As a parent, watching your once full-of-life teenager transform into someone withdrawn, constantly overwhelmed, and struggling with anxiety or depression can be heart-wrenching. You’ve likely consulted various healthcare providers, tried different approaches, and perhaps even considered medication—yet your teen’s struggles continue.

What if we told you that the root cause might not be the “chemical imbalance” that most conventional doctors continue to blame these rapidly increasing teen challenges on?

The Crisis Our Teens Are Facing

The United States is facing an unprecedented mental health crisis among adolescents. According to recent CDC data, 44% of American high school students report persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness. Even more alarming, nearly one in three teenage girls report having seriously contemplated suicide—twice the rate of boys.

What’s particularly interesting is that during this same period of rising mental health challenges, we’ve seen some positive trends for young people. Including reduced alcohol consumption and fewer teen pregnancies. Yet anxiety and depression have continued to surge across all demographics.

Beyond the Chemical Imbalance Theory

While traditional medicine typically addresses these challenges with medications aimed at correcting presumed chemical imbalances, many parents find these approaches merely mask the symptoms rather than address underlying causes.

The truth is, the ‘chemical imbalance’ theory behind anxiety and depression isn’t as scientific or proven as most people believe.

What’s really happening? Our teens’ nervous systems are stuck in ‘fight or flight’ — constantly dysregulated, exhausted, and overwhelmed. They’re trapped in stress mode 24/7, often chasing constant stimulation just to cope.

Understanding the Neurological Foundation

From a neurological perspective, anxiety and depression are often connected to imbalances in the autonomic nervous system. Specifically between the sympathetic “fight or flight” response and the parasympathetic “rest and digest” functions.

This neurological imbalance, called dysautonomia, represents a crucial but often overlooked root cause that can leave teens stuck in a persistent state of stress and emotional dysregulation.

The Critical Role of the Vagus Nerve

The vagus nerve is the primary component of the parasympathetic nervous system and plays a crucial role in emotional regulation, stress recovery, and social connection.

This “wandering nerve” connects the brain to vital organs and helps regulate heart rate, breathing, digestion, inflammation, and emotional states.

Research shows that lower vagal tone is significantly linked to challenges in managing emotions and a heightened sensitivity to stress. Exactly what we see in teens with anxiety and depression.

When vagus nerve function is compromised due to subluxation and nervous system stress, it affects your teen’s ability to calm themselves, process emotions, and maintain balanced mood states.

The “Perfect Storm” Leading to Teen Mental Health Issues

This neurological dysfunction often begins early in life, what we call “The Perfect Storm”:

• Maternal stress during pregnancy can affect the developing fetal nervous system through stress hormones that cross the placental barrier.
• Birth interventions like forceps deliveries or C-sections can cause subtle injuries to the upper neck and brainstem regions. Potentially affecting the vagus nerve and leading to subluxation.
• Early childhood factors continue building the foundation for later challenges, including repeated infections, frequent antibiotic use, disrupting the gut-brain axis, environmental toxins, and physical injuries.
• Modern lifestyle factors significantly amplify these neurological imbalances. Including digital technology, sleep disruption, decreased physical activity, and poor nutrition affecting the gut microbiome and vagal function.

Many researchers have noted that the sharp rise in teen mental health issues coincided with the widespread adoption of smartphones around 2012, pointing to digital technology as a significant factor—but the full picture is much more complex and begins much earlier in life.

Recognizing Signs of Nervous System Dysfunction in Your Teen

If your teen is struggling, look for these signs that may indicate neurological imbalance:

• Physical signs like sleep disturbances, appetite changes, digestive issues, continually getting sick, fatigue + exhaustion, and restlessness often reflect an underlying neurological imbalance.
• Emotional indicators such as persistent sadness, excessive worry, irritability, and loss of interest stem from an autonomic nervous system stuck in sympathetic dominance.
• Behavioral changes including social withdrawal, declining academic performance, and increased sensitivity to criticism frequently signal nervous system dysregulation rather than just “typical teen behavior.”

There Is Hope: Finding the Root Cause

Simply put – it’s NOT easy being a teen in today’s crazy world.

Thankfully, teens have a remarkable ability to bounce back and become resilient, adaptable, and joyful once again! The teen brain and nervous system are going through so many changes all at once, and once we get the stuck sympathetic stress, tension, subluxation, and exhaustion out of the way for them – it’s programmed for healing + recovery!

At RCW, we use advanced technology, called INSiGHT Scans, which can help us identify specific areas of dysregulation and dysautonomia and provide critical insights into your teen’s autonomic function.

Based on these assessments, we can then create personalized care plans, including specialized approaches designed to release excessive sympathetic “fight or flight” activity while stimulating the vagus nerve and parasympathetic function.

By addressing these neurological imbalances, we help restore proper communication pathways between the brain and body, creating the physiological foundation for improved emotional health and mood regulation.

Renewed Hope for Parents

Parents often tell us they feel renewed hope after learning about this nervous system-focused approach to healing! They’re relieved to discover there’s a different path they can take. One that doesn’t rely on potentially dangerous medications with long-term side effects, but instead focuses on restoring proper function to the systems that naturally regulate mood, stress, and emotional well-being.

If your teen is struggling with anxiety or depression, it’s likely their nervous system is imbalanced and dysregulated – and there is hope for healing. The teen brain is remarkably resilient when given the right support. So please don’t wait to reach out to RCW to schedule a consultation today!

Your teen’s story isn’t over. There’s so much healing ahead. Let’s take the first step together.

As a brand new parent, you want to give your newborn the absolute best start in life. You’re carefully selecting the safest car seat, researching the most nutritious feeding options, and creating the perfect sleep environment. But what many parents don’t realize is that even the most “normal” birth process puts tremendous physical stress on your baby’s delicate body. Particularly their brainstem, neck, and nervous system.

Birth Is More Physically Demanding Than We Realize

In the United States, nearly 1 in 3 deliveries now end in C-sections. Beyond that, many births involve other interventions like induction, forceps or vacuum delivery, and various forms of manual assistance. The numbers are quite staggering once you look closely at what’s happening in labor and delivery rooms across developed countries.

But it’s not just birth interventions that can cause concern. Even in natural, intervention-free births, the physical stress of labor and delivery places significant pressure on an infant’s spine and delicate nervous system. This pressure can lead to subtle birth trauma and neurological interference caused by misalignments, also known as subluxation, which may impact your child’s development, nervous system regulation, and overall health from the very beginning.

Understanding Those Challenging First Weeks

Those first few weeks with your newborn can be challenging if you are dealing with constant crying, difficulty nursing, sleep struggles, reflux, or colic. While conventional medicine often dismisses these as “normal baby problems” that they’ll eventually outgrow, these signs may actually be indicating underlying neurological dysfunction that can be addressed.

In a study from the American Osteopathic Association, subluxation or “somatic dysfunction” was found in 99% of healthy newborns. The severity and incidence of these biomechanical challenges within the spine and cranial system increase with longer labor times and the use of birth interventions.

This statistic may seem staggering, especially considering that conventional pediatricians typically have no training in identifying or addressing these issues. Even children born naturally without intervention can benefit massively from an early life chiropractic check-up that looks for subluxation and nervous system dysfunction.

Why Early Detection Matters

The reason it can be beneficial to find subluxation early is that it not only can cause immediate issues with latching, nursing, digestion, sleeping, and soothing—but they are NOT something your child will simply “grow out of.” Due to their location within the nervous system and brainstem regions, they commonly begin to affect various aspects of growth and development as time goes on—most notably interfering with gross motor development, fine motor skills, speech, and other developmental milestones.

The Science Behind Birth-Related Subluxation

Infants Cannot Protect Their Delicate Spine

What makes birth trauma particularly concerning is that newborns have no motor or muscular control developed yet, so they can’t protect themselves during the birth process. This significantly increases the likelihood and severity of neck and brainstem injuries from birth intervention.

Understanding Subluxation in Newborns

Subluxation in your baby’s neurospinal system has three key components:

1. Misalignment within the neurospinal system, which can lead to issues like difficulty latching, torticollis (neck tightness), and plagiocephaly (flat spots on the head).
2. Fixation and restricted motion. Movement is essential for a developing infant as it provides the brain with proprioception—when subluxation creates fixation, it reduces this vital input to the brain.
3. Neurological interference and imbalance, which disrupts proper communication between the brain and body.

The Critical Role of the Brainstem and Upper Neck

All motor tone and development for the entire body is controlled and coordinated by the cerebellum, brainstem, and upper cervical region of the spinal cord. It functions like an “air traffic control” center. When the nerves and muscles of the upper neck and spine are compromised in the first moments of life, all motor development downstream is negatively affected.

And remember—motor development equals brain development in infants.

The Vagus Nerve Connection

The upper neck and brainstem region, the area most affected by birth trauma, houses the vagus nerve—the primary controller of your baby’s parasympathetic “rest, digest, and regulate” nervous system.

When birth trauma creates subluxation in this area, it can significantly disrupt vagus nerve function, leading to dysautonomia (imbalance in the autonomic nervous system). This disruption can affect virtually every major system in your baby’s body: digestive function (colic, reflux, constipation), sleep regulation, immune response, emotional regulation, and developmental milestones.

Common “Normal Baby Problems” That Signal Neurological Dysfunction

What if those common challenges aren’t just phases to endure but actual signs of a nervous system under stress?

• Colic and excessive crying aren’t just “phases” but often manifestations of a stressed nervous system struggling to regulate itself.
• Breastfeeding difficulties frequently stem from upper cervical subluxation affecting the cranial nerves that control sucking, swallowing, and other precise movements.
• Reflux and digestive issues often occur when vagus nerve dysfunction disrupts normal digestive motility.
• Sleep disturbances happen when a subluxated nervous system stuck in sympathetic dominance makes it difficult for babies to relax into deep, restorative sleep.
• Early developmental delays can occur when subluxation restricts normal movement patterns that stimulate proper neurological development.

The Gentle Approach of Pediatric Chiropractic Care

Unlike the adjustments you might picture for adults, newborn adjustments are incredibly gentle—using no more pressure than you would to test the ripeness of a tomato or press on your closed eyelid.

These precise, gentle techniques are specifically designed to release tension patterns and restore proper nervous system communication, allowing your baby’s body to function optimally.

We use advanced technology like INSiGHT Scans to identify precise areas of nervous system stress, allowing for highly specific and individualized care plans tailored to your baby’s unique needs.

Setting the Foundation for Lifelong Health

The first year of your baby’s life represents an extraordinary period of development. During this time, their brain will more than double in size and form more than a million new neural connections every second. These early patterns establish the foundation that will influence their health and development for years to come.

By ensuring that your baby’s nervous system is functioning optimally from the very beginning, you’re not just addressing immediate challenges like colic, reflux, or sleep issues—you’re setting them up for a lifetime of improved health, stronger immunity, better regulation, and optimal development.

Taking Proactive Action

Don’t wait until those “normal baby problems” become chronic issues. You can take a proactive approach to your child’s health by scheduling consultation at RCW with one of our neurologically-focused pediatric chiropractors as soon as possible after birth.

A comprehensive assessment will include a detailed health history, gentle physical examination, and advanced neurological scans to identify areas of nervous system stress.

We know that taking care of your newborn baby can be the most exciting AND nerve-racking time of your life! By considering neurologically-focused chiropractic care, you’re taking an important step toward giving your baby the best possible start—one where their nervous system can function optimally from day one, allowing them to grow, develop, and thrive as nature intended.

Keep reading to learn the key differences between standard chiropractic care, integrated or functional therapies, and truly specialized neurologically-focused Pediatric chiropractic care.

The Truth About Pediatric Chiropractic Care

Not all chiropractors are equipped to help children—especially those with complex neurological challenges like sensory processing issues, ADHD, or chronic health concerns.

Let us share a story about a young patient named Henry. He came to our practice after trying traditional chiropractic care without success. Henry struggled with intense sensory processing challenges—running full speed into walls for sensory input, having extreme reactions to clothing textures, and struggling with impulse control.

His previous chiropractor provided care, but without a neurological focus and proper frequency, Henry’s underlying issues weren’t being addressed. After just one month of specialized, neurologically-focused care, his mother noticed profound changes they hadn’t seen before. His sensory-seeking behaviors became less intense and more manageable, and his overall regulation improved dramatically.

So what makes the difference? There are core components that determine whether your child is getting the right care. They may seem simple, but they make all the difference.

The 5 Critical Elements That Make Pediatric Chiropractic Care Effective

1. Advanced Education and Training

Most chiropractors have advanced training in spinal care, back pain, neck pain, etc. But taking care of kids requires specialized pediatric training that goes far beyond basic chiropractic education.

Today’s children face what we call “The Perfect Storm“—unfortunately high levels of stress and toxicity building up early in their lives, contributing to the fact that over 50% of kids today are chronically ill or struggling with complex health conditions.

Advanced pediatric training includes a deep understanding of:

• Developmental milestones
• Nervous system function
• Brain development
• The gut-brain connection
• Neuroinflammation
• And much more

When your child’s care provider has this specialized training, they’re better equipped to address the root causes of your child’s challenges rather than just treating symptoms.

2. Experience with Pediatric Cases

While many chiropractic practices may have “Family” in their name and see a few kids here and there, you’re really looking for someone who is FULLY focused on Pediatric and Family Care and has extensive experience with complex cases.

An experienced pediatric chiropractor should have a track record of successfully working with children who have:

• Sensory processing challenges
• ADHD
• Autism
• Chronic conditions like ear infections or constipation
• And even more complex conditions like seizures or special needs

You’re also looking for an office that is fully focused on kids in terms of the environment, layout, and approach—a place where your child feels comfortable and welcomed.

3. Advanced Technology and Neurological Testing

In 2025, it’s essential that your child’s chiropractor uses advanced technology like INSiGHT Scans to properly assess nervous system function.

These non-invasive scans take just 15-20 minutes yet provide more information on the real root cause of your child’s condition than many other forms of testing. They allow practitioners to find nervous system dysfunction, dysregulation, and subluxation with precision.

Most importantly, these scans should be performed throughout care to track progress and ensure that real neurological change, healing, and restoration is happening.

4. Multiple Adjusting Techniques

Each child’s case is unique and requires a personalized approach. Using one singular technique often limits results in complex cases.

Different adjusting techniques address various aspects of nervous system dysfunction. A one-size-fits-all approach simply won’t address complex pediatric needs.

The right pediatric chiropractor should be well-versed in multiple techniques and able to adapt their approach to your child’s specific needs and comfort level.

5. Appropriate Care Planning

Today’s children often need more intensive care plans than previous generations due to the increased neurological challenges they face.

A proper pediatric care plan should include:

• Frequency and duration based on neurological assessment, not just a standard “one-size-fits-all” approach
• Adaptability as your child progresses
• Regular reassessment to ensure optimal results
• Clear communication with parents about expectations and progress

Finding the Right Care for Your Child

If you’re feeling frustrated with your child’s current chiropractic care, or if you’re just starting to explore options for your child’s health, now is the time to make a change.

The right care can make all the difference—just ask Henry’s mom, who saw transformation in her son after finding the right provider.

Your child deserves care that’s specifically designed for their unique needs. With the right chiropractic care, you can give them the support they need to reach their full potential.

Remember, it’s not that chiropractic doesn’t work for children—it’s that not all chiropractors are equally prepared to work with children, especially those with complex neurological challenges.

Taking the Next Step

If you’re ready to explore this type of neurologically-focused pediatric chiropractic care for your child, reach out to RCW today! We specialize in this specialized form of neurologically-focused care and are here to make both you and your child feel comfortable, heard, and hopeful.  If you are not local to us, check out the PX Docs directory to find a PX Docs office near you. 

Your child’s health journey deserves the best possible support. With the right care, we can help your child thrive—neurologically, physically, and emotionally.