as our fingertips or an instrument called an activator, and may also employ light massage or stretching. A baby or child will typically be soothed by a chiropractic adjustment.
Parents from all over Sydney’s Northern Beaches bring their children to us at Dee Why for many reasons, the causes of these problems can be summarised into three categories:
- Physical
Common causes of physical trauma includes the birthing process, handling errors, feeding, prolonged time in a car seat, bypassing the crawling phase, trampolines, learning to ride a bike, falls, pulling of the child’s arm, prolonged posture while watching television of playing computer games and illnesses due to the associated coughing and decreased muscle tone.
- Chemical
Exposure in utero to smoking, alcohol consumption, antibiotics etc and environmental and food allergens as young children.
- Emotional
Fear and other negative emotions. Even infants can detect emotional problems which results in irritability, crying and colic. A fast paced, high stress lifestyle creates over stimulation of the sympathetic fight or flight response which alters the body cause and increase in heart rate and blood pressure.
Any of these problems can cause issues such as sleep disturbances, anxiety, recurrent neurological problems, increased infections, breathing weakness, irritability, colic, difficulty feeding and difficulty with attachment. These can in turn develop into asthma, ear infections, hyperactivity and other health problems. These may all be treated and prevention through chiropractic adjustments.