Babies, Children and chiropractic

The over-riding thing to remember about your growing bundle of joy, is that Mother Nature has already locked in a range of changes and developments that your child will pass through at a rate that suits him/her. While it is important that this is not excessively delayed, equally important is that steps are not missed, especially by trying to encourage what your child may not yet be ready for. A classic way to realise this, is the parent who says, “little Johnny can sit / walk already”; chances are that he may be missing some important development changes that may only become evident when he hits school age.  

To cover such a complex topic we’ve put together this summary to help assist you in this brave new world of parenthood. So for simplicity’s sake, at this stage we’ll begin with birth itself… 

GIVING BIRTH 

Is a beautiful natural event. We marvel at in the animal world, yet medicine has done its best to turn it into a form of clinical surgery. What the research(1) is showing, is that a hospital birth with the mum lying on her back, medical interventions and medications and with more and more medications is perhaps the least optimal way to begin life. Lying on your back is only good for the doctors, it makes things tough for you and the baby. It’s much harder to bear down, & the sacrum is blocked from moving - as it has to - to enlarge the birth canal. A Cesarean section is also not recommended(2) as a choice, but of course when medically necessary then so be it. Use of devices to aid in childbirth (forceps, suction etc) also places significant stress on a child’s neck, and are possibly used more when the mother is on her back, than in other positions. So to summarise; 

• Consider alternative positions; squatting, water birth – talk to your midwife. These alternatives mostly make it easier to bear down, open up the pelvis, and is inherently more natural 

• Do your best to avoid the hospital position, and restrict as much as possible use of medication 

• As soon as possible after birth, have your new baby on your tummy to bond(3), and he/she will also in time head for your breast to suckle. If due to e.g. a Cesarean, or complications during child birth this is not possible, have the baby placed on the dad’s tummy. Either will greatly improve bonding and should also make breast feeding easier. Do not allow the child to be taken away for cleaning / measuring, this initial bonding is incredibly important. The rest can wait.

• We have more specific information in the pregnancy ChiroNews.  

Choice of PRAM / BUGGY 

Very simply, try use one that is flat. When your child is sitting freely, then look to change to a more sitting / reclined version, but not before. A baby car seat is an obvious exception, but should not be used for prolonged daytime use, especially not for sleeping. The spine is stuck in a long c-shape and this is detrimental to the nervous system, worsened if the head then hangs to the side during sleep.  Do not use toys that hang from overhead, they encourage your child to reach out, and although distracting, for the brain it is far better stimulated when toys are held in the hand and passed from one to the other.

THE BRAIN IS THE KEY 

Everything you do should be geared towards optimising the development of your baby’s brain(4). At birth it is 400g, by 18 it will be 1,6-1,8kg. It will have 100 Billion synapses at birth, but this increases 20x just in the first month, with 250,000 new ones forming every minute. In terms of development, the most important thing to occur is stimulation by body movement, especially left/right sided activities, in addition to sight, sound, and touch. When movement occurs the part of the brain that is stimulated allows for the further development of other parts of the brain. If play and entertainment is focuses around digital devices then the brain is poorly stimulated,, and while the quiet time might be great, this can lead to all sports of developmental delays later, including learning, speech, concentration, behaviour and coordination issues. 

Some healthy baby checks you can use 

• does your baby’s skin have a colour that makes sense. Healthy and pink when relaxed, red face if crying. Become used to what it normal.

• Unless your child is distinctly in a risk group, it is natural for a child to sleep on their front. When lying on the back if you notice that the head is always turned to one side, and possibly the skull is starting to flatten, this is NOT normal and indicated likely tension in the spinal cord. Please bring your child for a check up as soon as possible.

• a baby should make a range of noises, pay attention if you’re is either especially quiet, or loud 

• as your baby begins to move, can (s)he roll evenly to both sides? If not let us know and we can demonstrate how to encourage balanced movement. 

• General tone – does your child seem almost floppy, almost unable to hold his/her own head up? This is also not normal and requires attention.  

WHAT CAN BE TESTED By doctors or chiropractors? 

There is generally a pretty good system for checking developmental steps of a child, but perhaps not with a chiropractic perspective in mind. There are Primitive reflexes that we are all born with, which should over the first 12 months be integrated by a developing brain. These changes should be checked regularly. There are also a range of postural reflexes that develop at the same time, and are reflective of a brain that is responding to stimulation correctly. These tests can be started quite soon after birth, and should be monitored frequently so that any problems can be identified and corrected as soon as possible. 

TUMMY TIME 

One of the most important things to do is to have your baby on his/her front as much as possible. If he/she is not so keen, then do short intervals frequently, and build the time up. If there is no tolerance for tummy time, then please let us know asap.  Tummy time encourages muscular and therefore brain development. This leads gradually to crawling, something that should be ‘normal’ to look at, and last around 3-4 months. Please do not allow anyone to prematurely assist the baby into either sitting, or standing before the child is already trying themselves. All toys or sitting/standing assist devices trying to speed up the process should also be avoided. For best development and ease of movement, a firm surface and the baby wearing as little as possible is recommended (naked is ideal). Make sure that if you have slippery floors – wood, tiles etc, then get a carpet so that there is some grip, and the actions of crawling can develop better. If the floor is too slippery, then the movement becomes more of a controlled slide. 

THE FLAT HEAD / PLAGIOCEPHALGY 

What is often missed here, the problem is not specifically of the skull itself, rather what has caused it. If the child has tension within the Dura - the connective sheet / sack that protects the brain and spinal column – the sleep position is likely to be banana bent with marked head twist to one side. Constant pressure flattens the skull bones and this flattening is often quite marked and is not just an aesthetic problem. It starts to show up around 6-7 weeks of age. It is now recognised to be linked to delayed neurological development(5) including learning problems, which unfortunately is not often noticeable until school starts and is then much harder to treat. Using a pillow to ´correct´ is wrong.  The dural tension is commonly birth-stress induced(6), and can be identified and treated with chiropractic care. If you know other young parents with a child with this problem, and they are not receiving care for the child, I would encourage you to recommend a visit to our office, at least for an assessment. (there are also other causes, like torticollis, constraint in the uterus, and skull suture closing issues) 

…OR IF TOO BUSY / LOUD 

Then conversely there is a need to calm the nervous system, and a simple type of massage works wonders 

ENTERTAINING YOUR CHILD 

There will be a tendency at times to be thankful of television, and a multitude of technical things like iPads, iPhones. However, we would encourage you to think otherwise. A developing mind has to think, and watching something is not thinking. TV/DVDs made for children can be especially over-frenetic with the intention of keeping the child’s attention. However this rapid change of action/scenery has been shown by research(7) to rapidly increase the chance of ADHS type problems later, as the child learns to expect life to run at a fast pace, and when it doesn’t (eg at school) then irritation creeps in. One researcher stated that for every hour of TV per day, the chance of ADHS type problems increased 10%. So 3 hours = 30%, and many children watch 4. Interactive digital devices are somewhat better, but the good old fashioned ‘real thing’ allows for far more learning as things must be touched, manipulated, in addition to thinking about them. In the 1970s, a child started with TV at about 4 years, it now starts at 4 months.  

INTERACT with your child 

Be in close with your new child – facetime - the original form. Talk, sing, react to noises, make faces, it’s all part of the developmental process. Don’t be over protective, especially when it comes to cleanliness. Playing in dirt has been shown to help build and boost the immune system, as a house that is disinfected to the limit been shown to contribute to major allergy problems. Keep an eye on movement patterns that are not left / right equal. If you notice something, perhaps try to encourage the opposite with toys / noises etc. Dogs have been shown to have a positive influence on the immune system as well, but cats not.  

vaccination - a thorny issue 

This is too broad a topic to cover here, suffice to say we strongly encourage all natural methods to enhance the immune system. We do know that many toxic chemicals in vaccines are untested and are potentially hazardous. We also know that the full vaccine schedule has not been tested for safety.. There remains also a massive question as to potential aluminium / mercury interaction when multiple vaccines are given simultaneously. Ninety eight percent of the reaction to infection is generalised, that means the majority of every reaction to every illness starts the same, and this should be strengthened with good nutrition, sleep, movement and chiropractic. The last 2% is where vaccines may play a role, but remains an unrealistic focus of the medical approach to child health.  

You are legally required to be informed by your doctor of the risks and side effects, however it is standard practice not to do this fully. So at the very least we encourage you to be actively informed of the pros and cons of vaccinations.

HOW DOES CHIROPRACTIC CARE HELP CHILDREN? 

Our focus in assisting your child to be as healthy as possible focuses on relieving abnormal tension in the Dura. When can we start? From day one. As a parent the treatment will mostly look like massage, or light movement activities. Because there are so many changes going on, it remains very important in the first 1-2 years assuming no known development disorders, to check your child 1-2 times a month, and more frequently when problems exist. Together we can follow the integration of the primitive into postural reflexes, and assist your child in having the healthiest beginning in this world possible. As your child grows, there are many challenges, thousands of small falls and accidents, & the stress of growth spurts, to name a few.  

The use of medication in children has significant hazards since most are never tested for safety, and therefore the dose is an educated guess. The metabolism of the drugs is also often different in children to adults, so the toxicity remains unknown. Antibiotics and vaccines are known to disrupt gut flora (bacteria), and these changes are increasingly linked to auto-immune disorders.  

Conversely, Chiropractic can play a significant role in maximising the potential of your child in these formative years, we look forward to being a part of that with you.  

REFERENCES 

1. Obstetrics & Gynecology. Nov 2012. Callaghan W.M. et al.  

2. W.H.O. Statement on Caesarian Section Rates, Executive Summary. April 2015 

3. www.nhs.uk Breastfeeding: The First Few Days 

4. Inspiral Resources. Seminar Notes, London 2014. Keating G. & Keating R.  

5. Long term developmental outcomes in patients with deformational plagiocephalgy. Miller R.I. & Clarren S.K. Paediatrics, Feb 2000. 

6. Well Adjusted Babies 2nd Ed. Barham-Floreani J.B. 

7. Early Television & Attentional Problems. Christakis, D. et.al. Paediatrics, April 2004