Why is chiropractic care important for babies and young children? We see a ton of babies in here and a lot of people that don’t understand chiropractic. They ask “well why do you even see kids?” “Why do you see babies?” “Why should they get adjusted?” I wanted to go ahead and clarify that.

We take care of a lot of kiddos because the birth process is very stressful! Even in a vaginal delivery, OB‘s are using anywhere from 60 to 90 pounds of pressure to pull baby out by the top part of the neck. In a c-section delivery, a vacuum extraction or forceps delivery, they’re using upwards of 120 pounds of force. This is a lot of additional strain and stress on that upper cervical area.

There’s one nerve that falls right outside of that area called the “vagus nerve”. The Vagus Nerve controls sleep, digestion, relaxation, growth and development, immune function, all these things that kids are supposed to do! Eat, sleep, poop, grow, be healthy.

A lot of times we see kiddos come in and they’re experiencing nursing issues, colic, constipation, reflux, all of this is really common and many times caused by the subluxation in this upper cervical area. Now this is so important to actually start and correct at a young age because 80% of brain and nervous system development happen in this first three years of life. That’s the best time to make sure that your child is growing and functioning optimally.