Have you considered chiropractic care for your kids? At Elite Sport & Spine, we firmly believe in protecting a child’s body by making sure they have the best possible functioning muscles, joints, and nervous system. It is well known that children bounce back quickly, but many parents don’t understand the long term effects of poor joint movement or improper movement patterns on the development of their child’s health. Unfortunately, children do not always verbalize exactly what they feel when they are sore, uncomfortable or in pain. Just like with adults, if the underlying cause is left alone for too long it can develop into much more serious issues.

Chiropractic Can Help With Development

After development and birth, the physical stress and trauma continues when children grow into toddlers. They are faced with the developmental challenge of crawling and walking. While children are learning to overcome these challenges, there is a significant amount of falling, bumps, and other minor injuries. While growth continues, the child starts to be at the age where they become involved with organized sports and other physically demanding activities.

As kids grow, they often start playing sports, wearing heavier backpacks (sometimes the wrong way), and deal with the stress of more daily responsibilities. As a parent myself, I fully understand the importance of regular doctor check-ups for my kids. The medical doctor checks the eyes, ears, nose, throat, heart, lungs, and abdomen. We also take our children to the dentist regularly once they have teeth and make sure they brush twice daily. How many parents regularly have their children’s joints, muscles, and spine checked to make sure they are functioning properly?

Sports Chiropractic Care for Orthopedic Injuries

Many injuries in children have been related to adult health conditions later in life. A growing body of evidence is now suggesting that kids who suffer sports-related knee and ankle injuries face a dramatically increased risk of early-onset osteoarthritis as adults.^1,2 In a sample of high school athletes from 2005 to 2007, the ankle was the most common injury location (20.9%), followed by the knee (15.2%).³ There is also research showing that 80% of people who experience low back pain will experience multiple recurring episodes in their life.

At Elite Sport & Spine, we make a point to ensure that all the falls, stress, trauma, and physical demands that your children endure do not stop them from being kids now or healthy adults later. We love treating children of all ages. As a parent you want to protect your child from pain and injury as much as you can. As a parent myself, I get that! Chiropractic care is all about protecting your body from harm. Our exams are extensive so even if your child is too young to communicate, or too shy, we will make sure we know exactly what is going on before proceeding with treatment if needed. Not only that, we will make sure you know what is going on every step of the way.

We are proud to offer functional movement screens for young athletes, which allow us to identify risk factors for ankle, knee, hip and shoulder injuries. These injuries are becoming more prevalent, particularly in basketball, volleyball, soccer and track & field. Once these increased risk factors are identified, corrective exercises can be prescribed to mitigate the risk.^4,5

Call our Brookfield chiropractic office today at (262) 289-9220 for a no-obligation consultation, and let us help your child on their way to a better life. Be sure to ask about our Well Child Program!

 

Dr. Zach Shiels is the owner and doctor of chiropractic at Elite Sport & Spine in Brookfield, Wisconsin. He lives there with his wife and three daughters and enjoys spending time with his family, running, and outdoor activities.

 

Resources:

1. Marshall SW, Golightly YM. Sports injury and arthritis. N C Med J 2007;68(6):430-433.
2. Caine DJ, Golightly YM. Osteoarthritis as an outcome of paediatric sport: an epidemiological perspective. Br J Sports Med 2011;45(4):298-303.
3. Ingram JG, Fields SK, Yard EE, Comstock RD. Epidemiology of knee injuries among boys and girls in US high school athletics. Am J Sports Med 2008;36(6):1116-1122.
4. Abraham, A., Sannasi, R., & Nair, R. (2015). Normative values for the Functional Movement ScreenTM in adolescent school-aged children. International journal of sports physical therapy, 10(1), 29.
5. Paszkewicz, J. R., & Cailee Welch McCarty, D. (2013). Comparison of Functional and Static Evaluation Tools Among Adolescent Athletes. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research.