Now, I know what some of you may be thinking. Chiropractic and kids?? Really?  My kids don’t have neck pain, back pain, or headaches. Why would a child ever need to receive care from a chiropractor? The truth of the matter is that kids and chiropractic go together like sunshine and waves. Let me explain why—but first, a story.

When my son, Cyrus, was born, he had gone through a lot of stress. With each contraction, his heart rate would plummet to about half of his normal rate. This was the case for 16 hours as my wife was going through each contraction. It had gotten to a point where the nurse midwives were increasingly concerned about his condition and recommended a C-section if he wasn’t going to be born within the next hour. Trusting the body’s innate intelligence and weighing the risks of c-section, we decided to continue to try for a natural delivery.

When he was delivered, it became clear why he was having those issues. His umbilical cord had weak areas in it that allowed pressure to occlude blood flow during the contractions. This caused intermittent times of low blood flow, creating ebbs and flows for 16 hours. By the end of delivery, he was pale and exhausted.

Immediately after he was delivered, he was assessed by the medical team in the delivery room, then he was handed to me to receive his first adjustment. Adjustments for kids look a lot different than adults. For him, it was applying slight pressure to a specific area on his upper neck, holding it for around 30 seconds. Then, contacting his pelvis and applying specific pressure for another 30 seconds. I then gave him to Dr. Emily to spend some time with on-skin contact. 

A few days after the delivery, we did a heart rate variability test to assess his autonomic nervous system after going through that intense delivery. His scores were drastically low. It had shown that his nervous system was stuck in an exhausted state and that his body needed healing input to bring it back to balance. One thing that adjustments do for kids, is it helps to regulate tone of the vagus nerve. This nerve controls the rest and digest part of the autonomic nervous system, and oftentimes with difficult deliveries, it can become stressed and dysfunctional. 

For the next few weeks, Dr. Emily and I would check him 3 times per week, making sure that his nervous system was sending clear signals throughout his body. With each day he was getting better and better. Fast forward to today, he is hitting all of his benchmarks, motoring around, and enjoying life—and his neurological scans confirm that he is doing great!

Although chiropractic may not be the first place that comes to mind for helping struggling kids, it has a long track record of helping kids develop properly within their own bodies. Nervous systems grow very similarly as a plant would–from the roots to the stems, and eventually, flowering out. If you damage the roots or the stem, it changes how the plant flowers out on top. Just like a plant relies on healthy roots to grow strong branches, a child’s healthy nervous system lays the foundation for learning, movement, and thriving in life. In order for the lobes of the brain to grow and function properly, it requires healthy stimulation from the nerve roots, spinal cord, and brainstem. 

This is why we chose to give Cyrus intensive initial care, and he continues to get adjusted—and he will likely continue to get adjusted for as long as he lives. This is why so many parents choose this life for their kids. Because life with a fully functional nervous system allows for the best expression of health, especially for kids with a developing body.  

Towards a Healthier Generation,

Dr. Nate