Why Your Baby Needs Chiropractic

I'm very fortunate to have a baby who is pretty dang easy. She's hardly fussy, was sleeping through the night at around 6 weeks old, and smiles at anyone and everyone who wants to hold her. While I am sure some of this happy-go-lucky attitude is her disposition, I believe there is a very important part of her health care that makes her so calm and happy.

Kennedy receives regular chiropractic adjustments.

Now, before I continue, let me state that I am not a chiropractor myself, this is just my advise and wisdom as a chiropractor's wife. =)

I know to a lot of people an adjustment sounds like a scary thing to do to an infant. I can assure you, it's the exact opposite. Babies can be safely adjusted as soon as 3 days after birth. A chiropractic adjustment for an infant is nothing like an adult adjustment. The chiropractor will use his fingertips to gently push on the baby's back and adjust the affected area. Hardly scary at all! In fact, the movements are so minimal that when I watch Kennedy being adjusted, I cannot tell when the actual adjustment is taking place. 

You might wonder why on earth a baby needs to be adjusted. The simple answer: birth. Think of the trauma birth can inflict on the baby's body. She spends hours compressing and sometimes twisting her spine as she tries to push her way out of the birth canal and then is eventually yanked out by the doctor. It's intense for you and the baby. Then, the baby spends the next year of life being picked up, passed around, carried, manhandled and loved. Their nervous systems are sent into a frenzy as soon as they leave their comfortable little home in your belly. They are bombarded by new foods, allergens, and a variety of other stimuli. 

Chiropractic is undersold. It's not just for your back. Think about it. Your spine is the center of your body; your nerves travel through your spine. So, essentially, your back can control nearly everything that happens in your body. when you're maladjusted, the corresponding areas of your body aren't functioning properly. Adjustments can correct these issues. 

I'm not going to waste your time telling you everything chiropractic can do for you (although I'd bet you'd be surprised when I told you it can help with colic, ear infections, allergies, post-birth back pain......the list goes on). But if you want information about the variety of ailments chiropractic can help with and why it's important to use chiropractic as a form of preventative healthcare, check out the website for the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association. There is a large list of articles on the research page that can give you all that information.

I want to take my time to tell you about my personal experience with my daughter's exposure to chiropractic. My daughter is fortunate enough to have a chiropractor living with her. She calls him Daddy. As you can imagine, Kennedy was adjusted as soon as she could be and has continued to be adjusted regularly. As I said earlier, Kennedy is simply not a fussy baby. She's happy, healthy, and strong. However, when she does get fussy--that dreaded kind of fussy, where nothing you do makes them stop and it's a mystery as to why they're crying--I would hand her to her dad. He would adjust her and within seconds she was silent, smiling and happy, the mystery pain gone. Her dad says it's usually gastrointestinal issues. He suspects she would be a colicky baby if she wasn't adjusted regularly because of how often he needs to adjust that area. It's amazing to me when I hand over my daughter who is screaming bloody murder and I'm handed back a smiling, happy baby after an adjustment.  I'm a believer--and I think you should be too!