Add longevity to your patient base and revenue to your practice
with pediatric adjustments
By Jennifer LeClaire
Mrs. Parker visits your office twice a month for wellness care and brags to
her friends about the difference chiropractic has made to her quality of life.
She refers her co-workers with chronic headaches, her boss with back pain and
her sister-in-law with allergies to your practice.
But what about her 6-year-old son who comes along from time to time to watch
you give his mom an adjustment? Are you checking his spine for subluxations?
There are a wide variety of attitudes regarding caring for children. But the
number of chiropractors caring for children is growing as more parents experience
frustration with their toddler’s frequent earaches, their first grader’s
constant bed-wetting and their pre-teen’s postural problems. Parents are
looking for alternatives where traditional medicine has failed and chiropractic
is poised to provide safe, natural solutions.
The root causes of subluxations in children are no different than the root causes
of subluxations in adults: physical traumas (a baby being held incorrectly,
a toddler falling while learning to walk, a child getting tackled playing football);
emotional stresses (parental strife, major disappointments, school stress);
and chemical toxins (inappropriate formulas, vaccinations, exposure to pollutants).
And the benefits of chiropractic care are the same regardless of whether the
patient is one minute old or 100 years old—adjustments help the nervous
system flow optimally by relieving interference.
“The common myth is that a chiropractic adjustment is dangerous and can
actually hurt a child,” says Jeanne Ohm, D.C. executive coordinator of
the Media, Pa.-based International Chiropractic Pediatric Association (ICPA),
a group dedicated to advancing awareness of the chiropractic wellness lifestyle
through education, training and research. “If you compare childbirth and
all the pulling that goes on to get a baby out of the birth canal to a chiropractic
adjustment, it becomes very obvious which of the two is causing trauma.”
A lifetime of health
So when should chiropractic care for children begin? Some doctors begin adjustments
while the baby is still in its mother’s womb. Ohm says adjusting the pregnant
mother creates a state of balance in her pelvis that allows the baby to lie
in a position that reduces stress to its developing spine. Some chiropractors
also adjust babies immediately after birth to correct subluxations that occur
during delivery.
A plethora of research is now being published to demonstrate the connection
between subluxations and childhood ailments that range from asthma and ADHD
to breastfeeding difficulties and bed-wetting and beyond. The conclusion is
clear: chiropractic care benefits children.
Take a British study of 1,250 babies examined five days after birth, for example.
The study revealed that 211 of those babies suffered from vomiting, hyperactivity
and sleeplessness. Spinal abnormalities were found in 95 percent of that group.
Adjustments frequently resulted in immediate quieting, cessation of crying,
muscular relaxation and sleepiness.
Other studies show a connection between subluxations and colic. Researchers
at the University of Southern Denmark observed 45 infants with colic. Twenty-five
of the infants received three to five chiropractic adjustments over two weeks.
The other 20 infants received dimethicone drops (the standard drug treatment).
At the end of two weeks, researchers reported that crying in the chiropractic
group was reduced by three hours compared to only one hour in the control group.
And a study published in the Journal of Clinical Chiropractic Pediatrics indicates
there is a strong correlation between chiropractic adjustments and the resolution
of ear infections. Eighty percent of the 322 children (ranging in age from 27
days old to 5 years old) with frequent ear infections reported a cessation of
the problem within adjustments every four to six weeks.
ICPA board member and vice president Dr. Tony Carino, however, stresses that
chiropractic care for kids is not just about symptoms. It is also about ongoing
wellness throughout the child’s entire lifetime.
“The question is not whether or not your child has scoliosis or carries
a back pack or plays contact sports,” he says. “The question is,
does your child have a spine? Parents need to understand the importance of spinal
check-ups for long-term health.”
How to adjust children
Chiropractors may need a greater understanding of how adjustments benefit children,
but they do not need any additional training to begin caring for them. Your
license gives you the right to adjust patients of any age.
That said, the ICPA does offer advanced courses for practitioners who want to
learn more about the nuances of caring for children. For example, there are
developmental issues in the cervical spine before the age of 6 that prohibits
certain types of adjustments that could result in functional deterioration of
the joints and lead to arthritis at an early age.
“Obviously you are not going be using the same force as you would on an
adult,” says Carino. “You use light pressure on a child. You can
also use drop tables and toggling tools that are non-invasive. For babies, the
contact might be with a pinkie as opposed to your whole hand.”
There is no hard and fast rule as to how frequently a child should be adjusted.
Like adults, each child’s needs are different. “If they don’t
need it, then you don’t adjust them,” says Waukee, Iowa-based family
practitioner Paul Kerkhoff, DC. “If my car doesn’t need oil when
I check the oil, I am not going to put in an extra quart just because I want
to.”
Of course, caring for children does present some unique challenges. Doctors
can’t depend on verbal feedback from infants and toddlers about what they
are experiencing in their spines. Ohm says you have to read their body movements
and maintain eye contact with the littlest patients.
“If they are exhibiting some sort of anxiety or fear, then you have to
resolve that with soothing voices and slow movement,” she says. “If
there’s an area that you are working on and you feel it may be stressing
them, then you need to be able to pick up on that from their body movements.
You have to gain the baby’s trust.”
Since many children’s only experience with a doctor was a shot and a lollipop,
some kids are scared of chiropractors. Kerkhoff says you have to build a rapport
with the child before ever attempting an adjustment so they know you are not
going to hurt them.
“First you get to the point where you can shake their hand,” he
explains. “And then pretty soon you are giving high fives and before you
know it you are sitting them on your lap and then you can put your hand on their
spine. It’s a gradual approach to delivering care and you don’t
charge the parent for building that rapport.”
The converted kid
Chiropractors say once a child breaks through the fear factor, you can hardly
get them off the table. Ohm says babies love it and show an appreciation in
their body language.
“I use a headpiece, and as soon as they are old enough they begin to lean
into it themselves,” she says. “By the time they are four months
old they are conscious of that adjustment and they want it.”
Kerkhoff says one of the most wonderful things about kids is that they don’t
have any established mindsets about chiropractic. After the first few visits,
he says the kids come running into the office, jumping up on the table and asking
for their sticker.
“Kids have a ball here,” he says. “They don’t have any
preconceived notions about how often they should come. What they know is what
their parents and doctor tells them about having optimal spinal health.”
Chiropractors typically don’t charge the same adult rate for kids’
adjustments, so caring for children is not really about the money. Ohm, Carino
and Kerkhoff agree that it’s about the well-being of children and raising
a generation of children who appreciate and benefit from chiropractic care.
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