Paediatric chiropractic

Children are not small adults, and paediatric chiropractic is not adult technique scaled down.

The force used with an infant is comparable to the pressure you would comfortably apply to your own closed eyelid. No high-velocity adjusting is used with young children. A great deal of a paediatric appointment is assessment, observation and conversation with the parent rather than hands-on treatment at all.

Dr Kenneth Taylor sees children here, from infants through adolescents, alongside postgraduate training in functional neurology through the Carrick Institute.

What it is used for

Musculoskeletal presentations, and that boundary is a real one:

• Infants who consistently prefer turning their head to one side, or who hold an asymmetric posture
• Toddlers and young children after falls and knocks, and where a parent has noticed something about how they move
• Growing children with growing pains, or postural changes through a growth spurt
• Adolescents with sport and activity-related complaints, and the posture load that arrives with school devices and heavy bags
• Screening for scoliosis during growth, which is when detection matters most

Chiropractic care here does not treat childhood illness. Where something falls outside musculoskeletal scope, an unwell child, a feeding difficulty with a medical cause, a developmental concern: the chiropractor will say so and refer rather than treat around it.

What an appointment involves

• A full history, including pregnancy and birth, milestones, and what specifically prompted the visit
• Observation, how the child moves, sits, stands or is held, which with young children yields more than examination does
• Gentle hands-on assessment, explained to both parent and child before it happens
• An explanation of what was found, and often an explanation that nothing needs treating
• A parent in the room for the whole appointment, always

When the answer is “nothing needs doing”

That is a common and legitimate outcome. Much of what worries parents is normal variation that resolves on its own, and being told that clearly by someone who has assessed properly is worth the appointment.

Nobody here builds a treatment plan for a child who does not need one, and no child is placed on an ongoing schedule as a matter of course.

When to see someone else first

Take a child to a GP or an emergency department rather than booking here for fever with irritability or a stiff neck, an unexplained limp or refusal to bear weight, significant trauma, unexplained weight loss, or night pain that wakes them consistently. If you contact the clinic with any of those you will be told the same thing and helped to get seen.

Related

Pregnancy chiropractic covers care before the birth, and children’s posture the school-age presentations specifically.