Family Chiropractic Care
Wondering if your child could benefit from chiropractic care?
Pediatric Chiropractic Care
Chiropractic care for kids isn’t so much about healing chronic pain, as it is about dealing with misalignments ranging from birthing to everyday bumps and tumbles, chronic illnesses, and more.
Chiropractic for kids is gentle and effective without being invasive. Listen now to hear how Dr. Shauna Mazique approaches chiropractic for kids in practice at Atlantic Coast Physical Medicine in Summerville, SC.
We offer a free consultation in our office, contact us today to schedule an appointment.
Chiropractic Care For Children & Families
Did you know that children can receive chiropractic care? According to a 2010 National Board of Chiropractic Examiner’s practice analysis roughly 17% of chiropractic patients were under 18 years old, with 9.4% being 6-17 years old and nearly 7.7% being 5 years old or younger. Chiropractic care helps ensure your child’s growing body is functioning at its best. It accomplishes this by making sure the nervous system is working at its best. As your child grows and develops an optimally functioning nervous system is vital. Your child’s nervous system, comprised of the brain, spinal cord, and nerves controls and coordinates all of the body’s functions.
Why Would You Bring Your Child To See A Chiropractor?
A child’s nervous system is the controller and regulator of all the other systems in their growing body. From blood flow, to brain function and bone growth, the nervous system plays a central role in keeping things working and healthy. Stress and misalignment of the spine can have serious impacts on your child’s overall health, behavior, and development. Atlantic Coast Physical Medicine is a chiropractic clinic that offers gentle and non-invasive therapy that works to correct underlying issues before they become hard-wired in during development, providing support for a pain-free and successful childhood.
Pediatric Chiropractic In Summerville
It may be difficult to imagine that a child would need chiropractic care. They seldom complain of chronic pain the way adults do and their bodies appear to be made of rubber in the way they bounce back from injury. The truth is, children’s bodies are under a lot of stress while they are in a state of development and keeping them healthy requires maintenance.
Stress and trauma to the body and spine commonly begin with the birthing process. Infant’s spines can easily become misaligned from the intense pressure involved in both natural and Cesarean births. Unfortunately, other than crying, they have no way of communicating their pain, and it’s source, to us. Throughout infancy they may sleep in awkward positions, and occasionally take a tumble. As children, they grow into toddlers who strain, and twist, and fall, while learning to crawl and walk. Luckily, they are very resilient and can take a lot of impact, but it is not uncommon for these injuries to develop into patterns of movement that will pull a child’s bones out of alignment over time.
As kids, they may start to develop bad posture. Sitting in front of a computer or TV can have serious repercussions on the spine. Playing contact sports, wearing heavy backpacks (most likely the wrong way), and even sitting in desks can all cause issues. As teenagers, they begin to deal with the stress of more daily responsibilities, like becoming part of the work force, and use their bodies to perform physical labor such as painting houses and serving tables.
As you can see, there are plenty of opportunities throughout development for a child’s body, and particularly their spine, to become out of alignment which will affect other aspects of their healthy nervous system function and development.
Parents of chiropractic patients have reported seeing improvement in their child’s:
Immune function
Sleep
Quality of life
Colic
Headaches
Torticollis
Behavior
Improve Mobility
When spinal bones misalign they can interfere with the communication between the body and brain, disrupting normal function. Spinal misalignments occur in infants, children, and adults. The first time spinal misalignments can occur is during the birth process. They can occur from childhood bumps and bruises, toxins, and from mental/emotional stress. Not only do spinal misalignment impact the brain’s ability to properly communicate with the body, they also cause muscles to tighten, loss of range of motion, and otherwise limit the body’s ability to move optimally.
Health Benefits of Chiropractic Care
During the examination, our chiropractors will thoroughly assess your child’s spine for spinal misalignments. After the examination the chiropractor will perform a gentle, specific chiropractic adjustment using either her/his hands or a small instrument. The adjustment restores the spinal bone to its proper position, restoring range of motion and removing interference in the brain’s ability to communicate with the body.
Top 5 Benefits Of Pediatric Chiropractic Care:
To promote proper growth and development and to limit health challenges such as issues with nursing and reflux.
To allow a child’s nervous system and spine to grow optimally and without interference. To reduce ear infections, bed wetting, asthma and allergies.
To improve a child’s immune system and digestive health and to limit colic and constipation.
To encourage nerve and brain development (neural plasticity). To promote proper perception and awareness preventing labels such as ADHD, Sensory Integration Disorder and other neurodevelopmental disorders.
To be proactive about your child’s overall health and wellbeing which will limit and support them through colds and infections and allow them to meet their optimal potential.
How Can I Tell If My Child Needs Chiropractic Care?
A child’s spine can become quite misaligned without any awareness on their part of pain or discomfort. Children have not always developed enough awareness of their bodies to identify a subtle chronic issue developing. Even when a child is experiencing pain, they may not be able to communicate it to you and it can come across as grumpiness, acting out, or incessant crying. Issues with the spine can also be the source of many other childhood issues.
What Is Chiropractic Care For Kids?
A chiropractic treatment for a child begins with an extensive examination to determine the exact issue and the best route for treatment. Even if your child is too young to communicate, or too shy, a chiropractor has the skills to work with them to find out exactly what is going on before proceeding with treatment, if it is determined treatment is needed. Gentle and non-invasive adjustments are then made to the spine. Children will often become relaxed and even fall asleep following treatment, a good sign that it has been effective. If you are concerned about your child’s spinal health, call our team at Atlantic Coast Physical Medicine to set up a consultation today.
Our chiropractors are ready to serve the kids of Summerville using the highest quality chiropractic care. Contact us today for a consultation for you and your child!
FAQ
Chiropractic care is the leading noninvasive approach to treating chronic spinal conditions, such as misalignments, injuries, and other musculoskeletal disorders, mainly through their connection to the nervous system.
At Atlantic Coast Physical Medicine, your practitioner uses their hands to manually realign your spine or joints in other parts of your body. Chiropractic care is a drug-free practice which focuses on teaching you therapeutic exercises and stretches so that you can include them in your daily routine.
The Atlantic Coast Physical Medicine team are experts in treating any part of the body, from the most simple joint conditions to highly complex nervous system complications. Some of these conditions include:
- Neck and back pain
- Joint pain
- Headaches
- Whiplash
- Herniated discs
- Spinal misalignment
- Sciatica
- Fibromyalgia
- Carpal tunnel
- Osteoarthritis
During your chiropractic visit at Atlantic Coast Physical Medicine, your practitioner first identifies where your pain is located and discusses your overall well-being and lifestyle.
Your practitioner then assesses the condition of your spine and guides you through a series of exercises to determine your range of motion and pain level. From there, your practitioner can recommend various chiropractic treatments based on your individual needs.
At Atlantic Coast Physical Medicine, the method of choice is structural chiropractic care, which focuses on targeting the root of the misalignment, not necessarily targeting the misalignment itself.
Your practitioner may also perform the Thompson Drop Table technique, which requires an adjusting table with a pneumatically driven drop system. When your practitioner performs an adjustment, the table quickly lowers the section of the body corresponding to the spinal region being adjusted.
Adjustments are quick, specific movements that position your vertebrae into the correct alignment, releasing tension on your muscles and connective tissue.
The team at Atlantic Coast Physical Medicine work collaboratively to understand the complexities of your spinal system. This means that you’ll speak with multiple team members and get various opinions so you can together make the decision that’s the most relevant to your needs.
Chiropractic care is a safe and drug-free treatment. Generally speaking, you’ll start feeling better almost immediately after the adjustment is made — and you’ll probably want to come back for more.
Much like adults, children are also susceptible to having headaches,and it may also be contributing to concentration issues. Proper alignment and function of the spine can help reduce these headaches with the use of proper Chiropractic care.
Chiropractic treatments have also been known to help reduce effects of asthma as proper spinal alignment can improve functional breathing. This therein can help improve a child’s immune system (along with proper nutrition, of course). When nerve pathways are relieved by compression, your immune system is in turn made stronger.
Not only are parents able to accompany the entire appointment, you can also reassure them there will be no needles and no pain. There may be pressure, but no pain. Chiropractic care has the potential to improve their life experience and overall health.
