Your Child & Chiropractic
Every baby needs to have a healthy spinal column. It's the framework that will support your child throughout his or her growing years and adulthood. Studies have shown that newborn infants often enter the world with spinal trauma due to the birth process. Even under the best conditions, birthing can be difficult for the infant who has spent nine months cradled in the dark, warm "waterbed" of the womb. It's very important to have your infant checked by a Chiropractor shortly after birth to be certain that there isn't any nerve interference. Periodic checks should continue throughout your child's lifetime.
Robert S. Mendelsohn, M.D., was one of America's leading pediatricians and a vocal proponent of home delivery. In his consciousness-raising book Confessions of a Medical Heretic, he discussed how babies born in the hospital are six times more likely to suffer distress during labor and delivery, eight times more likely to get caught in the birth canal, four times more likely to need resuscitation, four times more likely to become infected and thirty times more likely to be permanently injured.
A study conducted by Lewis B Mehl, M.D. of the University of Wisconsin Infant Development Center reviewed 2,000 births. Nearly half of these had been home deliveries. Fourteen of the home-born babies had to be resuscitated as compared to fifty-two of those born in the hospital. And only one home-delivered baby suffered neurological damage compared to six of the hospital babies.
The figures reveal the benefits of home delivery. This is why many Chiropractors and their families select natural childbirth at home.
In 1987, the German medical journal, Manuelle Medizin, published a report of a study which examined 1,250 babies five days after birth. Of this group, 211 suffered from vomiting, hyperactivity and Sleeplessness. Upon examination, 95 percent of these children had spinal abnormalities. After being adjusted, all the infants became quiet, the crying stopped, their muscles relaxed and they went to sleep.
The same report said that they found over 1,000 infants with nerve interference in the upper neck area which caused a variety of clinical conditions, ranging from central motor impairment to lowered resistance to infections, especially those of the ears, nose and throat.
In one case history, an eighteen-month-old boy suffered tonsillitis, frequent enteritis, conjunctivitis, colds and earaches. Because of all these ailments he had trouble sleeping. After his first spinal adjustment the little boy began to sleep through the night and it wasn't long before he was in good health.
Scientists are still learning how to accurately assess the damage to infants. They do know that a slight pull on the neck during delivery can cause a subluxation that might cause damage too slight to be noticeable immediately. But eventually it might cause some learning disability.
One of the greatest gifts you can give your newborn is a complete spinal examination by a doctor of Chiropractic.
Chiropractors feel strongly that the entire family can benefit by having spinal checkups. Children who are under regular chiropractic care get sick less often and less severely. They rarely miss days from school. Recent studies have also shown that they have fewer emotional and learning disabilities and other neurological problems connected with childhood. In 1989, a study compared the patients of two hundred pediatricians with two hundred children who had been under the care of Chiropractors. Not only was the overall health of the Chiropractic children superior to those who had known only medical treatment but they also had fewer ear infections, fewer allergies, lower incidence of tonsillitis and less need to be given antibiotic therapy.
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A Healthy Spine = A Healthy You!
