Infant chiropractic gaining popularity as way to treat common illnesses

SALT LAKE CITY — A new kind of “mommy medicine” is raising eyebrows.

From essential oils to infant massage, more moms are giving alternative medicine a try. Here’s another option we’re hearing a lot about: women taking their babies to the chiropractor.

Baby Milo had his first chiropractic visit when he was 5 months old.

“He had breast-feeding issues and I also noticed that one side of his head was balding,” Milo’s mother said.

Infant chiropractic isn’t new, but now that the “mommy pipeline” has gone viral, more moms are turning to this alternative method to deal with common childhood illnesses, and they are touting the benefits on blogs and Facebook posts for other moms to see.

They have heard from other moms that it’s helped their children in breast-feeding issues, colic, digestive problems, ear infections, allergies and asthma.

Salt Lake City chiropractic physician Shannon Parisi said many infant and childhood issues can clear up when the body is functioning better, but she stops short of saying there is a direct correlation.

“We don’t claim to treat any of those issues. We just want to clear out their nervous system, so that they’re going to function properly,” she said.

And Parisi points out that infant adjustments aren’t like adult adjustments.

“Adjusting an infant’s neck is literally like gently pushing on a peach and not putting a dent,” she said.

Critics say there is no scientific evidence infant chiropractic works but Milo’s mother said personal experience is all the proof she needs.

“Within weeks we started noticing his hair was growing back and as far as breast-feeding equally on both sides, he had full range of motion,” she said.

Several local pediatricians declined to comment on the chiropractic practice.

Information provided by the American Academy of Pediatrics says further studies are needed to determine the costs, benefits and safety.

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By Dr. Thompson

What do you do if you are a new parent and you can’t get your newborn to stop screaming?. You’ve tried it all, walking the floor, feeding, the rocking chair, and nothing helps. So many times chiropractic is “the last resort” and once parents see the change in their baby they can’t believe they waited so long.

Dr. Thompson had a young mother bring in her newborn who was not sleeping more than an hour at a time.  After one adjustment, the baby slept for fourteen hours.

Babies often have misalignment at the top of the neck. Misalignments put pressure on the nerves that cause symptoms elsewhere.  It can often be the result of trauma often during the birth.

If a delivery is fast, three hours or less, that is usually very forceful on a baby and on the mother and we tend to see more spinal misalignments and injury with a fast delivery.

It is estimated about 20 percent of chiropractic care is focused on kids.

Most of the tiny patients seen by chiropractors have reflux and colic.

Sometimes when there is a neck misalignment or injury, they are comfortable feeding on one side but not the other side because they can’t turn their head easily in both directions

Chiropractors work on the nervous system to improve overall body function, and can help babies with ear infections, colds, stomach pain and even breast feeding.

The reason Dr. Thompson became a chiropractor is when his daughter was  18 months old, she had recurring ear infections. His wife took her to the chiropractor and the rest is history.. .. After two weeks the ear infections were gone.  After experiencing this with his daughter he felt he needed to investigate how this was done.

A lot of people who have headaches, allergies and asthma get a lot of relief when you adjust the upper cervical spine and a lot of children with allergies, asthma, ear infections are commonly misaligned at the C1 and C2 vertebrae.  What happens is our brain sends a message down the spinal cord and out to every organ, muscle, tissue and fiber from those nerves, so when your spine is misaligned it will put pressure on those nerves and the message can’t be received. We have amazing bodies, but as with anything, if there is a glitch or a knot it throw everything off.

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