Kids and chiropractic

In my profession, I hear it all the time. "Why do my kids need chiropractic care?" The answer is quite simple, so let's take a look at it in depth.

First, chiropractic care is all about giving your body the stability it needs to fight off sickness and disease. Your body does a whole lot of moving and shaking that you never have to think about. You don't have to think about your heart beat, your rate of breathing, or your internal temperature. These are just some of the many things that your body does without direct orders from your conscious thought process. We come to view these things as normal body functions. These normal and vital bodily functions are all controlled by your nervous system.

We spend a lot of time educating our patients on the importance of the nervous system. It is your body's internal power plant and without it, you could not continue to live. Most of the processes in your body are completely out of your conscious control, but they continue to function every second of every day.

The main workhorse of that system is, of course, the brain. A child's brain sends messages out to the body at lightning speed to facilitate bodily functions. Without a single educated thought, the brain is executing thousands of tasks at every moment. It does these things by shooting messages down the spinal cord and out through the miles of nerve tracts we all have inside our bodies. These messages tell our body what to do, and when to do it. Whether that be running, playing, fighting off infection, or telling their heart to beat, all these messages serve vital roles.

When we think of children, we often think that they are very pliable and nearly invincible. When they fall out of a tree or bang their head, they almost immediately recover without incident. They might not feel the pain associated with their injury because only a small percentage of nerves in our bodies have the capability to tell the brain the message of pain. Think about this, we don't see many 2-year-olds walking around complaining of back pain. A recent study shows that 80 percent of 2-year-olds checked had misalignments in their spinal column and were in need of spinal adjustments.

When a chiropractor treats a child, it's with a simple and gentle adjustment, which allows nervous system messages to reach their intended target and provide all the needed information to help the body fight off illness and disease. This is why children under chiropractic care have the best chance to experience a lifetime of wellness.

To learn more about how chiropractic care can keep your children healthy and happy, please call us at (208) 762-1414. You can also find us on the web, at CDAHealth.com or find us on Twitter and Facebook, by searching "Spoelstra Family Chiropractic."