‘Twas the night before a big meeting, preparations were made,

Would we sleep a few hours before the screaming invades?

Outfits laundered, feedings complete, Mommy and Daddy were prepared to retreat,

First there was whining and then full bore, we knew we’d be up a few hours more…

If you are a parent who has experienced a colicky infant, then this story is all too familiar.  Excessive, unexplained crying/fussing for hours a day, multiple days a week, for an extended period, in an otherwise healthy infant is not music to my ears either, but unlike many parents, I was able to adjust my children regularly when they were infants.  Certainly, I am biased concerning the benefits of chiropractic care for most everyone, but in the case of colicky babies, there is good research to support the benefits of spinal alignments.

It has been posited that colic is caused by birth trauma and/or spinal misalignments in infants1  and if you’ve witnessed a natural delivery, you can imagine how this could impact a newborn’s spine.  Whether the treatments are referred to as chiropractic adjustments, manipulation, or spinal alignments, the goal is the same – to restore normal spinal motion.  Treatments for infants are not the usual adjustments to which parents might be accustomed.  The correction for a baby appears more as maintaining gentle pressure to areas of the spine with the fingertips.

A May 2009 analysis reviewed 16 cases of infants receiving chiropractic care.  In all the cases, upper cervical misalignments were found in all subjects and chiropractic intervention helped to resolve symptoms of acid reflux and colic2.  More recently, a Danish study3 determined that a decline in excessive crying in infants receiving chiropractic treatment for colic was not a function of children simply outgrowing their excessive crying behavior and therefore lends support for the implementation of chiropractic care in these cases.

The benefits of early chiropractic interventions don’t just allow parents to sleep better while their infants are a few months old.  An October 1999 study found that colicky infants treated with chiropractic care experienced fewer instances of  “temper tantrums, fell asleep more quickly, and stayed asleep longer than the untreated control subjects” at least up to 2 to 3 years of age4.

I certainly understand that parents have concerns about any new treatments that their children receive.  New responsibilities and sleep deprivation make all your decisions about a newborn challenging.  If you have any questions, please email me at info@matthewschiro.com or call Matthews Chiropractic Center at 704.841.3833.

1. Clinical Chiropractic 2004 (Dec); 7(4): 180-186 [↩]
2. J Pediatric, Maternal & Family Health – Chiropractic May 2009: 1-7 [↩]
3. J Manipulative Physiol Ther. 2010(Sep); 33(7): 536-541 [↩]
4. J Manipulative Physiol Ther 2009 (Oct); 32(8): 635-638 [↩]