Children and Alignment

How often have you heard people say, "One day I felt fine, and then the next day I was just..."? Probably enough that you don't even recognize the absolute absurdity of that statement. Except for severe traumas, such as car accidents, major falls, gunshot wounds, poisoning, etc., people do not suddenly become ill. Disease does not occur spontaneously. Small traumas, long-term abuse and negligence, though unnoticeable at first, take their toll on the body over a period of time. By the time the first symptoms appear, the body has already been malfunctioning for some period of time, often years.
This is the primary reason to have children under regular upper cervical care. Studies have shown that 80% of children receive their first subluxation or nerve damage during the birthing process. Many of them will go 20, 30, or 40 years or possibly the rest of their lives with that interference in their brain, spinal cord and nerves. Even those who are not subluxated upon birth will have a variety of stresses put upon their spines as they grow. How many times does a child fall while he or she is just learning to walk? And after they learn to walk, don't they run, skip, stomp, jump and hop? Don't they fall out of bed, fall out of trees, off their bikes, fight with their siblings, stand on their heads, play football, basketball, baseball, soccer, gymnastics and dance?
Any one of these things is enough to cause nerve damage or subluxation. Left uncorrected, these will also begin to take their toll on the body. Lowering the ability of the body to be well will make them less able to concentrate, fight off disease, coordinate and balance, make the food that they eat into usable forms, clean the blood of toxins, and distribute the chemicals in the body that coordinate organ function. In short, they will be less able to be healthy, strong and flexible.

It is important to note that the mechanism that originally brought two cells together and created the miracle that is you is still at work in you as it is in every other living being. It continually creates new tissue and maintains you in existence. The very mechanism by which we are able to be well is the same mechanism at work in a child. It is no less effective in a child than it is in an adult. Therefore, if it is important for you to be aligned, isn't it equally or more important to have your children checked for the same interference or damage?
Many people are concerned about the forcefulness of an alignment for a growing child. That would be a legitimate concern if all patients received the same alignment. Thankfully, they do not. Each person is aligned according to their age, their size, the condition of their health and the specific way their body was made. Men may not be aligned the same as women, the same as children the same as elderly people, the same as tall, short or pregnant people. No two alignments are the same, let alone on two different people. Children, on the whole, require far less force than adults, mostly because time and stress have not yet taken their toll. Who better than children to be under regular upper cervical care? Who could profit more than those who have not yet developed health problems?


*some information reprinted with permission from the Foundation for the Advancement of Chiropractic Education*