Health Happy Round-Up: Chiropractic Care for Babies

Welcome to a weekly series on Traveling with Baby, Health Happy Round-Up which focuses on multiple aspects of wholesome living and optimal health for the entire family.  Each weekend, Traveling with Baby will share some insightful news, recipes, and tips to help you consider fresh new perspectives on wholesome and happy health.

Our son received his first chiropractic adjustment when he was two days old.  Birth is not only traumatic on a woman’s body, but it’s just as trying on a newborn as they push and twist and turn through the birth canal.

A chiropractic adjustment on a baby usually consists of gentle and light pressure tapping on the side of the neck to relieve joint and nervous system stress.  Sometimes there’s also gentle cranial massage to relieve pressure and asymmetries on the cranial sutures.

Whenever our son takes a tumble (as was often the case when he was first learning to cruise and walk), or whenever he’s teething, I check his spine to see if any of the joints need to be re-aligned with adjustments.  Usually, he responds by laughing.  Often, he climbs onto the chiropractic table in my office when he wants me to check him.

When working with children to adjust the spine, I have seen various symptoms clear up when the stress on the nervous system through spinal misalignments or subluxations are resolved through chiropractic care.  Symptoms such as constipation, urinary incontinence, fussy demeanor, restricted range of motion in the neck, torticollis, and ear infections and aches have resolved after receiving chiropractic care.

Based on a recent report by the American Chiropractic Association,

there were an estimated 20 million pediatric visits in the 1980s. In 1998, there were an estimated 30 million pediatric visits annually. Last year, utilizing these estimates and based on a study by the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association (ICPA), Dr. Joel Alcantara, ICPA research director, estimated approximately 68 million pediatric visits annually.

Additionally, the ICPA presented preliminary results of their Practiced Based Research Network, and they listed three improvements with chiropractic care that were noted by both doctors and parents:

• Improved sleep
• Attitudes and behavior
• Immune system function

Read more about the benefits of chiropractic care for babies in the full article by Lisa A. Goldstein.

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To maintain a healthy spine, I make sure Calvin wears shoes that are conducive to proper walking biomechanics.  We love soft soled or flexible shoes that allow complete foot strike from heel down to toe-off, and everything in between.

Proper fitting shoes with good ankle support and flexible soles are great for allowing cruisers, walkers, and toddlers/climbers/runners to explore their world with unfettered foot protection.Our favorite brand of shoes is See Kai Run.  The styles are trendy, and the finished product is constructed with durability in mind so that the shoes can handle muddy puddles, scurrying on gravel roads, and backwoods hiking with little feet as well as romping through city sidewalks.

Calvin is wearing the rough and rugged Logan hi-top boot by See Kai Run.  Perfect for treeclimbers and scurrying toddlers.

See Kai Run has the American Podiatric Seal of Approval, and recently, won an iParenting Outstanding Product Award for 2009 for the Camerson sandal.

As part of the Labor Day Giveaway on Traveling with Baby, you can achieve road trip contentment by grooving with your kids to the catchy tunes on some amazing albums.  You can earn up to 9 entries to win a pair.

WIN IT!

One winner will enjoy a pair of See Kai Run or Smaller in any style or size of choice (retail value $40).

(Primary entry method, this must be completed first!) To enter, visit See Kai Run’s and Smaller’s Fall line of baby and toddler shoes.  Come back here and leave a comment about your fave style and size, and for whom you’d like to win a pair.

EXTRA CREDIT

• Earn another entry by subscribing to See Kai Run’s e-mail list.  Leave a comment with the e-mail address you used.
• Earn two additional entries by blogging about the giveaway and linking to Traveling with Baby using “See Kai Run Giveaway” as the title in your blog’s post.  Then, leave two comments here with a link to your post.
• Earn two additional entries by subscribing to Traveling with Baby’s RSS feed.  Leave (two) comments stating that you’re subscribed.
• Earn another entry by entering another Labor Day Giveaway contest on Traveling with Baby.  Leave a comment telling me the name of the other contest that you entered.  Active contests are listed on the left sidebar under the header “Win Prizes”
• Earn another entry by following me (drdolly) on Twitter and tweeting this contest with the following “RT @drdolly Win See Kai Run shoes on Traveling with Baby! http://wp.me/p4s6M-Ns” Leave a comment with the weblink to your tweet.
• Earn another entry by adding Traveling with Baby’s button to your website/blog.

Leave a valid e-mail address, so I can contact you to claim your prize, or it’ll go to another amazing person.  The contest is open to U.S. shipping addresses only.

This contest runs until 11:59PM (EST) on September 14th, 2009.

One winner will be randomly selected (via random.org) and announced on this post and e-mailed sometime shortly after September 14th. If a winner doesn’t respond within 72 hours, a new winner will be selected.

**UPDATE**

Congrats to the winner, #158, Sweetbabycakes.

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