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How to Care for Constipation Naturally 

Kick the Sick

Constipation is a common issue affecting about 30% of children, and tends to be worse in the preschool & toddler years. However, constipation is not something kids neccessarily grow out of. Instead, they grow into other digestive issues later in life. 

If you’ve already tried prebiotics, probiotics, prune juice, pureed prunes, and other natural remedies to no avail, this is for you. Even if you’ve resorted to over-the-counter or prescription medication like Miralax (which often comes with side effects like behavior issues and meltdowns), and you’re still searching for a natural drug-free option- this is for you.

As a neurologically focused pediatric chiropractors, we want to share with you the number one missing link found in more than 80% of kids with constipation who come to our clinic. Please share this with other parents who may be struggling with constipation in their kids, as the information we’ll discuss could help their little ones as well.

The Root Causes of Constipation

In our clinic, we don’t just treat the symptoms and throw medications at a condition like a traditional pediatrician would. Instead, we get to the root cause and work closely with the nervous system. Constipation may seem like a gut issue related to diet and nutrition. If you’ve tried all the nutritional changes, supplements, and probiotics- you’re amazing! You’re moving in the right direction to make digestion easier for your kiddo!!  But if your child is still struggling with constipation, that’s where neurology and science come into play.

Through a real-life case study, I’ll explain how neurologically focused chiropractic adjustments can help alleviate constipation in children. The natural and drug-free approach we use focuses on the nervous system to get to the root of the problem. Rather than just treating the symptoms. 

Constipation, like most challenges in children, is rarely caused by one thing. There’s usually a multitude of stressors that go into the child’s nervous system and body early on in life. This can include stress during pregnancy, interventions during delivery such as C-section, forceps, or vacuum, and exposure to toxins in the environment. This assortment of stress can cause the nervous system, or the neuro-digestive system, to slow down and become constipated. If you’ve struggled to find the exact cause of your child’s constipation, the answer is usually a combination of factors.

Stress on the Nervous System Affects Digestive Motility

Even though patients try to address constipation through nutrition & supplements, the root cause often comes from stress. Specifically, stress on the nervous system. In chiropractic care, this stress is called subluxation, which means stress stuck on. The sympathetic fight or flight side of the nervous system is what we call the gas pedal. When it gets stuck on, it can cause a variety of issues, including constipation, ADHD, anxiety, and sensory issues. In fact, many patients who struggle with these issues later in life also had constipation when they were children.

When the nervous system is stressed out, it steals energy from the gut. This can cause digestive motility to slow down, leading to what we call neurogenic constipation. Four out of five cases of constipation that we see in our clinic are neurogenic. This means they are caused by stress on the nervous system. We can usually determine this by looking back at the child’s case history, seeing if the family has tried everything else, and measuring the stress, or subluxation, on the nervous system using our INSiGHT scans.

Juniper’s Story of Hope

One example of how chiropractic care can help with constipation is the case of a little baby named Juniper. At just five months old, Juniper was going days without pooping. Her rock star mom had tried everything, from probiotics to changes in diet. But after seeking chiropractic care, Juniper’s constipation improved significantly. 

We’re going to dive into Juniper’s first neurothermal scan. This is a piece of technology we use in our offices to measure stress on the nervous system. The neurothermal scan allows us to do two things: quantify stress and locate stress. It helps us identify subluxations, or misalignments, in the spine. We conducted Juniper’s first neurothermal scan, and found two significant subluxations in her neuro spinal system. One was at the very top of her spine – the brain stem or upper cervical area (C1-C2). The other was in the middle, at T5-T6.

When the upper cervical area is subluxated and stressed out, the nerve that is most affected is the vagus nerve. This nerve is known as the “rest and digest” nerve, which is crucial for proper digestion. It starts in the cervical spine, goes all the way down to the esophagus, stomach, small intestine, and diaphragm. It slows our heart rate while also improving our breathing. In Juniper’s case, her constipation was from subluxations in the upper neck that were blocking the vagus nerve’s proper function.

The second subluxation was in the mid-neuro gastric, stomach area. This area was responsible for getting food digested and into the top one-third and two-thirds of her neuro gastric system. If the food cannot be broken down in steps one and two, it cannot be eliminated in step three. This is why Juniper was having difficulty with constipation.

Even though this did not show up in Juniper’s scan specifically, it is not uncommon for kids with constipation to have significant subluxations down around the sacrum. The sacrum houses another plexus of what’s called parasympathetic, or “rest and digest,” nerves. Many kids we see in our clinic not only have the same upper to middle subluxations that Juniper had, but they also have lower subluxations.

Chiropractic care does not aim to treat or cure constipation. Rather, our focus is on taking care of the nervous system by removing stress and subluxation through gentle and easy neuro-tonal adjustments. By doing so, we aim to relax the nervous system and improve the tone and coordination of the neuromuscular system as a whole, which is essential in cases of neurogenic constipation – the most common type of constipation.

While there are various factors that contribute to constipation, such as poor nutrition and excessive toxins, many families are making positive changes in these areas. They are incorporating good foods and supplements while limiting or eliminating toxins. However, as has been mentioned, even with a healthy diet and lifestyle, subluxation can still occur during pregnancy, delivery, and early stages of life, making it crucial to seek out neurologically-focused, pediatric chiropractic care. If you aren’t local to our office, we have a network of trained and ready chiropractors in our PX Docs Network that can address this missing link and ensure optimal nervous system function.

To learn more about how to take care of constipation naturally, please read this article. We encourage you to share this information with other moms and families to reach more people who may benefit from this knowledge. If you’re ready to explore pediatric chiropractic care and the role of subluxation in digestive motility, please reach out to us to schedule a consultation. Or, to find your local PX Doc, visit our directory. We can provide customized adjustments that are personalized to your child’s specific needs. This can lead to better gut health, improved immune system, sleep, and motor tone.

We want to help families find answers to their constipation concerns before turning to heavy medications that have potentially harmful side effects. As always, we are here for you to provide hope, answers, and help in any way we can. 

newborn getting adjusted on comfy pillow
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Exploring the Benefits of Chiropractic Care for Colic With the Help of INSiGHT Scans

Pediatric Chiropractic

As parents ourselves, we know firsthand how distressing it is to hear your baby cry incessantly. When it’s just a little whimper, we want to jump right in and comfort them, but when it’s all day, every day, and they’re writhing in discomfort and can’t sleep, it’s excruciating to witness. This could be a sign of colic. Unfortunately, many pediatricians tend to dismiss colic as just normal crying and may tell you they’ll grow out of it. But if your gut is telling you that something isn’t right, it’s time to dig deeper.

Colic is a common catch-all term used to describe a baby who is crying excessively and is unable to sleep or eat comfortably. It affects about one in five babies, but we believe that number may even be higher. The challenge with colic is that it’s often dismissed as just normal baby behavior, leaving parents feeling helpless and frustrated.

We want to help parents understand the root causes of colic and what they can do to alleviate their baby’s discomfort. We’ll take a closer look at a case study of a baby who was helped named Nicholas. Nicholas was experiencing digestive issues, torticollis, and extreme discomfort. His mom knew that something more was going on and sought out chiropractic care.

The #1 Missing Link: The Nervous System

One contributor to colic can be nutrition. Certain foods may be more difficult for babies to digest, whether through formula or breastfeeding. However, the biggest missing link that many parents and pediatricians overlook is the nervous system. 

The nervous system is the foundation for all other systems in the body, including digestion, immunity, and motor function.

The nervous system was certainly the missing link for Nicholas, as well as thousands of other babies with colic we’ve been able to take care of at our practice. We’re passionate about helping parents understand the root causes of colic and how they can help their babies find relief. Let’s dive deep into the science behind colic and provide some practical tips for parents.

Babies Do NOT Grow Out of Colic

We first want to address a common misconception about colic. It is not something that babies simply grow out of. If your parent gut is telling you that something is not right, you’re absolutely correct. There is something going on within your baby’s body that you CAN address.

Many times, parents are told to just let their babies cry it out or to make dietary changes. However, these solutions usually don’t work. In fact, they may be causing more stress for you as a parent. Breastfeeding mothers may feel like they have to give up certain foods in order to help their baby, which can be very stressful during a time when they need to focus on their own healing and nervous system.  

What is so disheartening about this for so many families is that not only has their baby been crying nonstop, but they’ve tried everything. They’ve gone all in on diet changes and tried probiotics, gas drops, and herbal, natural, and nutritional remedies. After all that, their baby is still crying, arching, and uncomfortable. This is exactly what happened with Nicolas.

What Is Subluxation, and How Can INSiGHT Scans Help Detect It?

The reality is that there is something deeper going on, and that’s where subluxation comes in. Subluxation is simply a nerdy chiropractic word that means stress stuck on. When babies are colicky and inconsolable, it’s often because their nervous system is stuck in fight or flight mode. What we want is for them to spend more time in parasympathetic rest, digest, and poop mode.

Babies are supposed to eat, sleep, poop, and be cute. If they’re not doing these things and seem to be uncomfortable, then there is most likely subluxation present. I want to dive into Nicholas’s case and scans to explain this further.

These INSiGHT neurological scans are an incredible technology designed to detect and find stress on the nerves and muscles that control everything within your baby’s body. These scans are crucial because they help us understand how your baby’s nervous system is functioning and can identify subluxation.

The digestive system is the first thing that needs to develop for an infant. It’s controlled primarily through the parasympathetic nervous system, which means rest and digest. The number one nerve that controls the parasympathetic and digestive motility function is a nerve called the vagus nerve. This nerve branches from the upper cervical brainstem area.

Unfortunately, the vagus nerve is most easily subluxated either through a breach or abnormal positioning while the baby is still in utero or, most especially, through birth interventions such as forceps, vacuum, and C-sections where we twist, yank, and pull a baby out into the world. This subluxation causes misalignment in the upper cervical brainstem area, which is where the vagus nerve branches from.

The vagus nerve needs to make its way down through the cervical spine, thorax, and into the abdomen. It opens up the esophagus and activates the stomach and small intestine in our digesting processes. Any areas where there is a lot of green, blue, and red in the scans indicate areas of built-up stuck tension, which is caused by subluxation.

The built-up and stuck tension are levels of subluxation that interfere with the function of the gut, motor developmental system, ears, throat, and lungs. Children who end up with a lot of colic and torticollis may develop ear and respiratory infections later on.

For instance, Nicholas’s initial scans showed significant subluxation in multiple areas. This caused stress in his neuro-digestive function, leading to colic and torticollis. However, after receiving gentle, neurologically focused adjustments, we were able to release and unwind the tension from his nervous system. Nicholas started sleeping longer hours, and his neck and torticollis were resolved. His digestive system went from jammed up to kicking butt and pooping on the regular.

Chiropractic Care Can Help Your Colicky Baby

A pediatric chiropractor’s primary goal is to understand and address the root cause of colic in infants. We don’t treat or cure colic – we use thermal scans and other technologies to locate and quantify the subluxation and sympathetic stress that are causing the issue. With this information, we can develop a personalized care plan that includes gentle, safe adjustments to release the subluxation and reduce the stress on your child’s nervous system. That is what our office is trained to do. The result is a happy, relaxed baby who can eat, sleep, and poop like they’re supposed to. 

Colic is a serious issue that can lead to chronic ear infections, behavioral challenges, and delays in gross motor, fine motor, and speech development. That’s why it’s important to address it as early as possible. When the nervous system is under stress, it interferes with the vagus nerve and gut function. By making gentle, effective neuro-tonal adjustments, we can help your child sleep better, poop better, and be more relaxed overall.

If you’re a new parent dealing with colic, we hope this is helpful to you. Please share this information with other parents who may be struggling with similar issues. If you think that your child is likely experiencing stress on their nervous system, we encourage you to give us a call to schedule an appointment so we can take a deeper look into your baby’s nervous system. 

By identifying and addressing the root cause of colic, we can help your child thrive and reach their developmental milestones

So don’t wait – take action today and give your child the best possible start in life. 

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Eat, Sleep, Poop

Family Wellness

As a parent, I understand it can be overwhelming to know where to start when your child faces challenges, whether it’s eating, sleeping, pooping, development, or immune challenges. It can be difficult to figure out where to turn for help.

I want to help unpack some of these challenges. From my experience as both a parent and a healthcare provider, I’ve learned that the little things, such as eating, sleeping, and pooping struggles, can be tied to more significant challenges like sensory challenges and behavior troubles.

At Rochester Chiropractic & Wellness, it’s not uncommon to see behavior and sleep issues linked or sensory and digestion challenges correlated. Therefore, before we move forward, we need to take a step back and look at neurodevelopment. By doing so, we can help our kids engage in their healing journey and facilitate their progress.

Every child’s healing journey involves going back through their developmental milestones, which is critical to see and help them get better. It may sound simple, but it’s essential. Therefore, I want to focus on three crucial aspects of your child’s health: eating, sleeping, and pooping.

I will explain why they’re so important and the correlation between them and the birth and development process. Additionally, I will highlight how all these factors tie together to help children be their best selves.

Eating 

Let’s start by addressing eating. Proper nourishment is critical for a child’s health and development. If they struggle with eating and nursing, it can lead to issues later on. It is so important to ensure that the neck and head control, rooting reflex, and muscles needed for eating and digesting are working correctly from the start.

Sleeping

If they don’t have a full belly, they may not sleep. Similarly, sleep is a crucial aspect of a baby’s development, and it’s common for parents to struggle immensely when their baby can’t sleep well. It’s so common for me to talk to a parent in our office who says they can’t remember the last time their baby slept well. Poor sleep patterns can start early on, even from birth. The birth process may cause tension, arching, and discomfort right from the start, leading to sleep struggles. Eating and sleeping go hand in hand, and a baby who isn’t eating well is likely to struggle with sleep as well.

Digestion

Finally, digestion is what ties everything together. The autonomic nervous system helps the body process food and move it through easily. If a baby can’t digest food properly, it can cause issues with everything else. The first four months of development are crucial for eating, sleeping, and pooping on autopilot, and if a baby isn’t doing these things properly, it’s likely due to issues with the nervous system.

The nervous system and brain controls all three of these functions, and if something is off, every other system will struggle. So often, standard pediatricians chase the symptoms – the sensory challenges, behaviors, etc. But we need to go back and look at the simple yet crucial aspects of your baby’s development – how are they sleeping, eating, and pooping? By looking at the nervous system, we can help babies with any issues they may have with eating, sleeping, and digestion.  This is where neurologically focused pediatric chiropractic care comes in. 

If you aren’t local to us in Rochester, MN – take a look at our directory to find a trained PX Doc near you and connect with a pediatric chiropractor who can help unpack your baby’s development, identify any issues, and get their nervous system back on track.

Remember that your baby’s body is fully capable of working through issues and healing itself. Other positive results will follow by addressing the root of the problem and getting their nervous system working at its full potential. 

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They’ll Grow Out Of It

Pediatric Chiropractic

They Do NOT Grow Out Of It

Parents, this information may leave you a bit frustrated or upset, but I need to address a problem that’s been going on for far too long. Standard pediatricians have been telling parents that certain conditions are just a part of childhood and that their children will grow out of them. However, this is not the case.

If you have been up all night with your child who is experiencing colic, chronic constipation, reflux, or ear infection after ear infection, it’s essential to know that these issues will not simply go away on their own. If your child is struggling with tons of tantrums, meltdowns, developmental delays, and difficulty sleeping, don’t let anyone tell you that it’s just a phase.

I understand that as a parent, you know when something is not right with your child. You may have even been told to wait it out, but I want to assure you that there is more going on, just as your gut is telling you. The science behind these conditions is related to the central and autonomic nervous system, which is where pediatric chiropractic care comes in.

What Happens When There is Stress Built Up on the Nervous System?

Whether your child is two months old or fifteen years old, we have found that the neurology behind colic, sensory processing issues, autism, ADHD, anxiety, constipation, and chronic autoimmune challenges are the same. 

It all comes down to the nervous system being subluxated, stressed, and stuck.

This is why it’s so important to look for the root cause of their challenges instead of just labeling it and sending you and your child off to different specialists. Pediatric chiropractors can help address the overactive and overstimulated sympathetic side of the nervous system in children with colic, sensory issues, and anxiety.  The medical system does not understand functional neurology in the same way we do in our office. 

If you’re only chasing symptoms, you’re not addressing the root cause. The nervous system controls everything from digestion to immune function, respiratory system, social-emotional regulation, and neurological development. By focusing on the nervous system, you can get everything else figured out.

Challenges you’ve been told your children will “grow out of,” like colic and chronic ear infections, can actually lead to chronic autoimmune challenges, allergies, and a compromised immune system that makes it easy to catch every cold that comes around.

Additionally, behavioral issues like tantrums, meltdowns, and hyperactivity are often dismissed as typical childhood behaviors. But these behaviors can be symptoms of larger issues related to neurological development, and they can cause anxiety, hyperactivity, and emotional challenges in school and later in life.

The Perfect Storm Pathway

Regardless of where you are in this perfect storm pathway, you deserve to know what’s really going on with your child. Keep learning about their health, and consider using advanced technology like our INSiGHT Scans to measure and locate the stress and subluxation in the nervous system.

Pediatric chiropractors who specialize in making adjustments that release stress and lower sympathetic tone can help your child get out of the “storm” caused by these challenges. Even older children can benefit from this kind of care, as the nervous system remains plastic and can be changed even after years of stress.

Our office is neurologically focused and uniquely equipped to address the common themes and threads behind all of these challenges. We provide drug-free action steps that can help your child and your family. If you aren’t local to us, check out our directory today to find a PX Doc near you.  

If you or someone you know has been told to simply wait and see, please share this information and help spread the truth about the power of pediatric chiropractic care.

We are here to help you restore hope, find answers, and take action for the health and well-being of your child.