infant

Remember: Healthy Babies cry! Is your baby crying for a different reason?
The most common cause of an unhappy baby is musculoskeletal pain. The most common cause of it is neck pain of which the most resistant and predictive factors are headache, combined pain and hyper-mobility.

Crying is constant instead of periodic, and not only at the end of the day. The periods of crying can last for more than 3-4 hours. Your baby will wake crying, or cry in their sleep. They can show awkward positions of the back or neck. You may see that they can only hold their head to one side. These babies may not like being touched, and it can affect feeding. It often gets worse with age. Crying occurs at expense of sleep.

Stability Before Mobility
Early chiropractic treatment leads to improved long term outcomes. It leads to improved weight gain and early infant motor development. Chiropractors use safe and competent practice procedures for the provision of conservative care for infants who demonstrate musculoskeletal problems.

Colic is to infants as back pain is to adults
Crying caused by colic starts on average from 10 days to 2 weeks after delivery and usually lasts for 8 weeks. (If you baby is crying after three month old - it is for a reason other than colic). The pattern of colic crying is periodic, coalescing at the end of the day. The crying is inconsolable, with exception of feeding. Your baby will flail their arms and legs and appear to be in pain. They will not mind being touched or picked up. Study of 132 infants found that 91% reported improvement during colic stage after chiropractic care.

Headaches
"Certainly it can not be comfortable to have a scalp electrode implanted, blood taken from the scalp, or to suffer skull compression during delivery. It is hardly surprising that infants act as though they have a headache..." H.B. Vallman, Consulting Paediatrician.
You can recognise this if your baby cries with a shrill cry for a very short while, then stops and then cries again. They may put their hands to the head, and annoyed if you try to put a hat on it. They may try and turn away from light, and are often described as irritable. Cranial and spinal manipulation can ease or clear headaches in infants.

IFCIDS - Inefficient feeding crying infants with disordered sleep syndrome
16% of all crying babies have IFCIDS. This can cause a lot of distress for the parents, as the cause of crying is very hard to find. Your baby will show distress when you are trying to feed him or her. This is commonly associated with a sucking disorder. The newborn uses 6 cranial nerves, 22 bones, 60 voluntary and involuntary muscles to suck! It is often difficult to find the cause but chiropractic treatment may significantly reduce this condition.

Helpful Hint To Mummy
Babies need tummy time. Your baby should have supervised tummy time every day. Start with up to 2 minutes three to four times a day from day one; building up to 80 minutes per day by week 16 (4 months). Use daddy! Start by letting the baby lie over daddy's tummy, while you disappear for a few minutes...