“I dedicate this blog to a little guy who has had a rough go at life just within the first few days. While he lies in the NICU fighting for strength this little one has been through more trauma than me and you. This is my cousin’s little boy and thankfully through much prayer and wisdom of the doctors this young one is surviving bacterial meningitis. While we have no idea what the after effects will be, it is a miracle he was able to survive and I look forward to one day to hold him and meet him.” – Dr. Jonathan Dale, Cbiropractor
So why would infants and children need chiropractic? Aren’t they healthy to begin with? I know these questions may be racing through your mind currently but give me a minute to explain what chiropractors can do for your little ones. You may have heard the word subluxations in one of my previous blogs; consequently, this is what we look for in my profession and this is what can keep your child from being completely healthy (symptoms or none). Furthermore, the infant may obtain a subluxation from the birthing process. “Well I had a cesarean section!” I say not so fast; research has found that subluxations develop at an infant age; in addition, symptoms from the subluxations may not develop until later years of life. A prolonged birthing process can result in pressure of the skull and down the neck of the infant causing a misalignment of the neck. Also, during cesarean surgery your infant’s head is already engaged into the pelvic. So to remove the child, doctors pull the head close to a right angle to remove the baby. It has been measured that the neck can sustain approximately 60-80 lbs of pressure.
Consequently, mothers may notice the following early signs of symptoms in their children. The first is when the infant has trouble nursing. If the upper part of the neck is restricted, it may be hard for the infant to turn his/her head to latch onto the nipple and feed. Another symptom the infant may develop is cranial pressure and the signs which go along with this. As we all know, at this point your infants head is soft due to the skull growth plates (fontanels) still growing. If your baby was born vaginally then there is a great amount of pressure bestowed upon the joints in the skull, called sutures. If they “lock-up” this will keep the skull from growing symmetrically; as a result, this can cause more cerebral spinal fluid pressure on one side of the brain compared to the other side. Chiropractors use a genial technique called the cranial suture mobilization technique to help keep the skull developing optimally.
I think you would all agree that if you took a garden hose that is on and pinched the hose, this would disrupt the flow of water. What happens then with the misalignment of the spine and the nervous system is quite similar; consequently, a misalignment of the spine would cause a disruption in nerve messages to the organs those nerves supply. This would cause a change in cellular function; furthermore, left long enough, this would result in organ disease soon yielding symptoms. To wrap this up, having your infant checked post birth and as the child grows is important; not to ‘treat’ a disease or symptom but to instill proper growth and prevention of diseases through proper nerve function with spinal alignment.
~ Dr. Jonathan
Dale Family Chiropractic
666 Godwin Ave., Ste. 110
Midland Park, NJ 07432
201-444-3004
216 Boonton Ave.
Kinnelon, NJ 07405
(973) 257-1800
drdale@dalefamilychiropractic.com