Pediatric Chiropractic Care in Newport Beach, CA

If you are considering improving your child’s health through chiropractic care, you are probably wondering two things:

1. Can pediatric chiropractic care help my child?
2. How does pediatric chiropractic care even work?

Well, you’re not alone! Many moms, dads, and caregivers are looking for hope and answers, backed by science, to help them with all the stress and struggles confronting their kids and families.

Let’s look at why kids struggle in the first place.

Everyday childhood traumas affect the spine and nervous system. Bumps, falls, and roughhousing often come to mind when we think about our kids’ physical stress. Physical stressors actually start much earlier. Research shows stressors begin during the prenatal and birth process.

Besides physical stress, our kids live in a different world than when we grew up. They are a busier, more complex generation with packed schedules, hours of social media and screen time, and a diet lacking vital nutrients and minerals. Stress is coming from every direction, which is overwhelming for developing kids.

The more “stressors” that build up, the harder it is for their little bodies to adapt and overcome, leaving our kid’s nervous system stuck in the flight-or-fight mode (sympathetic) instead of rest, digest, growth, and development mode (parasympathetic).

Why is chiropractic care good for kids?

Children with properly aligned spines tend to have better posture and overall health. Kids under chiropractic care do better in sports, perform better in school, and are sick less often. Chiropractic not only helps align the spine but helps to clear neural pathways for an optimized nervous system which is vital to healthy living.

Chiropractic For Toddlers

Think of the spine as not just a collection of bones, muscles, and ligaments, but instead as an entire neurological “organ.” This organ is the critical communication highway between the brain and body. Kids can adapt easily to their surroundings when the brain and body communicate well.

As a child is learning to walk, they fall about 1-20 times a day. This can move the spine out of the proper position, causing nerve interference and lowering the child’s state of health. Checking and adjusting children, when necessary, will also improve their balance. This will enable your child to reach his or her fullest health potential.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is chiropractic care safe for a child?

Chiropractic care for kids is different from that for adults. At Priestley Family Chiropractic, we tailor our chiropractic adjustments to your child’s age and weight. Their adjustments require no more pressure than you would use to test the ripeness of a tomato. Children seem to innately enjoy their chiropractic care and look forward to their visits. It’s essential to find a well-trained, reputable pediatric chiropractor.

At what age should a child start seeing a chiropractor?

We believe a child should have a spinal checkup within an hour of birth. The pulling, forcing, and twisting of a baby from the birth canal are standard practices in the birthing process. Cesarean section, forceps, suction extraction, or eager hands can do unseen damage. Even “natural” birthing methods can cause subluxations. With vital neurological signals compromised, your child’s health may be impaired from his or her very first breath. We have sophisticated technology to determine if your child’s nervous system is compromised. Allow the doctors of Priestley Family Chiropractic to perform gentle but effective adjustments on your child’s body to restore normal body functions. When we address these issues early on, you can ensure your child’s body thrives.

When should you take your child to a chiropractor in Newport Beach?

At Priestley Family Chiropractic, we believe a child should be checked as soon as possible after the birthing process to ensure your baby will develop optimally. The birthing process – even in the best case – can cause trauma to the newborn that can interfere with the nervous system, affecting your child’s health. This may present as trouble breastfeeding, reflux, colic, constipation, or excessive crying. As the child gets older, this might lead to issues with crawling, walking, speech and motor coordination, ear infections, autism, and ADHD. Chiropractic adjustments for pediatric patients focus mainly on increasing the function of the nervous system.

Should a child see a chiropractor for ear infections before putting tubes in their ear?

Yes, definitely! Ear infections are a common childhood issue that infants go through. This happens when fluid builds up in the ear’s eustachian tubes and fails to drain, leading to ear pain or infection. Chiropractic care can help prevent minor injuries on the infant’s nerves, mitigating their chances of developing painful ear infections. At Priestley Family Chiropractic, we can achieve this by dilating the muscles in the ears to drain the eustachian tube, relieve pressure, and unblock fluid.

Is pediatric chiropractic care the same as chiropractic care for adults?

Not quite! Chiropractors treat patients of all ages, from newborns to the elderly, to restore proper nerve flow from the brain to the body and back again. A pediatric chiropractor is trained to fit their chiropractic knowledge to the needs of younger, smaller patients. The adjustments are very gentle in delivery and sometimes utilize no more pressure than what is applied to test the ripeness of a tomato. Adult patients usually require a greater force to move the spinal bones in a better position to relieve pressure from the spinal nerves and the spinal cord.