Having a newborn is terrifying. One day, it’s just you and your spouse, both still figuring out how to be an adult yourself, and then a few months later, you’re handed this tiny little fragile baby, that you don’t know what to do with. Everyone gives you advice, whether you asked for it or not. There are thousands of books to read, but that sounds exhausting. Every decision you make feels like it could make or break this newborn and affect your entire life.
So to summarize, it’s terrifying. I don’t have all the answers, no one does, but I do know one way to set this child up to have the best quality of life they could have. This one way is great for a multitude of symptoms like constipation, colic, trouble latching, torticollis, and so much more. But it’s also great for preventive care and for ensuring the nervous system is developing appropriately and at the right pace. Making sure that the transition from inside momma to outside is as smooth as possible. This answer that sounds like magic is chiropractic.
Chiropractic is a health success strategy that’s not only fantastic for adults, but works wonders on babies, too. A common question is “Why do babies need chiropractic? They haven’t had any injuries yet.” But birth is one of the most traumatic experiences for everyone involved. For the newborn, there is significant pressure, coming from both the mom’s body squeezing and from the providers pulling on the baby’s head. Babies will experience between 60 and 100 pounds of force during birth. That’s a lot of force for a small human! Getting your newborn checked by a chiropractor is the best way to find out whether any of that force could cause long-term issues in the spine and nervous system. Chiropractic is a health and wellness success strategy. We want to set our children up for success as soon as possible.
$99 New Patient Special
Includes consultation, exam, doctors report of findings, PosturePro analysis, and first adjustment.
How Our Care Plan Works
1. Better
No matter where you start, we can improve together. The first phase focuses on making progress in your current ailments. Typically, this means alleviating pain and helping you return to your daily activities as smoothly and quickly as possible.
2. Stronger
Now that you’ve made progress, how do we KEEP it? We’ve all experienced improvements, only to regress when our focus shifts. This phase empowers your body to sustain the hard-earned progress you’ve worked so diligently to achieve.
3. Healthier
True HEALTHcare! So often, we are only concerned with our sickness and dysfunction, seeking treatment only when we experience symptoms. This is SICKcare. During the healthier phase, we focus on your overall health and maintaining your well-being.
Common Newborn Conditions That We Treat in Fuquay-Varina, NC
Breastfeeding Problems
A common struggle with a newborn is trouble with breastfeeding. This is stressful for mom and baby alike. There is an endless list of things that can go wrong before one thing goes right. First off, you can do this! The hard work is worth it; you just need the tools to help you through it. We support this process by providing treatment for the baby. Many things can go wrong with the latch. A weak latch may be because the newborn struggles to open their jaw enough to get the nipple in far enough to feed. A weak latch can come from decreased muscle tone. Or a weak latch could come from the cranium itself. That’s why, in our examination, we will look at each of these factors to determine which subluxation needs to be removed so both momma and baby can succeed through this process.
The tongue and TMJ both need to glide with each suckle. The skull itself isn’t just one bone; it is actually 6 bones that grow together. As a newborn, these bones haven’t fused yet (which is why babies have soft spots). A breakdown in the movement of the jaw or in any of the cranial bones may affect the baby’s latch and ability to feed. By addressing these issues, we can assist in the breastfeeding process.
Symptoms of these may include pain during feeding, a weak latch, inability to sustain a latch throughout the feeding, clicking, or increased reflux and spit-up.
Colic
Colic is usually defined as frequent, intense, and inconsolable crying. Parents with a newborn who has colic are often left feeling defeated and demoralized, as well as downright exhausted. This is a terrible spot to be, especially while trying to take care of a newborn and yourself. Most of the time, the medical answer to colic is to suck it up and deal with it. This is a terrible answer! This baby is frustrated and struggling, and crying is the only way they know how to communicate those issues. Oftentimes, the parents of a colic baby present to chiropractic offices in desperation mode. They have nowhere else to turn. The good news is that chiropractic is the right answer. By analyzing the baby’s nervous system, we can find out what’s causing the distress. For many newborns, it’s about digestion. For others, we find their autonomic nervous system is struggling to regulate between the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. They cry because they are stuck in sympathetic overdrive or in the fight-or-flight part of their brain.
Although colic is difficult, these cases often have some of the coolest chiropractic stories, where babies and families go from being in disarray to functioning as well as they possibly can. Chiropractic is the answer for colic.
Constipation
Constipation is a common complaint for newborns. Going from being fed through the umbilical cord to nursing and bottle-feeding is hard! Once you actually figure out how to nurse, your body needs to learn to extract nutrients from the milk itself, convert them into energy, and run on it. When you think about it, it really is such an amazing system, but there are many opportunities for things to go wrong. One of the most common breakdown points is in the large intestine, which can cause constipation. There are differences in the frequency of bowel movements among newborns. No matter what literature you’re going to read, you’re going to get differing results of what “normal” is. Some signs and symptoms to look out for include a consistently grumpy demeanor right before a bowel movement, excessive straining or redness in the face during bowel movements, hard/dry/pellet-like stool, a firm and bloated belly, or being sluggish or lethargic.
Newborns who present with constipation often see rapid results, but it does take time to create a lasting change. Many newborns will have a bowel movement directly following their adjustment. This is due to increased parasympathetic nervous system activation that occurs with an adjustment. This doesn’t reverse all symptoms permanently, but it helps the newborn’s nervous system start developing in a way that supports life on the outside.
Reflux
Reflux is very common in newborns. This presents as excessive spit-up, either in frequency or volume. Although spitting up is common, these newborns may be fussy and dislike being laid flat after a feeding. A common way medical offices treat reflux is with a prescription medication. For many newborns, it doesn’t decrease symptoms, leading to higher and higher doses of medications. With chiropractic, reflux can be a simple fix through adjustments. Not just addressing the symptoms, but correcting the actual issue within the nervous system.
Muscle Tone
This is an issue many parents don’t even think about. Muscle tone should change and develop as the newborn gets used to gravity. Torticollis is a common example of increased muscle tone. Torticollis is a specific type of hypertonicity involving the sternocleidomastoid and scalenes. This causes the newborn’s head to turn to the side. This often presents in milder forms, such as when newborns can hold their heads up before they even leave the hospital. This isn’t because the newborn is developmentally advanced, but because they have hypertonic neck muscles. Left unchecked and uncorrected, it can lead to bigger, more serious issues in the future. The opposite of hypotonia develops later, as babies can’t sit up on their own or even hold their heads up when they should be able to. Once again, left unchecked and untreated, it can lead to more issues in the future. Understanding tone and its meaning in relation to the nervous system is a specialty of chiropractors.
How We Treat Newborns in Fuquay-Varina, NC
Comprehensive Consultation and Exam
Every new patient appointment starts with a complete consultation and examination. Even for newborns. The consultation involves asking mom and dad about the birth story, gaining a better understanding of the baby’s birth position, any stress associated with birth, and how the first few days of life began. We then proceed to a symptom-based consultation depending on the reason for the visit. Preventive health care for newborns is often quick. Still, for babies struggling with constipation, colic, reflux, or trouble latching, we ask as many questions as possible to get the best possible understanding of all of the symptoms.
Following the consultation, we progress into a New Patient Examination. Newborn examinations are thorough, but are performed in a very calm or playful manner. Over 40 different observations, orthopedic tests, neurologic examinations, and primitive reflexes will be performed to find out exactly how your newborn’s nervous system is functioning. The exam is usually interactive, allowing the provider to demonstrate the deficits we see in ourselves. This provides the information we need to create a treatment plan. Babies are very relaxed during the examination, some even sleeping through it.
Newborn Adjustments
Newborn adjustments are one of the best things for that child’s nervous system, but if we are being honest, it’s rather anticlimactic, especially if you’ve seen chiropractic performed on adults. Newborn adjustments look rather boring. The provider will often hold the baby, lay the baby down in a pediatric pillow, or have mom/dad hold the baby while performing the adjustment. The adjustment is performed on one or two segments of the spine by applying gentle pressure and holding.
Adult adjustments are usually quick movements and can create cavitations or pops in the spine. Pediatric adjustments are performed by locating the correct spinal segment and gently holding it until a change in the tissue around the joint occurs. The pressure is very gentle, only one to two pounds. I often use the example that I won’t push harder on the baby than I would on my own eyeball.
Newborns often sleep through adjustments. They are calm and relaxed. Changes in pressure in the spine and nervous system often lead the baby to settle in for a nap or a good snuggle session.
What to expect after your Newborn’s Adjustment
How should your baby respond after their first adjustment? Well, part of that depends on their symptoms and their severity. Most newborns, regardless of symptoms, take a longer or deeper nap after their first adjustment. The adjustment is helping regulate their nervous system, specifically their Autonomic nervous system, stimulating their Parasympathetic system, the rest and digest part of the brain. This is also why many newborns have a bowel movement on their way home from the chiropractor. Their rest-and-digest system is doing exactly what it’s supposed to do: helping them rest and digest.
If the newborn presents with symptoms, we usually see a decrease in symptoms within a short time after the adjustment. So if a patient presents with reflux and excessive spit-up, we usually see a decrease in both for at least a day, sometimes a week. It rarely goes completely away after one adjustment. But that gives us positive feedback, meaning we did something right. With a proper plan, we could make that the new normal.
Newborn Treatment Plans
Newborn treatment plans are crucial for achieving lasting changes in the nervous system. Just like going to the gym, you can’t see huge changes after one visit; it takes time to get to the results you want. How much time? Well, just like with the gym, it depends on where you are now and where you’re trying to get to. That’s why a thorough consultation and examination are indispensable for creating an effective treatment plan. Plans vary drastically from patient to patient. Many newborns are brought to the office with no complaints, just moms and dads bringing their baby to get their nervous system checked and helping them function the best they possibly can. Others come in with months of colic and constipation. But each plan we create is designed specifically for one individual patient.
Why is Chiropractic Important at Birth?
Birth is traumatic for all parties involved. During birth, the traction force on the baby’s head can reach up to 120 pounds! That’s a lot for such a little spine. Add that to the amount of pressure squeezing the baby’s head as they pass through the canal. Newborns also have a lot to learn in very little time. Learning how to nurse, how to pass gas or have a bowel movement, and even how to sleep is different. The system that controls all these systems is our nervous system. A chiropractic adjustment is going to fight back against all of the trauma the newborn experienced at birth, as well as help their nervous system integrate into this new way of life. A chiropractic examination can also find developmental issues before symptoms develop. Due to the depth of our examination, we may find primitive reflexes that aren’t integrating correctly. Meaning we could prevent things like future bed wetting or decrease ADHD symptoms. Getting your newborn to the chiropractor is the best thing you can do for their health and wellness.
Check Out Our Location Near You
609 Attain St #141, Fuquay-Varina, NC 27526
Frequently Asked Questions
How soon after birth is it safe to adjust a baby?
Newborns can be adjusted as soon as they are born. Because the adjustment is modified to each patient, it is safe to adjust newborns as soon as they are on the outside.
How do Pediatric Chiropractors get certified?
Many different post-graduate programs certify pediatric chiropractors. The most common is the ICPA, the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association, which is the largest chiropractic association in the world.
How do I know if my baby needs a chiropractor?
Birth is traumatic for everyone involved. All newborns would benefit from some form of chiropractic. Many newborns seek chiropractic care for specific symptoms. Those symptoms can include colic, constipation, reflux, or difficulty progressing through benchmarks.
How does chiropractic help with colic?
Colic is a baby who is often described as inconsolable. This baby is trying to communicate that something is wrong, usually within their nervous system. Often, it is due to sympathetic overdrive. The baby is stressed. The best way to see their nervous system re-regulate is through chiropractic adjustments.
Is pediatric chiropractic the same as chiropractic for adults?
Chiropractic for newborns and pediatrics looks very different from what it does with adults. We are often trying to achieve similar results, decreasing interference on the nervous system as well as improving quality of life, but the treatments themselves look very different. Pediatric adjustments are very gentle and calm. When we find a spot in the spine to adjust, we are applying gentle pressure in the direction of correction, pushing no harder than we’d press on our own eyeball (less than one pound of force). It is so gentle that newborns sleep through their adjustments.
What are the benefits of chiropractic care for Newborns?
Initial benefits start with symptom relief, but progress to better integration of their growth and development milestones. When treated properly, adjustments from birth will help that child develop into the healthiest and best possible version of themselves.
Can my other children come to the Newborn appointment with me?
YES! We never want our children to be a barrier to getting the treatment someone needs. Most of our families all schedule their appointments at the same time and come in together. We keep the office stocked with toys and stickers to keep everyone occupied and content during the visit.
Do you “crack” the baby’s neck?
No. The cracking sound associated with adjustments is called a cavitation. Cavitation during adult adjustments rarely occurs during pediatric adjustments. This is because newborn and pediatric adjustments are extremely gentle and slow, not causing a gap in the joint like adult adjustments.
Does it hurt the baby?
Not at all. Many babies will sleep through their adjustments. Occasionally, a newborn will get fussy during their adjustment, but this happens when we hit a tender point in the spine, and crying is the only way a newborn knows how to communicate. When this happens, we change the contact and help the baby relax once again.
$99 New Patient Special
Includes consultation, exam, doctors report of findings, PosturePro analysis, and first adjustment.
