Many people have a positive impression of chiropractic care, often associated with alleviating back pain, headaches, or whiplash. Chiropractic care is also effective in addressing all of these concerns. But those are all grown-up problems, right? Chiropractic care for kids is growing in popularity among parents whose kids have a variety of health-related issues that haven’t responded to conventional medical treatment. And more parents today are also choosing chiropractic as a first line of defense in keeping their kids healthy from the beginning.
Research shows that the health of the spine directly correlates to the ability to regulate all functions in your body, and this means that chiropractic care can impact all aspects of an individual’s health, even in the absence of pain or symptoms. In fact, a 2003 European research study evaluated the spinal health of over 150 children. It concluded that disc degeneration was present in 9% of school-age children without any corresponding pain. This is just one example of why it is beneficial for children to be under chiropractic care.
When there is a misalignment in the spine, also known as subluxation, the misaligned spinal bones can irritate the spinal cord and surrounding nerves. Pinched or irritated nerves are unable to function correctly and can cause a disconnect in the communication between the brain and body. Impaired communication affects the cells, tissues, and organs regulated by those nerves, impacting everything from digestion to immunity, breathing, and brain function.
Chiropractors focus on restoring the proper positioning of the spinal bones to restore optimal communication between the brain and the body. When communication is restored, this can improve brain control, body function, learning, and growth. The sooner an individual begins chiropractic care, the sooner their body can achieve its maximum health potential.
Book Your Child’s First Pediatric Care Exam
Exam includes in-depth whole-body analysis with provider, posture pictures and insight nervous system scans (provided if necessary). Consultation & plan of action will help you understand your care options.
How Our Chiropractic Care for School-Age Kids Works
1. Help Them Advance Early
Our mission is to improve the alignment of the spine and the nervous system, which are essential for the proper development and function of the body and the brain.
2. Keep Them Healthy
Chiropractic care can prevent or relieve common childhood issues such as ear infections, colic, asthma, allergies, headaches, and more, by enhancing the immune system and reducing inflammation.
3. Optimize Their Outlook
Our goal is to foster a positive attitude and a sense of well-being in your child by relieving stress, pain, and tension and promoting a healthy lifestyle and habits.
How We Help School-Age Children At Each Stage In Their Development in West Omaha, NE
New Patient Evaluation
Postural changes are commonly observed in school-age children. A child’s posture is influenced by a variety of factors, including growth spurts, carrying a heavy backpack, sitting at a desk for school or homework, time spent using electronic devices, participation in sports, leisure activities, eating habits, and more.
Individual children experience different combinations of these risk factors, resulting in a variety of postural deviations. The most common postural distortions include scoliosis (a sideways curvature of the spine), kyphosis (exaggerated rounding of the upper back and shoulders), lordosis or swayback (an excessive curvature of the lower spine), and flat feet. More concerningly, most children with postural changes are found to have deviations that fall into two or more of these categories. Since postural changes are indicators of spinal misalignments, it is likely, a child with asymmetrical posture is also experiencing nervous system interference.
Posture Evaluation
When a school-age child visits our office for a new patient exam, we conduct a postural evaluation as a baseline assessment. Because daily activities impact the position of the spine, the doctor will also ask about your child’s day-to-day activities, sports, or other traumas your child may have experienced (such as bike crashes, falls off the bed, car accidents, etc.). The doctor will conduct a comprehensive chiropractic assessment, including palpation of the spine to evaluate the position and movement of the spinal bones. Based on the results of these assessments, the doctor will be able to determine whether any further testing is needed.
Infrared Thermography
One of the assessment tools available for the doctors to use is Infrared Thermography. This nervous system scan is a non-invasive tool that rolls along the spine to test for inflammation. This test can help the doctor identify areas of the spine that have increased inflammation and changes in muscle tone due to spinal subluxations. Depending on the age of your child and findings from the chiropractic assessment, the doctor may also order digital X-rays. This non-invasive test allows the doctor to visualize your child’s spine and pinpoint any misaligned vertebrae.
Specific Chiropractic Care in West Omaha, NE
After the doctor has reviewed all the test results, they will share the examination findings and provide their recommendations for corrective care. Because subluxation is more challenging to correct the longer it remains in the spine, we always encourage families to have their children checked at a young age.
Common Childhood Conditions We Help in West Omaha, NE
Asthma
Breathing is a complex process that relies on an adequate nerve supply to maintain optimal function. Asthma interferes with normal breathing because it produces excess mucus in the lungs and inflames and narrows a person’s airway. Children’s lungs and immune systems are still developing, making them more susceptible to the effects of respiratory infections and other common asthma triggers. This is one reason why asthma is so common in children.
A study was done that found a connection between the alignment of the upper neck vertebrae and the breathing process. Stimulating the small neurons in the muscles, joints, discs, and ligaments of the upper neck created positive changes in the diaphragm, lungs, and associated blood vessels. Based on this research, individuals with any form of lung or breathing dysfunction can benefit from a spine and nervous system evaluation to determine if nerve interference is contributing to their problems.
Bedwetting
Nocturnal Enuresis, also known as bedwetting, can be an embarrassing problem for school-aged children. Bedwetting can interfere with overnight camps and sleepovers, and can be the cause of a large amount of shame in a child. There can be multiple causes for bedwetting, but one cause that is often overlooked is spinal misalignment. Chiropractors do not focus on the bladder itself but rather can ensure that the nerve supply feeding the bladder and associated muscles is optimized to control the bladder’s functions. When a subluxation puts pressure on the nerves that supply nerve function to the bladder and other related muscles, this loss of nerve supply can interfere with the body’s ability to signal when it is time to use the bathroom appropriately. Lowered nerve function could also interfere with the tone of the muscles involved, making them weak enough to lose control of the bladder as it fills with urine. If misalignments are the root cause of bedwetting, a chiropractor can perform a series of adjustments to restore the proper positioning of the spinal bones, thereby improving nervous system communication between the brain and the body, which can help alleviate bedwetting.
The chiropractor can also suggest exercises to strengthen bladder control and behavior modifications that can produce positive changes in bedwetting. Check out THIS STORY to hear about one patient’s success with chiropractic care.
Constipation
Constipation is a common health problem. However, chronic constipation is an indication that the body is unable to digest food and excrete waste properly. It is essential to identify the root cause of constipation to alleviate its symptoms effectively. Several factors can contribute to constipation, including improper hydration, food intolerance, lack of physical activity, and stress.
Subluxations can also contribute to constipation. Misaligned spinal bones that are putting pressure on the nervous system can lead to a sympathetic nervous system reaction, and this heightened irritability in the nervous system can result in impaired function of multiple body systems, including the digestive system. A chiropractic checkup can assess the entire nervous system and determine if interference from misalignments is affecting the nervous system’s ability to function correctly. By receiving chiropractic adjustments and restoring proper spinal alignment, interference in the nervous system is removed, allowing the body to heal and function normally.
Many parents report that their child’s constipation issues are improved or even resolved after starting chiropractic care. Check out Charlie and Cooper’s Story.
Learning and Processing Issues
Reports of learning and attention struggles in children have increased in recent years, and research suggests a common link that originates from the spine. Spinal misalignments disrupt the flow of nerve signals between the brain and body. Depending on which nerves are affected, this can result in a disease that could impact a person’s ability to focus.
Chiropractic care improves the function of the brain and nervous system by increasing the quality of brain-body communication. Spinal adjustments also significantly influence the function of the parasympathetic nervous system, which promotes relaxation and recovery. Current research shows a direct link between adjustments that bolster the activity of the parasympathetic nervous system and improvements in individuals with ADHD. One study has shown that children who receive chiropractic adjustments can experience improvements in their attention span, processing, learning, and behavior. Check out THIS STORY to hear about one patient’s success with chiropractic care.
Scoliosis
Scoliosis is defined as an abnormal sideways curve of the spine. There are different causes of scoliosis. Scoliosis can be present at birth or develop during childhood or adolescence, often coinciding with growth spurts. Scoliosis occurs when there are structural shifts in the spine. The nervous system controls and coordinates all bodily functions. When structural shifts happen in the spine, they can impede nerve function, disrupt nerve signaling, and interfere with the flow of messages between the brain and the body. This means that scoliosis doesn’t just affect your posture or cause back pain, but its effects can extend to many different body systems.
Early detection of scoliosis is essential. Early chiropractic intervention may prevent curvature from getting worse and can result in at least partial correction of abnormal spinal curvature. Correcting abnormal spinal curvature results in a better-functioning spine and nervous system.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is chiropractic safe for a child?
Chiropractic adjustments are safe for children of any age, once a chiropractor has thoroughly examined them to identify subluxations and nervous system interference.
Can chiropractic care help with bedwetting?
If the cause of bedwetting is spinal misalignments that put pressure on the nerves controlling the bladder and related muscles, then chiropractic care can help. A spinal checkup is the best way to determine if your child’s bedwetting is related to nerve interference.
Is pediatric chiropractic care the same as chiropractic for adults?
When checking and adjusting a child, the doctor does not need to utilize the same amount of pressure to move the bones back into their optimal position. The most significant difference in pediatric chiropractic care is that correction occurs more quickly than with adults because the problem hasn’t been present for as long.
Can chiropractic care help with ADHD?
Attention problems can be a result of interference in the brain-body connection. Chiropractic care helps to improve that connection and has been found to increase nervous system function. Increased nervous system function directly impacts attention span, learning, and behavior.
Book Your Child’s First Pediatric Care Exam
Exam includes in-depth whole-body analysis with provider, posture pictures and insight nervous system scans (provided if necessary). Consultation & plan of action will help you understand your care options.