pediatric Care
Children are our future.
We know that healthy kids become healthy adults.
We know that health starts from birth.
Our mission is to change the trajectory of every child’s life by providing safe, specific chiropractic care to our growing kiddos to allow their nervous systems to function at optimal potential.
We don’t just want our kids to survive… We want them to THRIVE.
Looking for a Pediatric Chiropractor in Altamonte Springs, Florida?
Why You Should Consider Chiropractic For Your Kids
Our kiddos go through so many changes from the time they’re born until they reach adulthood. Let’s first talk about their brains. At birth, your child’s brain is only a quarter of the size of an adult’s brain. Their brains will double in size during their first year of life. By age three, it will be 80% of an adult sized brain and by age five, it will be 90% of an adult sized brain. That’s a lot of growth in a short period of time! As your child’s brain develops, it doesn’t just grow in size. In early childhood, their brains form one million new neural connections every second! This is far more than at any other point in their life.
Your child’s nervous system is made up of their brain, their brainstem, the spinal cord and all of the nerves which travel from the spinal cord and go out to every single organ, muscle, cell and tissue in the body. Your child’s brain is protected by the skull and their spinal cord is protected by the vertebral column (the bones of the spine). You child’s spine literally protects their entire lifeline.
When we think of how much growth and change happens neurologically, it just makes sense that we need to keep their spines healthy through all that development.
What Happens Neurologically in the First Year of Life?
It’s amazing to see all of the changes that happen within the first year alone. During that first year, your baby goes from a snuggly little newborn, to eventually rolling, sitting, crawling and then walking. They go from only knowing how to eat, sleep and go to the bathroom to being able to interact, play with toys and even say their first words. It just makes sense that this is a crucial time for brain and neurological development.
What Happens To Your Child’s Spine in the First Few Years of Life?
The spinal column grows 50% in the first year of life! Not only that, but two very important curves, the cervical curve and the lumbar curve, start to develop as well. This spinal development will set your child up for a strong vertebral column, which is essential to protect their nervous system. During these first few years, there’s also a ton of micro-traumas that can occur. As your child learns to crawl, stand and walk, there will also be tons of tumbles, trips and falls. Even though our kids may get right back up and act as though nothing has happened, these falls can cause slight misalignments that can greatly affect development down the road.
How Can Chiropractic Care Benefit Your Child?
Minimize the Impact of Falls
If you’ve ever seen a kid play on a playground, you know that kids are CRAZY! They run, jump and play with no fear. They fall from monkey bars and jump from swings. They trip while running and get knocked by soccer balls. Each of these falls can cause slight shifts in their little spines. Any one of these falls may be minor on their own, but combined together, year after year, it just makes sense that small misalignments can become a bigger problem. Unfortunately, we see cases all the time in our office with huge imbalances in hip height or shoulder height. Our goal is to see kids regularly so that we can keep our kids healthy, even with all the falls.
Locate Spinal Misalignments before they become a Problem
Spinal misalignments don’t just happen from falls. Even repetitive tasks can cause misalignments. Whether your child sits at a desk all day at school or they love playing on a phone or iPad, these repetitive tasks can cause shifts within the spine. We’ve seen many x-rays in our office of children who has reversal of their cervical curves, even at such a young age. This is a huge problem that can lead to premature arthritis over time. By seeing children regularly, even when they have no pain, we locate these misalignments and correct them while they’re young so that they don’t have to grow up to have the typical problems we see in adults.
Encourage Neural Plasticity
As we mentioned above, childhood is the most crucial time for the development of their brains and nervous systems. Chiropractic encourages proper brain development by improving movement through the spine and taking pressure off of the nerves that go from the brain to the body. Proper movement of the spine brings nutrients to the vertebral discs and surrounding structures. Chiropractic has even been shown to stimulate the prefrontal cortex, which is the part of the brain responsible for memory, emotional regulation and attention!
Improve Spinal Posture
By correcting spinal misalignments early on in age, we can help prevent and correct scoliosis and other postural issues. Do you remember the “old school” tests they used to do when we were in school? We remember having to gather in the gym way back in the day and the school would bring in a doctor to take a quick look at our spines. Often, they would send home saying that the child may have scoliosis but they wouldn’t really do much else about it. In our office, we can be a lot more precise to determine what’s happening with your child’s spine and outline a specific game plan to correct it.
Help Their Bodies Function Optimally
This is probably the most important thing we do in our office. No matter why a parent is bringing their child in, our sole job is to help their bodies function better. We know that the nervous system controls every cell, organ, muscle and tissue in the body. When one or more spinal bones shift out of alignment, it can put pressure on the nerve and can prevent the brain from communicating properly with the rest of the body. This is a big deal because if left uncorrected over time, can start to create big problems. By correcting these misalignments, we can free up nerve communication to the body and restore optimal function.
While we never claim to treat specific conditions, our job is to restore optimal function and nerve communication. By doing so, we’ve seen so many cases where parents reported:
– Fewer Ear Infections
– Improved Immune System
– Decreased Colds
– Improved Focus in School
– Decreased Growing Pains
– Fewer Headaches
– Fewer Outbursts or Behavioral Issues
– Overall Better Health!
Looking for the Best Pediatric Chiropractor in Altamonte Springs?
What Sets Us Apart?
Adjusting a child is not the same as adjusting an adult. There are subtle nuances in checking and adjusting a pediatric spine. Our doctors have completed hundreds, if not thousands, of hours in post-doctoral training with the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association. They have studied proficiently in the neurology of the growing child. They have also had significant clinical experience as we adjust hundreds of children each week and have been doing so for several years. Pediatrics is our passion. It’s what we love to do! In fact, if you come to our practice, you will typically see kids everywhere. Most of the time, one parent gets started under chiropractic care for a common ailment such as neck or back pain, but typically once people truly realize what we do, the entire family gets under care. You’ll often see families of 4, 5, 6 or 7 who all come in for their regular adjustments. If you have more questions about what we do, feel free to schedule an assessment in our office so we can dig deep into your specific health history and determine how we may be able to serve you and your family!
When is the Best Time to Start?
Now, of course!
As mentioned above, chiropractic can have profound positive effects on your child, regardless of whether they were just born or they’re in high school. From infancy through adulthood, chiropractic can help the body develop at its optimal potential. The sooner we can get started, the sooner we can change the trajectory for your kiddo’s life. Even when a child has no pain or symptomatic complaints, chiropractic can help keep our kids healthy from the start. Much like we wouldn’t wait until we get cavities before we see a dentist, we shouldn’t wait until there’s a problem before we check for proper spinal health. Whether your child is just learning to crawl or whether they compete in soccer or the swim team, chiropractic can help your child shine!