Babies and Chiropractors

By Tara A. Trower from over @ Mama Drama

I admit that when a doula first suggested that I go to a chiropractor I must have looked at her like she had two heads. Why would I do that? What good would that do?

But I quickly found the value in a good chiropractor during my first pregnancy. Unable to take much in the way of pain relief medication and suffering from debilitating pelvic pain in my fourth month, I sought out a chiropractor out of desperation. (My regular doctor recommended exercises that I not only couldn’t perform but seemed to be making my pain worse.)

A specialist in pregnant patients, my new found chiro also proved useful in helping rotate both my babies what later proved to be two speedy deliveries. But I still raised an eyebrow when he mentioned one day that he adjusted infants as well.

No. He doesn’t put them on the table and do the same snap, crackle, pop that adults get. It’s a much gentler version and I got to witness him put one 10 -month-old to sleep during an adjustment.

I talked to several chiropractors in town to find out the value in getting kids adjusted. They say, birth can be especially traumatic for infants and a good adjustment can help resolve a multitude of problems: reflux, nursing difficulty, colic, constipation, etc.

I finally decided to give it a try with Elizabeth last week. For the first two months of her life, it’s been pretty much a given that if she’s awake and not eating, then she’s pretty cranky. I figured I didn’t have anything to lose, and I had a high degree of trust in my own chiropractor.

While some pediatricians will concede that chiropractic care has some value, some do not recommend it at all. And virtually all pediatricians will remind parents that chiropractic care should not replace a primary care physician. Some ailments, especially infections, should be seen by a medical doctor. even so, alternative care is on the rise.

According to the American Chiropractic Association, survey data indicates that the number of chiropractic patients under 17 years of age has increased at least 8.5 percent since 1991, says the American Chiropractic Association. And a recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study indicated that nearly 3 percent of children in the United States were treated with chiropractic or osteopathic manipulation in 2007, making it the most common form of doctor-directed complementary or alternative medicine used by children.

I have to say, a week after our first visit, Elizabeth has pulled herself together. She immediately started having more regular bowl movements, has decided that she likes more than one nursing position (she refused to eat any way besides the football hold.) and best of all has started making “happy noises” with a surprising degree of regularity. Even my husband said “we haven’t heard this before.”

I suppose its possible that with her approaching three months old that it was just time for things to start working, but given that fact that all three things happened within hours of our visit, I’m inclined to give the chiropractor his due.

source:
http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/mamadrama/entries/2009/11/30/babies_and_chiropractors.html