Infants and babies 

You do so many things to ensure your baby's health: during pregnancy you eat right; you avoid cigarettes, alcohol and all drugs (even aspirin, cold, flu and other over-the-counter medications can damage your unborn child or cause problems in pregnancy). You educate yourself so you may have a natural, drug-free birth. After the baby arrives you breast-feed knowing that is the superior form of nutrition; in short, you do everything you can do to make sure your baby is healthy.

But have you had your baby's spine checked? How do you know if your child's spine is healthy? An unhealthy spine can affect your child's health for his/her entire life. Your doctor of chiropractic is specially trained to check your child's spine for areas of distortion causing nerve damage-the vertebral subluxation complex (subluxation).

Birth Trauma

The First Subluxation Sometimes a newborn's spine is harmed at birth. How can that occur? According to Abraham Towbin, MD: the birth process... is potentially a traumatic, crippling event...mechanical stress imposed by obstetrical manipulation-even the application of standard orthodox procedures may prove intolerable to the fetus...most signs of neonatal injury observed in the delivery room are neurological... The Spine and Infant Health With the birth process becoming more and more an intervening procedure, the chiropractic adjustment becomes even more important to the child's future.-Larry Webster, D.C. founder of the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association 

Research is confirming chiropractor's observations that infants may suffer from spinal subluxations. In one study, 1,250 babies were examined 5 days after birth. 211 of them suffered from vomiting, hyperactivity and sleeplessness and subluxations were found in 95% of this group. Although the researchers of this study were MDs they recognized the power of chiropractic care and these babies were given the spinal care they needed. The authors reported that the spinal adjustment "frequently resulted in immediate quieting, cessation of crying, muscular relaxation and sleepiness." The authors noted that an unhealthy spine causes "many clinical features from central motor impairment to lower resistance to infections-especially ear, nose and throat infections." The above study discusses an 18-month-old boy suffering from tonsillitis, frequent enteritis, therapy-resistant conjunctives, frequent colds, earache and increasing sleeping problems. He received a chiropractic spinal adjustment. The child demanded to be put to bed and slept peacefully until morning. His health returned to normal.

One wonders, what would have happened to this child if he never had spinal care? A life of antibiotics and other medicines? A life of continued sickness?

The author of the above-mentioned study concluded that a chiropractic spinal checkup "should be obligatory after every difficult birth" and any spinal stress "should be...adjusted...the success of adjustment overshadows every other type (of care)."

In another study of 1093 newborns, 298 had upper neck stress and early signs of scoliosis. Surely too many children are born with subluxations that left uncorrected could hinder their health for the rest of their lives.

For Over a Hundred Years...

For over a hundred years doctors of chiropractic have observed the often dramatic responses of infants after chiropractic care.

There seems to be no limit to the conditions that can respond to chiropractic care: colic, difficulty breast-feeding, Erb's palsy (an arm is limp and underdeveloped), torticollis (twisted neck), unbalanced face and skull development, foot inversion, "nervousness," ear, nose and throat infections, allergies and sleep disorders, and projectile vomiting are just a sampling. All infants however, sick or well, need to have a healthy spine.

Shaken Baby Syndrome

Babies are very top heavy. Mild to moderate shaking of a child can result in serious neurological damages since their neck muscles known to occur after playfully throwing the child up in the air and catching him/her. The damage caused is called Shaken Baby Syndrome. Not only being shaken or thrown but being spanked can also cause spinal or neurological damage to a child. Any child who has been subjected to this rough behavior desperately needs a chiropractic checkup to prevent possible nerve damage.

When Does a Baby Need a Spinal Checkup?

According to the late chiropractic pediatric specialist Larry Webster, D.C., there are six times in a baby's first year of life when spinal examinations are especially important:

After the birth process.

When the baby starts to hold his/her head up.

When the baby sits up.

When the baby starts to crawl.

When the baby starts to stand.

When the baby starts to walk.

Conclusion

Our children deserve to be treated naturally, not with dangerous chemical drugs and unproven surgeries.

Give your baby the best possible chance to have a healthy life. You have your baby's eyes checked, heart checked, hearing checked-please bring your children in for a chiropractic spinal exam. A simple checkup now might make a BIG difference for your children for the rest of their lives.