From parents suffering from hours of crying to concerns about scoliosis in developing children, chiropractic care has been proven to have excellent effects. In this article, ACH employees Joline Grawunder and Christin Maskus comment on the question of whether the manual therapy technique of chiropractic is safe and effective for children and babies.
As a chiropractor with a particular interest and experience in treating infants and young children, Ms. Grawunder spends much of her time answering questions from concerned parents.
"The most common complaint I hear is excessive crying," says Grawunder, "even if you can help a couple sleep better for just one night, they will be grateful."
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Common Complaints: When to See a Chiropractor.
Parents seek chiropractic care for their children for a variety of reasons, just as adults do. However, unlike adults, pain is usually not a common reason to bring a baby to the clinic.
"Aside from excessive crying, other common reasons for visits include asymmetries of the face and head after birth, abnormal or delayed motor development, general examinations and, in older children, scoliosis examinations and improving posture." Grawunder adds that as children get older and begin to explore their environment, they can often get injured while playing sports and games. "Parents often wonder if this injury will heal on its own. Is it just me or is the shoulder higher than it used to be? It's better to get it checked out before it becomes a problem.
It's no secret that when little ones come to the classroom for the first time, they could use a little correction for sitting for long periods of time or carrying backpacks for the first time. If your posture isn't right, it's a good idea to see a chiropractor.
ACH owner Freya Moran supports the idea of seeing a chiropractor, especially when children start playing sports. "This means that their balance and coordination are not yet fully developed and they are prone to tripping, stumbling and getting more bumps and bruises as they learn to move and use their bodies. Although these incidents aren't serious and usually don't require professional treatment, but it's always a good idea to have a second set of eyes if your child complains of pain for more than two or three days after an injury." She continues: "I like to start by having children describe their pain and asking them to rate it on a scale of 0 to 10. This way they can learn that there are different types of 'pain' and that there are not Any pain is synonymous with harm. However, if your child complains of "severe pain" that is more than a 6 or 7 on the pain scale and lasts more than three days, it is time to get checked out.
Other complaints include behavioral changes, which are often the first sign that something is wrong with your child's physiology. Changes in attention, mood, or energy - which are quite common in a growing child - may indicate that your child needs your attention.
"When parents don't find a cause or a solution on their own, we're here to help," says Maskus.
Treatment techniques and modifications Many parents are concerned about the cracking and popping noises they see on social media that are very typical of chiropractic treatment. However, the treatment of babies and children requires that the practitioner has attended certain courses in which he has learned how to modify his techniques to ensure the baby's safety. In general, there are no popping, contortions, or rapid movements when treating babies and young children. The methods are modified to include very gentle touches and soft, low-force movements that often look like a massage. "A baby's bones are much softer," explains Maskus, "which means it doesn't need the same pressure as an adult's skeleton to move a joint." Maskus describes a typical session for a baby: "We start with an assessment of the child's movements. Chiropractic treatment always aims to detect restrictions in movement in the spine, neck, hips and other joints, so a movement assessment is fundamental "We observe how the child crawls, rolls and plays with different toys to assess how he interacts with his environment and whether he is showing normal development for his age." "Then we use our hands to see if there are any restrictions or areas of tension that we can feel. Often we treat them with gentle pressure as we assess. Think of it like a touch, hold and release. We exert no more pressure than wiggling a finger at the tip of our nose or wiping an eyelash from our eyeball."
What does the evidence say?
There remains little evidence that chiropractic treatments can cure pain, colic, constipation, or other conditions. Why is that? Because there is little research in the field of chiropractic in general. The studies are small, not well funded, and generally only useful if they show the treatment is not harmful. There is also no evidence that chiropractic treatments are harmful for any of the conditions mentioned.
A 2019 report in the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics collected information from more than 2,000 mothers who received chiropractic care for their babies aged 7 to 12 weeks, with symptoms ranging from colic to an inability to hold their head fully while breastfeeding to turn was enough. A staggering 82% of mothers reported “definite improvement” in their child. No adverse events were reported.
"Despite the lack of empirical evidence," Grawunder continues, "what matters most to me is the parent's perspective on their child's symptoms, and most parents agree that there is definitely something going on here. When they have their first 'full' After sleeping through the night, all doubts are gone. I think if people understand what we're doing here - and more importantly, what we're not doing - then they'll think it's worth a try.
After all, they owe it to themselves to try something, so why not chiropractic?"
Joline Grawunder and Christin Maskus are accepting new patients at the two locations in Bogenhausen and Haidhausen.
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