Chiropractic and Infant Milestones: Encouraging Proper Development Through Pediatric Care
As a new parent, witnessing your baby achieve those important milestones like crawling, sitting, and walking is a moment filled with joy and pride. But what if your little one is having trouble reaching these milestones on time or experiencing difficulties along the way? While chiropractic has long been known for its benefits in alleviating pain and promoting overall well-being in adults, pediatric chiropractic can also play a gentle, effective, and crucial role in the optimal development of infants.
The Importance of Infant Milestones
Achieving much anticipated milestones not only brings joy to parents, but also plays a crucial role in the overall well-being of the child. They serve as indicators of your baby's progress and continuously build to create a more functional and independent human. From rolling over to sitting up, crawling, and eventually walking, each milestone represents a step forward in their journey towards independence.
Tension patterns from in-utero positioning, the birth process itself, or even other common infant concerns such as colic, torticollis, reflux, constipation, etc. can impact milestone development and overall comfort of a baby. Gentle and specialized chiropractic sessions can help to alleviate discomfort, address underlying concerns, correct compensations, and help your newborn reach their full potential.
What is Chiropractic Care for Infants
Infant Chiropractic is a gentle, safe, and effective way to address the root cause of concerns and promote overall wellness & development. Infants typically relax into the “adjustment” and most will fall asleep by the end of the session. While it’s still called an adjustment, pediatric visits at BCR are more focused on the myofascial system and creating gentle movement to improve how baby functions and feels.
As with adults, chiropractic is great on it’s own, but when it’s combined with at-home exercise prescription, it’s even better! If there’s an underlying cause for tension (for example, baby keeps arching their back in tummy time and using their back muscles instead of bearing weight and gaining stability through the shoulders) we can continuously work on that mid back tightness OR we can address how to modify tummy time to make it more comfortable for baby to recruits the right muscles and encourage proper development. TADA!
If we have reflux or constipation causing tension through the torso and hips, this impacts not only how baby feels, but also how they move and explore the world around them. Chiropractic not only helps to relieve tension, but addresses compensations, improves nervous system function (parasympathetics = rest & digest = sleep and healthy poops) and provides parents with purposeful play ideas to encourage proper movement and development!
It’s absolutely integral that a provider working with body tension understands how common infant concerns such as tongue ties, plagiocephaly (flat head shape), etc. is impacted by and impacts body tension, how a baby, and the potential affects on milestone development.
Benefits of Chiropractic Care for Infant Milestones
Chiropractic care for infants offers a multitude of benefits:
1. Improved Motor Skills
By addressing any restrictions or tension, we can improve how baby accesses certain parts of their body needed for achieving proper movement patterns. Example: decreasing tension through the pelvis and hips can improve the ability to side sit, move and transition in and out of static positions.
2. Relief from Common Infant Concerns
Many infants experience concerns such as colic, reflux, oral restrictions, difficulty breastfeeding, etc. The resulting tension patterns and associated compensations can be a source of distress for both babies and parents. Chiropractic care can help address the underlying causes of these problems, help baby to feel more comfortable in their body, and encourage healthy movement and exploration to aid in the prevention any delays in milestone development.
3. Support for Digestive Health
Pediatric chiropractic has been shown to decrease constipation by providing the ability to move easily without restriction, decrease tension where GI tract exits, AND by helping with nervous system regulation. At-home recommendations to maintain progress and further support baby is a large part of sessions at BCR as well!
4. Purposeful Play Recommendations
Providing parents at-home recommendations in order to further facilitate progress is just one additional way in which pediatric chiropractic care shines. We may work on decreasing tension and increasing ranges of motion in the appointment, but working on skills at home can help us to achieve our goals faster. Let’s revisit the tummy time debacle provided earlier - while the appointment serves to decrease tension and allow for better movement, there should be additional recommendations and exercises provided to help baby find stability through the trunk and shoulders for more purposeful tummy time.
Tips for supporting optimal development at home
As a parent, there are many ways you can support your baby's optimal development at home. Here are some tips to keep in mind:
1. Keep your tiny tot well rounded: Tummy time gets all the attention (and for GREAT reason, it’s an absolutely necessary skill), but try floor time while laying on all sides for optimal development. Play with them on their back, side, tummy and then rotate them to their other side!
2. Provide a safe and stimulating environment: containers are great resources for short-term use. However, ensuring that your baby has plenty of space and freedom to move around and explore their surroundings is extremely beneficial to their development. Dr. Dani can provide ideas for age-appropriate toys and play ideas that encourage skill building for their next milestone.
3. Practice baby massage: Baby massage is not only a great bonding activity but also supports your baby's physical and emotional development. Gentle massages can help relax your baby's muscles, improve circulation, and promote a sense of well-being. Follow appropriate techniques and use baby-safe oils or lotions.
Chiropractic care for infants offers a natural and effective pathway to support their growth and development. Chiropractic adjustments can enhance vital milestones such as rolling, sitting, transitioning, crawling, walking, and reaching developmental milestones. With its non-invasive and drug-free approach, chiropractic care can address common infant issues and help your baby achieve their full potential. So, unlock the power of chiropractic and give your baby the best possible start in life.
