Chiropractic Care for your Child
Did you know that chiropractic treatments and adjustments are not limited to any distinct age group? Your Doctor of Chiropractic can help relieve pain for patients of all ages! So, does chiropractic care of children differ than chiropractic care applied to adults?
There are many professional studies that review the treatment of musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions such as low back pain, non-MSK conditions such as asthma, and even chiropractic care of infants, adolescents, and teenagers for a variety of conditions. The pain management methods utilized by Doctors of Chiropractic for children tends to vary across the profession, but they are generally modified methods of those applied to adult patients. In fact, when one thinks of “chiropractic care,” the immediate image is that of spinal manipulation where a high velocity, low amplitude “thrust” is made by the Doctor of Chiropractic and then joint cavitation occurs (the release of gas creating a cracking sound similar to knuckle cracking). It is important to note that chiropractic treatment can also include dietary advice, nutritional or herbal supplement recommendations, posture correction, exercise training, and the use of physiological therapeutic modalities (like electric stim, light, ice, heat, traction, ultrasound, and more). Depending on which Doctor of Chiropractic you have, behavioral counselling may be included, depending on the each individual’s condition and training numbers the chiropractor has focused on, especially on a post-graduate level. Doctors of Chiropractic, like many health care providers, have post-graduate board certification options also, of which pediatrics is one of many. This is very important to note. Looking at research for children and chiropractic, here are some of the results shown for various Chiropractic care studies:
Pediatric care: Multiple studies show that chiropractic methods, when properly modified and applied, are completely safe.
Children & adolescents: Currently, there is much research supporting the idea that treatment of these age groups for some MSK conditions, particularly low back pain, is positive and has great results.
Non-musculoskeletal care (children & adolescents): It is known that conditions such as colic, otitis media, asthma, nocturnal enuresis (bed wetting), and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, all can benefit from chiropractic treatment. In fact, authors do recommend that Doctors of Chiropractic play a large role on the pediatric healthcare team. Most suggest to utilize a four to six treatment package option to help with a colicky infant where all other serious diagnoses have been excluded. Similarly, in cases of enuresis and asthma, chiropractic has great results for children.
Possible adverse effects: In review of professional studies in this area, chiropractic care proves to have little negative issues associated with it. Serious side effects are reported as completely rare occasions.
If your child is suffering from any of the above, check out your local Doctor of Chiropractic in order to seek pain relief for them.
