An Editorial by Kari Gardner, L.Ac.
It's true. My son is 4 years old and my daughter is 14 months. They've each had a few colds, my son has had a couple of stomach bugs. But, in our house, the dreaded ear infection has never visited. What's more, excepting a few minor food sensitivities, their digestion has always been stellar. I can credit these marvels to several things. We try to keep a clean diet full of whole foods, lots of veggies, no gluten, etc. We try to get plenty of fresh air. We take supplements when we need to and keep up with our homeopathic remedies. I use acupressure and colored light therapy with them, as needed. But, my children have also had regular chiropractic care from the beginning; my son since 6 weeks old and my daughter since 3 days old.
I met Dr. Jess 4 years ago when my son was 6 weeks old and had started regressing on his left side. He wasn't moving his limbs and he wasn't responding when I approached or spoke to him on the left. I was fairly new to the CNY region and didn't know many local care providers. My instincts told me he needed two things - a good pediatric chiropractor and a pediatric CranioSacral therapist. After seeing Dr. Jess for chiropractic and also receiving CranioSacral therapy, function returned and he was back to normal in 3 days, as if nothing had ever happened.
I continued wellness care with Dr. Jess for my son and myself. Each developmental milestone brings new challenges to a growing body and regular chiropractic care can help the child's body adjust, keeping it aligned and healthy. When I was pregnant with my daughter, I saw Dr. Jess weekly to keep away some of the aches and pains of pregnancy and ensure that my baby wasn't stressed by any tension in my body. When my daughter was born, Dr. Jess came to the hospital (perk of being a friend and colleague!) and adjusted her at 3 days old. It was amazing to see how gently Dr. Jess examined her little (little is relative, my baby girl was 10 lbs 2 oz!) body, finding where there were spots of tension and stroking her tiny muscles to get them to release. The "adjustment" of a baby is something difficult to imagine if you haven't seen it before. It's nothing at all like a chiropractic adjustment for an adult. Dr. Jess picked up my little girl and carefully, but gracefully, swayed her side to side a couple of times and then laid her back down to check and make sure everything had shifted properly and that was that. Then, my baby slept very soundly for several hours! Anyone who has ever had their children adjusted knows there's often two things that happen right afterward - a big nap and a big poop!
As I mentioned before, we also used CranioSacral therapy for my son. CranioSacral is a gentle touch therapy that works with the body's rhythms to balance the flow of energies. There's a lot more to it than that but that's my simple explanation. When things are stuck in the body, CranioSacral can be very effective to get them "unstuck." And, because it is so gentle, it really is a perfect therapy for infants and children. An example on how CranioSacral therapy can be used to "unstick" things occurred for me last week. I had a pretty awful sinus infection and my usual treatments were not working. Our CranioSacral therapist, Andrea O'Brien, gave me a 20 minute session. 20 minutes after that session, all of the pressure in my face and my head were completely gone. COMPLETELY GONE.
If you would like to read more on wellness care for children with chiropractic, you can find a great article here.
I met Dr. Jess 4 years ago when my son was 6 weeks old and had started regressing on his left side. He wasn't moving his limbs and he wasn't responding when I approached or spoke to him on the left. I was fairly new to the CNY region and didn't know many local care providers. My instincts told me he needed two things - a good pediatric chiropractor and a pediatric CranioSacral therapist. After seeing Dr. Jess for chiropractic and also receiving CranioSacral therapy, function returned and he was back to normal in 3 days, as if nothing had ever happened.
I continued wellness care with Dr. Jess for my son and myself. Each developmental milestone brings new challenges to a growing body and regular chiropractic care can help the child's body adjust, keeping it aligned and healthy. When I was pregnant with my daughter, I saw Dr. Jess weekly to keep away some of the aches and pains of pregnancy and ensure that my baby wasn't stressed by any tension in my body. When my daughter was born, Dr. Jess came to the hospital (perk of being a friend and colleague!) and adjusted her at 3 days old. It was amazing to see how gently Dr. Jess examined her little (little is relative, my baby girl was 10 lbs 2 oz!) body, finding where there were spots of tension and stroking her tiny muscles to get them to release. The "adjustment" of a baby is something difficult to imagine if you haven't seen it before. It's nothing at all like a chiropractic adjustment for an adult. Dr. Jess picked up my little girl and carefully, but gracefully, swayed her side to side a couple of times and then laid her back down to check and make sure everything had shifted properly and that was that. Then, my baby slept very soundly for several hours! Anyone who has ever had their children adjusted knows there's often two things that happen right afterward - a big nap and a big poop!
As I mentioned before, we also used CranioSacral therapy for my son. CranioSacral is a gentle touch therapy that works with the body's rhythms to balance the flow of energies. There's a lot more to it than that but that's my simple explanation. When things are stuck in the body, CranioSacral can be very effective to get them "unstuck." And, because it is so gentle, it really is a perfect therapy for infants and children. An example on how CranioSacral therapy can be used to "unstick" things occurred for me last week. I had a pretty awful sinus infection and my usual treatments were not working. Our CranioSacral therapist, Andrea O'Brien, gave me a 20 minute session. 20 minutes after that session, all of the pressure in my face and my head were completely gone. COMPLETELY GONE.
If you would like to read more on wellness care for children with chiropractic, you can find a great article here.