Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Consultation with Chiropractor

We recently had a consultation with a chiropractor who has experience working with babies and children.  She came highly recommended to us by our daughter's outpatient physical therapist.  My husband and I have been considering supplementing Kellyn's PT with chiropractic since we have heard a lot of positive feedback from other parents of babies with torticollis.

illustration of human spine with two leaves
Gloria Rosazza © 123RF.com | glopphy


The chiropractor was super helpful in answering our questions and explaining the process. Basically, she has worked with many babies and children with torticollis and has had good results. She explained that pairing physical therapy with chiropractic is a great combination that helps speed the recovery process. She shared that torticollis is a muscular condition; however, it does often impact the bones by misaligning the spine. This makes sense to me, especially since this very phenomena happened to my husband's back after his recent car accident.

The pediatric chiropractor explained that chiropractic for babies is very gentle. It is much more gentle than the adult adjustments that come to our minds. She uses this activator device (looks almost like a clicker pen) on the gentlest setting for babies. The chiropractor let us experience what the activator felt like on our skin.  It did not hurt a bit. When I watched YouTube videos of baby adjustments, it looked like the babies were not even bothered by it.

The chiropractor then checked out Kellyn's back and found various places in her spine that were misaligned. She felt like Kellyn would only need to come in a handful of times in order to be fully treated. After I left the appointment, I felt very optimistic about Kellyn starting chiropractic treatments. Ryan also seemed a lot more open to the possibility than he previously was. We decided that we would do more research about it, as well as to continue praying for God's guidance on this issue. I do not want to move forward with this unless I feel that God has given us His blessing. Too many times in my past, I have made hasty decisions that I have regretted, without first consulting God and waiting on His guidance. I do not to make that same mistake again, especially when it has to do with my daughter's health.

Overall, I have heard very positive reviews about pairing chiropractic with physical therapy for treatment of torticollis. Some parents on torticollis Facebook groups reported that their child's progress was pretty slow with physical therapy alone. However, many reported that the progress seemed more rapid after they paired the chiropractic treatments with the physical therapy. A few parents did say that the chiropractic treatments did not seem to make any positive difference. As of now, we are not quite ready to make any chiropractic appointments. We plan to research this treatment more and pray for the wisdom to make the right decision for Kellyn.