There are many reasons why infants and children need to move. Early movement experiences are essential to the neural stimulation needed for your child brain development. An infant’s brain is full of brain cells at birth and overtime these cells form as many as 15,000 connections with other brain cells. It is during the first three years that most of these connections are made. Physical activity and play during early childhood has a crucial role in the sensory and physiological stimulation that creates more of these connections in the brain.

Physical development in early childhood can be stunted when children do not have enough physical activity. Commonly, infants are spending upwards of 60 waking hours per week in walkers, carriers, car seats, etc. Not only is this confining to your child, but it doesn’t allow them to have the ever-important tummy or floor time. Placing your child in the upright position rather than on the floor tells the brain to start thinking walking rather than rolling over, creeping and crawling. Motor development in children begins with them playing on the floor. As they are inspired to reach for objects and toys, the child’s brain develops the concept of the purpose of movement, and his is how your infant discovers rolling and finally starts to crawl.

All parents accept that crawling is a motor development milestone in children but many do not realize why it is so important. When the baby coordinates his movements to move in one direction, he moves the right arm and the left leg and then the left arm and the right leg; this is called a cross crawl pattern. This pattern allows both sides of the brain to communicate and interchange information very fast. A primary example of how physical development in early childhood links together child brain development with motor development in children, these patterns are the same that later in life will be used to perform more difficult tasks like walking, running, passing one object from one hand to the other, or even taking notes in class while listening to the teacher.

When crawling, the infant’s body must remain in equilibrium or balance. This helps to strengthen the spine and properly develop the curves in the neck and lower back, setting the stage for proper spinal development and posture. Always remember your infant or child is never “just moving” or “just playing”. Every action extends your child’s development in some way.

If for any reason a child seems to be slow to reach certain developmental milestones, it is less important that they reach these milestones by a certain age but critical that they do process the milestone. Letting a child skip past learning to crawl and allow them to press straight into walking does affect the child’s ability to engage future developmental processes of both the motor development variety and the brain development variety. If there is concern that a child is suffering a physiological difficulty that is impeding their development, taking the child to a pediatric chiropractor can help to identify if there is a structural abnormality in play, and catching such issues early can usually result in a fast and lifelong correction.

Chiropractic is a profession that helps individuals regain, restore and maintain optimal health and can be used for all ages. Yes, many people are aware as to why adults may need chiropractic care but when it comes to children the most common response is one of almost shock or confusion. Why is chiropractic care for kids such a foreign concept?

Chiropractic care is very important for adults but it is crucial for children. We have to take a look at the different stresses one encounters over a lifetime as the direct cause as to why our bodies do not function at 100 percent. Children now are facing more stressors at even younger ages that will have an effect on the way they develop over the course of growth if these stressors are not addressed at a young age. So let’s look at what these stressors can be.

When I talk about stress I am referring to three types of stress: physical, chemical and emotional. Physical stress, which is what I will focus on in this article, refers to any type of trauma or postural abnormality, which can develop from sports or physical activities. But chemical and emotional stress can be equally troublesome. Chemical stress comes from the food your child eats, from medications, or any of the environmental toxins to which he or she may be exposed. Emotional stress can be created from any number of life experiences. All have the same impact on the function of the body, and all interfere with child wellness.

Many spinal problems or misalignments start as early as birth. The birthing process, both natural and caesarian sections, can stress the infants developing spine and nervous system. As the infant grows, learning to hold up his or her head, crawling and walking are all activities that can affect spinal alignment. As the child begins to participate in regular childhood activities, riding a bike or playing sports, yet even more significant spinal trauma can occur. Physical spinal stress can be broken down into macro traumas and micro traumas. Macro traumas are those obvious falls, bumps and crashes that children often experience and are almost impossible to avoid. More importantly are the micro traumas that children experience and tend to be overlooked. These traumas stem from positional, postural or repetitive traumas that a parent would not normally associate with spinal distortion because they do not cause an immediate reaction from the child. Today, children are carrying backpacks that weigh more then they do, sit at a desk hunched over at school and play video or computer games hours on end. We all know they are not doing these activities sitting straight up with his or her shoulder back. Most likely we would see them in the ever more common hunched over position. This constant poor posture is causing your child’s spine to slowly break down. If these spinal traumas are left untreated it will start to have an affect on the body’s nervous system. Any interference to the nerve system will affect the body’s ability to function at its best.

Many of these micro traumas, particularly those related a child’s posture or position, can be avoided by correct choices. A pediatric chiropractor is distinctly equipped to help identify areas for correction, and help the parent to address them, which will have a monumentally positive impact on the growth of the child.

Chiropractic is a profession that helps individuals regain, restore and maintain optimal health and can be used for all ages. Yes, many people are aware as to why adults may need chiropractic care but when it comes to children the most common response is one of almost shock or confusion. Chiropractic is very important for adults but it is crucial for children. We have to take a look at the different stresses one encounters over a lifetime as the direct cause as to why our bodies do not function at 100 percent. Children now are facing more stressors at even younger ages that will have an affect on the way they develop over the course of his or her life if it is not addressed at a young age. When I talk about stress I am referring to three types of stress: physical, chemical and emotional. Physical stress refers to any type of trauma or postural abnormality. Chemical stress comes from the food your child’s eats, the medication he or she takes, or any of the environmental toxins he or she may be exposed to. Emotional stress can be created from any positive or negative life experience. All have the same impact on the function of the body.

Many spinal problems or misalignments start as early as birth. The birthing process, both natural and caesarian sections, can stress the infants developing spine and nervous system. As the infant grows, learning to hold up his or her head, crawling and walking are all activities that can affect spinal alignment. As the child begins to participate in regular childhood activities, riding a bike or playing sports, yet even more significant spinal trauma can occur. Physical spinal stress can be broken down into macro traumas and micro traumas. Macro traumas are those obvious falls, bumps and crashes that children often experience and are almost impossible to avoid. More importantly are the micro traumas that children experience and tend to be overlooked. These traumas stem from positional, postural or repetitive traumas that a parent would not normally associate with spinal distortion because they do not cause an immediate reaction from the child. Today, children are carrying backpacks that weigh more then they do, sit at a desk hunched over at school and play video or computer games hours on end. We all know they are not doing these activities sitting straight up with his or her shoulder back. Most likely we would see them in the ever more common hunched over position. This constant poor posture is causing your child’s spine to slowly breakdown. If these spinal traumas are left untreated it will start to have an affect on the body’s nervous system. Any interference to the nerve system will affect the body’s ability to function at its best. Many of these micro traumas, particularly those related to posture or position, can be avoided by correct choices.

Scoliosis is more common in females than males, and can be the primary cause of chronic back pain. Scoliosis refers to lateral curvatures of the spine. Normally, the spine has curves in a sagittal plane (front to back), but not in a coronal plane (side to side). Obviously, the spine is designed a certain way, and is at it most optimal stability when structurally normal. If this normal structure is altered, as in a scoliotic curve, many different problems can arise. The purpose of this discussion, however, is not to talk about the possible problems associated with a scoliosis, but the possible correction of a scoliosis.

The only allopathic correction for a scoliosis is to surgically place rods along the spine during the developmental stage to straighten the spine during development. However, these cases are only considered when the scoliosis is greater than twenty six degrees. Any scoliotic curve below twenty six degrees is correctable with conservative treatment and therapies.

If discovered early in development, it is very possible to stop the progression of a mild scoliosis case, and even structurally correct a scoliotic curve. A doctor can prescribe a program of exercises for scoliosis that can accompany other treatment protocols to correct spine curvature. As far as correcting a scoliosis to normal, that is almost impossible, but any improvement toward normal is beneficial. Most scoliotic curves will progressively worsen as the development of a child progresses. This is why it is very important to diagnose scoliosis in children early on. If a scoliosis is diagnosed early in a child’s development, and it is properly treated, that child’s future quality of life will be significantly better than if the scoliosis is not treated.

It is very important to have children checked for possible developing scoliosis, and have it properly treated. If treated correctly, it mild scoliosis in children will most likely not progress, and can even be corrected before it turns into a surgical case.

Plantar fasciitis is almost as common as the flu, but can potentially be debilitating. Most that have this condition have an antalgic gait or limp do to the severity of the pain. In more severe cases, the individual can not walk more than 10-15 minutes with out the pain becoming excruciating.

This condition is one of the more difficult to treat, and most practitioners default to steroid injections or surgery because they do not treat the cause of the condition, but rather the symptoms of the condition. Additionally, if this condition goes untreated, it will lead to the formation of calcaneal spurs, or heel spurs. Once a calcaneal spur forms, the only way to remove it is surgically. Therefore, this condition must be treated correctly and as soon as symptoms arise.

The plantar fascia is a very thick connective tissue that originated at the heel and inserts to the base of the metatarsals or base of the toes. The fascia is normally smooth and semi-flexible. During a fasciitis condition, the plantar fascia becomes rigid, irritated, inflamed, and rough. Because this structure is located at the sole of the foot, it is difficult to treat due to constant irritation when weight bearing.

Most plantar fasciitis cases originate from improper structure within the bones and articulations within the foot. These changes to the foot structure can be caused by a number of things such as changes on normal gait, tight calf muscles, etc. However, that is not important. The only thing important in the treatment of plantar fasciitis is to correct the structure of the foot to prevent the irritation or inflammation in the plantar fascia.