Gentle Chiropractic Care for Babies

Dr. Feel Good Chiropractic checks babies to gently improve the movement of their spine and their nerve system function to help them feel their best (less pain, and more settled and relaxed), improve feeding, and support healthy growth and development, so that they can thrive.

Babies benefit by having their first chiropractic check soon after birth. Sometimes babies are checked as young as a few hours old help their body cope with the effects of a traumatic birth. Most often we see newborns after 4 days, on their first outing. Positioning in the womb, labour or the birth process can create tension and disturbance in the spinal joints of the newborn, particularly the upper neck. This can result in a wide-range of effects on the baby’s wellbeing.

Many parents see chiropractors for their baby with:

• colic or being unsettled/irritable

• restricted neck movement/persistent head tilt

• a head turning preference (with or without a flat head)

• a preference to feed off one particular breast

• unsettledness when feeding or being held in certain positions

• unsettledness when placed in a car-seat

• asymmetric body position when they are lying down

• difficulty breastfeeding

• a weak suck with breast or bottle feeding

• difficulty attaching to breast

• concerns about head shape or a misshapen head

• unsettled sleeping patterns and short naps during the day

• discomfort with tummy-time

• torticollis (spasm of front neck muscles)

Examination

We can check your baby either while you’re holding them on your chest, or they’re sitting on your lap. A gentle touch or ‘wiggle’ all the way up the spine over their clothing is used. The chiropractor feels the position and movement of each joint, assessing for subluxations (misaligned or restricted movement of the spine creating irritation to the nerve system).

Our Dr. Feel Good chiropractors use gentle pressure with their fingers or a specific tool to adjust restricted spinal joints to restore their natural movement and exercises the deep little muscles close to the spine. This bombards or ‘wakes up’ the brain to pay attention to what is going on at this location, so the brain can reduce tension, improve normal functions like breastfeeding, recalibrate the symptoms and ease pain.

The pressure used to adjust a baby is about the same as you would use to test the ripeness of a tomato—very gentle and just enough to make a significant difference. Many babies sleep through their adjustments.

Our chiropractors may also work on their tiny cranial bones and the dural tension through their spine with a lovely stretch to re-establish balance and create ease in their system.