
Chiropractic for Infants & Children
Most people do not realize that infants and children are just as much in need of chiropractic care as adults. Infants, in particular, are susceptible to a wide range of possible ailments related to slow or traumatic birth and c-sections. Sometimes just an uncomplicated birth due to in utero constraint can result in a need for chiropractic care.
The incision of a c-section is smaller and nowhere near as elastic as the birth canal. Pulling a baby out of this smaller incision by its neck or arm can cause injury to the neck or traction the nerves that originate in the neck when the arm is pulled. The resulting Subluxation can cause a delicate spine to grow in crooked and misaligned which can set the child up for pain, discomfort, other ailments and a lack of mobility later on in life. It can cause them to cry, to not sleep well, to spit up more, to have trouble moving their bowels, change how their brain works and develops. ( video with Karen P about her son Connor) You may have noticed that your baby tends to nurse more on one side or tends to turn their head more to one side.
These misalignments or subluxations put pressure on the delicate spinal nerves and interfere with the body’s ability to coordinate and control all phases of growth and development. Chiropractic for infants can help correct these potential problems through careful yet effective adjustments to remedy misalignments as they are identified.
Children particularly need pediatric chiropractic care as they age because a lot of the problems we experience as adults actually come from our childhood – either because we fell (think about how many times a day a baby falls when they are learning to walk, sometimes 10-20 times per day), broke something, or simply had poor posture (which is extremely common today).
Posture problems particularly result from spending many hours in front of a computer or television, or playing rough, or carrying backpacks all day long at school.
Another cause of problems are: sports, dance, cheerleading, use of electronic devices and gymnastics. All of these activities exert a tremendous amount of stress on the spinal column – which can result in misalignments that can still cause pain and problems decades down the road.
It is best to deal with any potential injury, misalignment, postural problem or other ailment and condition as soon as possible when it is identified. Changes in the spinal cord affects the CNS (brain) and the stages of growth and development. Your baby or infant may not feel or be able to communicate about neck or back pain and still have a Subluxation. The only way to know is to have a chiropractor check for evidence of Subluxation. Chiropractic care that includes a system to check for Subluxation helps keep your child’s nervous system as healthy as possible through regular treatment.

How my Infant or Child can Benefit from Chiropractic Services?
Satisfied Client Testimonials
Progressive Chiropractic Can Help
Ear Infections
- Many children suffer needless ear infections. In an effort to bring some relief pediatricians continue to treat them with antibiotics over and over again despite enormous amounts of research (such as in BMJ 1997) showing this approach makes it take longer to heal and repeat infections are more common. Once the antibiotics fail again and again, parents are often steered toward surgery to drill holes in their ears and insert tubes. (Lidia and Hunter video) There is another way, in our opinion, a much better way, to help kids move beyond the pain and suffering associated with ear infections.Chiropractic helps tremendously by correcting the upper neck misalignment that is often the cause. This helps the Eustachian tubes to properly drain, keeping infections from taking hold, and also boosts the function of the immune system. We can also recommend some simple nutritional changes that may help enormously as the body heals itself from the inside out. If your child is more susceptible than other children, then why not change why they are more susceptible?
- There are a huge number of children who get inner ear infections. According to the BMJ ear infections in 90% of cases are self limiting (meaning they go away on their own), take longer to heal if given antibiotics, and have a higher level of recurrence if given antibiotics.
- Do chiropractors treat ear infections? No. What chiropractors do us remove two reasons why your child may be more susceptible to ear infections. 1) For instance an upper back subluxation can cause the shoulder and neck muscles to tighten. This tightening causes a block of the flow of fluid from the ears. Think of a pond rather than a stream. One of those water types is more likely to grow stuff. 2) The upper neck supplies direct nerve control of the ears. If the upper neck (Atlas) is subluxated then the brainstem, cranial nerves and brain may not work as well making your child’s immunity less and susceptibility to er infections greater. When the body, brain, and immune system is working properly most children's ear infections resolve in 3-5 days and don’t return.
Neuro-Developmental Disorders – Autism Spectrum Disorder, ADD/ADHD, Sensory Processing Disorder (READ: Connor, Karen Penman Blog)
- There are many different labels, symptoms and diagnoses related to Sensory Processing Disorders. Many studies and reports suggest that sensory type issues are among the most commonly misdiagnoses and are often missed entirely. These different Neurodevelopmental disorders have a common link in sensory based challenges. Chiropractic can help 'reboot' the sensory programming and development that may be disrupted by interference in the Nervous System of babies and young children. Chiropractic can help the processing of the sensory information to be less overwhelming.
Excessive Stress/Anxieties
- Research shows that average americans of all ages are under greater levels of stress and anxiety than any generation of the past. Eliminating and reducing stress are definately key ingredients to a healthy lifestyle but here at Progressive Chiropractic , we seek to improve your ability to adapt to the stress that can't be eliminated or reduced by correcting or managing subluxations as detected by specific indicators. By improving the function and balance of your central nervous system, which governs and manages stress for us chiropractic plays a critical role in our battle against stress and it's harmful effects. The nervous system when properly balanced and working normally allows you to adapt to and manage stress better. When you have a stressor you can’t adapt to it can cause a Subluxation. This subluxation reduces your brain and nervous system’s ability to adapt to future stress.